You Ask, We’ll Try to Answer!

In this monthly enewsletter, we like to share the latest news and information about our research.

But we know that you might have questions about dolphins and dolphin conservation that you haven’t had an opportunity to ask previously. Well, now’s your chance!

Send us your questions and thoughts and we will use them for the basis of social media posts and on our Fun Facts page on our website!

• Email your questions to Info@SarasotaDolphin.org

Notes from the Field and Lab

January got off to a cold, windy, foggy, rainy start; nonetheless, we observed 62 percent of our long-term Sarasota Bay dolphin community members. Our field teams also sighted two of the calves born in 2023 and two dolphins joined our 40-plus club this year: Merrily and Lightning.

Merrily is the dolphin in the center of this 2018 photo. The lead dolphin was her second calf, who has since given birth to offspring of her own.

Born in 1984, these dolphins are well-known members of the long-term resident community that have been observed continuously since their births and, combined, have been sighted 2,913 times by our field teams! They join five other Sarasota Bay dolphins in the 40-years-and-older crowd: F149, who gave birth to her eighth calf in 2021, Hawk (F237), FB25, FB65 and FB54.

Since we began our work in 1970, we have documented more than 58,300 dolphin group sightings that, in turn, helped us track more than 5,750 individually distinctive dolphins along Florida’s central west coast. Today, our archives include more than 1 million dolphin photographs and videos! Our long-term, monthly photo-ID surveys are among the core efforts of our program and provide the foundation that all of our other research projects are built upon.

That includes our newest efforts to track dolphins in offshore waters. To date, we have successfully tagged and tracked 11 dolphins: five Atlantic spotted; five bottlenose and one roughtoothed dolphin over the West Florida Shelf. This is the first time that these species have been tagged with sensors that record their sounds and movements. Preliminary analyses show that they forage at the sea floor and use a variety of foraging strategies when catching prey items. As this project continues, we look forward to discovering new information about the similarities and differences in the lives of inshore vs. offshore animals and to providing data that could help protect and conserve these species.

This month, we also welcomed new interns to the SDRP, where they will receive training in marine mammal conservation field and lab research methods, including dolphin photo-identification, purse-seine prey fish sampling, fish tagging, tracking and acoustic monitoring. Four of the interns are recent college graduates, including one former CZS King Conservation Science Scholar. The fifth (Lexi Hollick, not pictured) is currently completing studies at New College of Florida, learning with us during her January Independent Study Period.

We also said goodbye to Staff Scientist Dr. Christina Toms, who started as an intern with the program in 2006. She’s moved over to an academic position at nearby New College of Florida. Fortunately, since NCF is just across Sarasota Bay, she will remain an SDRP collaborator. We’ve moved part-time research assistant Robyn Allen into a full-time position as a Staff Researcher. In her new role, she will coordinate sampling and sample handling responsibilities for health assessments and other field work.

We’re looking ahead to a busy year of dolphin research and are grateful for your support! Here’s wishing you fair winds and following seas for 2024.

Randy Wells

Fin of the Month

Name: F249

Age: 13

Sex: Female

A Dolphin's Life: We first observed F249 as a young-of-the-year calf of F185. Since then, we've documented 117 sightings of her, including our most recent sighting in January. She spends most of her time in the northern part of our study area in Palma Sola Bay and to the north. In 2022, F249 gave birth to her first calf, 2491, who appears to be doing well! You can hear F249's vocalization on our website.

F249 and her first calf, 2491, in 2022.

Donate online to the Chicago Zoological Society, which has operated the Sarasota Dolphin Research Program since 1989. (Please be sure to indicate "Sarasota Dolphin Research Program" in the "Choose Your Gift Designation" drop-down menu.)

For more information on how you can help support wild dolphin research, please email Randy Wells, Director of the Sarasota Dolphin Research Program, or call 941.374.0449.

Dolphin Biology Research Institute — DBA Sarasota Dolphin Research Program — is dedicated to research and conservation of dolphins and their habitat. 

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