Nicks 'n' Notches Online
A monthly newsletter from the SDRP
October-November 2018
Plastics and Dolphins
Microplastics are small plastic pieces that are 5 mm or less (or less than ¼ inch) that pose a threat to wildlife because they can be mistaken by aquatic animals and birds for food and eaten. Animals can suffer malnutrition if their stomachs fill with non-digestible plastic.

The chemicals released as the plastics break down in the environment could also be causing problems, according to the new study “Urinary Phthalate Metabolites in Common Bottlenose Dolphins ( Tursiops truncatus) From Sarasota Bay, FL, USA” published in GeoHealth, an open-access journal of the American Geophysical Union (AGU).

SDRP’s Randy Wells was a co-author on the study. According to the GeoHealth summary: For the first time, phthalate metabolites have been detected in the urine of wild bottlenose dolphins. Parent phthalate compounds are common additives to plastics and other products. In humans, phthalate exposure is linked with hormonal and reproductive issues; however, health effects in dolphins are currently unknown. Because dolphins are sensitive gauges of their surroundings, detection of phthalate exposure in these dolphins suggests some level of environmental contamination. Additional research is needed to determine the source of their exposure and whether phthalates may negatively impact dolphin health.

Several news outlets carried the story and the BBC’s Planet Earth: Blue Planet II did a special piece on dolphins and plastics. Here are some links if you’d like to take a look:

You Can Help
Follow the familiar mantra: Reduce. Reuse. Recycle. Reduce your use of plastics, safely reuse the plastics you do have and recycle the plastic that cannot be reused. 

You can also help by picking up plastics and trash you see in the environment. There’s even a handy app called the Marine Debris Tracker, available for free on iTunes and GooglePlay, that can help you — and us — track the trash you pick up.

Just download the free app and report your trash as part of the Sarasota Dolphin Research Program Debris Team list.

Field & Lab Notes
By Randy Wells, Ph.D., Director
It’s been a busy summer at the SDRP.

We continued our monthly dolphin photographic identification population monitoring surveys and seasonal fish population surveys thanks to support from the Barancik Foundation. We documented 11 new calves this summer, with eight still surviving.

With support from the Batchelor Foundation, we completed a photographic identification survey of dolphins in the waters near Naples and Marco Island, Florida, seeing numerous animals — many with new calves. We also sighted Skipper, a young female dolphin that we disentangled and released in 2014.

We worked with the Environmental Institute of Houston at the University of Houston-Clear Lake on a biopsy dart-sampling project of bottlenose dolphins in Galveston Bay. Through the project, we will begin to look at the concentrations of dioxins in the tissues of dolphins that live in heavily polluted waters.
We also participated in a bottlenose dolphin health assessment in northeast Florida as part of a staff exchange with the Georgia Aquarium. The Aquarium often sends veterinarians and vet techs to help with our Sarasota Bay dolphin health assessment and we assisted with their project this year.

We had the opportunity to gain new insights on how dolphins react to hurricanes by following a recently rehabilitated dolphin’s return to the wild through a satellite-linked tag.

And, of course, we’ve been monitoring the effects of red tide on our local dolphin population.

It’s hard to believe that 49 years ago in October, Blair Irvine put the first tag on a Sarasota Bay dolphin, starting what would eventually become the Sarasota Dolphin Research Program. I was just a 16-year-old volunteer back then and had no idea that studying dolphins would become my life’s work or that the program would expand in breadth and depth and include so many aspects of dolphin health, life history, behavior, ecology, communication and the effects that human activities have on them.

Yet here we are.

And we couldn’t do it without the support of people like you — people who are interested in adding to our knowledge base about dolphins, in helping us share what we learn with others and in using what we learn to improve the lives of wild dolphins.

You have our most heartfelt thanks for your interest and support!

Randy Wells
Blair Irvine, left, tags the SDRP's first dolphin in 1970.
On Dolphins & Hurricanes
I’m frequently asked what dolphins do during hurricanes.

We had the opportunity to gain some insight into this question when Hurricane Florence passed near a tagged bottlenose dolphin. This 10-day plot (see map) shows the movements of the rehabilitated, 8-foot female bottlenose dolphin — known as R-10 — that was tagged and released by SeaWorld-Florida (SWF) off St. Augustine on June 28. The satellite-linked tag and tracking services were supported by NOAA's John H. Prescott Marine Mammal Rescue Assistance Grant No. NA15NMF4390026.

The plot shows her movements before, during and after Florence passed just north of her location. The largest red dot on the map, with the large font PTT (tag) ID next to it (136030) indicates her location on Sept. 17, just after Florence passed. (The times alongside the smaller dots are Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), which is four hours later than EDT).

The map also shows primary productivity, averaged over eight days.
R-10 was about 19 miles south, southeast of Cape Fear, North Carolina, in this plot. A U.S. Geological Survey satellite tracking expert with whom we work helped us to determine that R-10 was moving passively with the surface water currents as they shifted during the storm — moving her out of the area of high productivity — and that once the storm was ashore, she actively returned to the area of high productivity off Cape Fear where she had been prior to the storm.
Red Tide Update...
The severe red tide has continued into the fall, leading to dramatic declines in fish abundance.

Catches of primary dolphin prey fish were down more than 80 percent from those in June/July, before the red tide came inshore.

We expanded our field survey efforts spatially and temporally to try to document possible changes in the dolphin community resulting from the red tide.

So far, we’ve seen the Sarasota resident dolphins redistributed within their community range in response to the red tide. We’ve seen them a bit further offshore and further up rivers and creeks than usual. To date, two long-term resident dolphins died from the red tide. With a new grant from the Mote Scientific Foundation, we are continuing fish sampling between seasonal sessions and we have initiated a biopsy dart-sampling program to try to define changes in diet through stable isotope analyses.

For the latest information on the red tide bloom and its impacts to our human population, here are some resources you can use:
  • myfwc.com/redtidestatus (the current statewide red tide status)
  • Visitbeaches.org (the latest beach conditions information)
  • https://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/hab/gomx.html (NOAA’s harmful algal bloom forecast for the Gulf of Mexico)
  • www.weather.gov — click on your region and then the “beach hazards statement” to see if there are respiratory warnings issued for beachgoers because of red tide. The Florida Department of Health advises that people with underlying chronic respiratory problems like asthma or COPD should avoid red tide areas, especially when winds are blowing toxins on or near shore, and that you take all medications as prescribed, including having rescue inhalers.
  • habscope.gcoos.org/forecasts — If you're in Pinellas County, Florida, there is a new Experimental Red Tide Respiratory Forecast being tested by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the Gulf of Mexico Coastal Ocean Observing System (GCOOS) and their partners at the FWC and Pinellas Gounty government. The forecast is updated every three hours, following the collection and analysis of water samples and is typically available on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays. The forecast is designed to help Pinellas County residents and visitors who are susceptible to the respiratory impacts of Florida’s red tide — especially people with asthma and other chronic lung diseases — know their risks of respiratory irritation before they visit beaches during red tides. If the forecast is successful, the goal is to expand to other Gulf Coast counties and states.
Fin of the Month
Name: FB55
Age: 32
Sex: Female
A Dolphin’s Life: Dolphin FB55 is part of a life-long and well-known female lineage in Sarasota Bay. She is the third calf of a dolphin known as FB05 (first identified in 1971, the year after the SDRP began), she is the sister of F155 and the grandmother of F255. She has been sighted more than 1,100 times since her birth in 1986. Over her lifetime, she’s given birth to six calves of her own — most recently in 2016. During an SDRP health assessment in 1988, we removed a stingray barb from her head.
FB55’s sixth calf surfaces next to her in this February 2018 photo.
FB55 travels into Sarasota Bay via Big Pass. You can see Lido Beach in the background. This area has been her home since 1986.

Research, Conservation
and Education Since 1970
The Sarasota Dolphin Research Program (SDRP) is a collaboration dedicated to dolphin research, conservation and education.  
 
It began in 1970 at Mote Marine Laboratory when Blair Irvine and high school student Randy Wells started a pilot tagging study to find out whether dolphins on Florida's central west coast remained in the area or traveled more widely. In 1974, with a contract from the U.S. Marine Mammal Commission, they were joined by Michael Scott and expanded the study with radio-telemetry.
 
Their subsequent discovery of long-term dolphin residency set the stage for today's efforts by demonstrating opportunities to study individually identifiable dolphins throughout their lives in a natural laboratory setting.  

Our work is conducted under the name "Sarasota Dolphin Research Program." This name ties together several organizations dedicated to ensuring the continuity of our long-term research, conservation and education efforts in Sarasota Bay and elsewhere.

The SDRP has been operated by the Chicago Zoological Society (CZS) since 1989. 

"Dolphin Biology Research Institute," is a Sarasota-based 501(c)3 nonprofit corporation established in 1982. It provides logistical support with research vessels, towing vehicles, computers, cameras, field equipment, etc. Since 1992, the program has been based at Mote Marine Laboratory on City Island in Sarasota Bay, with office, lab, storage and dock space and easy access to boat launching ramps within the home range of the Sarasota Bay resident dolphins.