Nicks 'n' Notches Online

An enewsletter from the 

Sarasota Dolphin Research Program

October 2024

54 Years and Counting!

Congratulations to… Us! We’re excited to share that today is our 54^th anniversary. Oct. 3 marks the day that Blair Irvine and Randy Wells first tagged Sarasota Bay dolphins as part of a pilot project to learn about the ranging patterns of dolphins in Sarasota Bay and vicinity. Blair had arranged to tag dolphins from Charlotte Harbor to south Tampa Bay and he took his high school assistant — Randy — along on the tagging expeditions.

Identifying a year-round, long-term resident dolphin community set the stage for what is today the world’s longest-running study of a wild dolphin population — a long-term study crucial for understanding the lives of long-lived species and for being able to detect population trends relative to environmental change.

The knowledge we’ve gained has helped improve protections for wild bottlenose dolphins throughout the southeastern U.S. and we thank you for being along for the ride!

Notes from the Lab and Field

Well. September certainly ended with a bang, as Hurricane Helene made landfall in Florida’s Big Bend region as a major category four storm. While Southwest Florida was fortunate not to receive a direct hit from the storm, it passed near enough on its way north to cause devastating damage to the barrier islands and inshore coastline from storm surge.



The hurricane’s winds after the storm passed pushed 4-7 feet of water from the Gulf to the Bay in the Sarasota area, inundating Siesta Key, Lido Key, City Island, Longboat Key and Anna Maria Island. The Scripps Institution of Oceanography’s Coastal Data Information Program (CDIP) stations off Florida’s west coast measured historically powerful waves during the storm, which set new records for height, with peak periods several seconds longer than normally measured off west Florida during tropical storms in the Gulf of Mexico.

The storm even (briefly) reopened Midnight Pass at the south end of Siesta Key, which had been closed by humans in 1983. (The pass was closed again as of yesterday, unfortunately.)

Our base of operations, Mote Marine Laboratory and Aquarium, located on City Island was inundated by several feet of water, which caused major damage to first floor lab and aquarium areas. Fortunately, our program assets, such as boats and equipment, were well-secured in preparation for the storm, and our offices and labs are on the third floor, above the flooding. We are nearly fully functional again.

(Left image) The watermark shows that surge from Hurricane Helene reached 19 inches in our storage area on City Island. We’re fortunate that the majority of our equipment and boats were well-secured and are okay.

(Image above) Staff and interns clean out an SDRP equipment storage area at Mote that was flooded.

We can’t say the same for the Sarasota Bay Listening Network, a series of coastal hydrophones that continuously record underwater sounds so we can monitor dolphins and other sound-producing animals. While manager Dr. Katy Holmes was able to remove the electronic “guts” from each station prior to the storm, many of the mounted station housings and hydrophones were lost or severely damaged due to the nature of their requisite installation at the water’s edge. We have not yet been able to reach some of the 15 hydrophone sites to assess damage.

We’re most grateful to report that our staff is all safe, though two of our team members did suffer losses, including one whose residence is no longer habitable. We’re here to help support them as they recover.

Our thoughts are also with the thousands of people who have been affected by the storm in Florida and in states much further to our north. We hope that if you are able, you will consider a monetary donation to an affected community to help support recovery efforts. (Click here to learn how to help survivors after a disaster.)

For more information on local recovery efforts and resources, please visit Sarasota County’s resource page.

One thing we have learned during our 54 years of conducting dolphin research is that any big undertaking involves a team effort, as this recovery will no doubt prove. As we celebrate our own anniversary today, we remain grateful for the long-term care and support provided by you, our “dolphin community” and we look forward to many more years to come.

Wishing you fair winds, gently following seas and a quick and quiet end to hurricane season.

Randy Wells

SDRP Research Roundup

A Tangled Food Web

A recent research paper based on studies conducted in Sarasota Bay is providing insights on how microplastics are moving from prey to predator — indicating that dolphins are ingesting microplastics contained in the fish they eat and potentially providing new insights into the implications for human seafood consumers.

The paper “An analysis of suspected microplastics in the muscle and gastrointestinal tissues of fish from Sarasota Bay, FL: Exposure and implications for apex predators and seafood consumers” in the peer-reviewed journal Environments analyzed prey fish tissues and dolphins’ gastrointestinal fluid for microplastics contamination. Tiny particles suspected to be microplastics — particles 5 mm or less, about the size of a pencil eraser or smaller — were found in the gastrointestinal fluid of Sarasota Bay dolphins, suggesting contaminated fish as a food source.

• Read more

Inferring Dolphin Population Status Using Drones

A recent publication in Animal Conservation by an international team of researchers looks at the results of using aerial drones to quantify age structure of the critically endangered bottlenose dolphin population in the Gulf of Ambracia, Greece. The study highlights the accuracy of drone-photogrammetry (i.e., imagery) as a rapid and reliable tool for quantifying and monitoring the status of wild dolphin populations.

With this method, we may be able to quickly monitor the age-structure of free-ranging dolphin populations and help facilitate the detection of early signs of population changes, such as a decrease in the number of calves, and provide important insights for timely management decisions. The work was led by the Marine Mammal Research Program at the University of Hawaii and also involved the Ionian Dolphin Project of Tethys Research Institute, Shark Bay Dolphin Project and the Sarasota Dolphin Research Program.

• Read more

Dolphin ID Catalog Uncovers Life History of Dolphin Recovered on North Florida Beach

In July 2024, Gulf World Marine Institute (GWMI) submitted dorsal fin pictures of a deceased bottlenose dolphin they recovered at Panama City Beach to the Gulf of Mexico Dolphin Identification System (GoMDIS), an online archive for dolphin ID catalogs in the Gulf of Mexico.

This repository, which is curated by SDRP, allows us to ID dolphins throughout the Gulf and document things like changes in ranging patterns, life histories and even discover the origin of stranded dolphins like the one recovered by GWMI.

We discovered that this female dolphin had been documented in several dolphin research catalogs from the Panama City Beach region over the years, including the National Marine Mammal Foundation, GWMI and SDRP’s own catalog from that area.

• Read more

FinFact

We recently had an inquiry from the Calusa Oyster Company about a dolphin they spotted while working their farm in the Terra Ceia Aquatic Preserve, just east of the Bishop Harbor opening to Lower Tampa Bay.

The dolphin, F338, has formed a male-pair bond with another dolphin, F240. Did you know that the SDRP was the first to describe the existence of these long-term male relationships? These bonded male pairs spend much of their adult lives together, helping each other do things like mate, feed and protect one another.

Over our 54-year history, the SDRP has made many discoveries about dolphins and their communities.

• Visit our website to learn more about our research and findings!

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

DBRI IS A 501(C)3 ORGANIZATION — FEDERAL TAX ID #59-2288387. A COPY OF THE OFFICIAL REGISTRATION (#CH1172) AND FINANCIAL INFORMATION MAY BE OBTAINED FROM THE DIVISION OF CONSUMER SERVICES BY CALLING TOLL-FREE 1-800-435-7352 WITHIN THE STATE OR AT WWW.FDACS.GOV/CONSUMER-RESOURCES/CHARITIES. REGISTRATION DOES NOT IMPLY ENDORSEMENT, APPROVAL, OR RECOMMENDATION BY THE STATE.