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Sarasota Dolphin
Research Program
a Program of the
Chicago Zoological Society
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Celebrating 50 Years of
Marine Mammal Research, Conservation and Education
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Nicks 'n' Notches Online
A monthly newsletter from the SDRP
June 2020
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In celebration of our 50th year of dolphin research, conservation and outreach, we’ve been participating in a host of live and taped videos on social media with some of our colleagues from Sarasota and beyond.
Some of these events have included opportunities for Q&A. If you want to catch these livestreams as they happen, be sure to like our Facebook page (
@SarasotaDolphins
) so you’re notified about new information as we post it.
And in case you missed these, you can still watch the recordings:
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Field & Lab Notes
By Randy Wells, Ph.D., Director
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Help Us Welcome Our Summer Interns — and Help More Join Their Ranks
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This summer, we’ve welcomed six new interns for training with the CZS-SDRP. Our program has a long history of supporting new generations of dolphin researchers, starting with me. I was just a 16-year-old high school intern working for the program’s co-founder, Blair Irvine, when he allowed me to come along on a dolphin-tagging trip in Sarasota Bay in 1970.
This year’s crew joins the ranks of the 430-plus other college students and recent graduates who have trained with the CZS-SDRP over the past several decades. Many of our interns have gone on to develop productive and prestigious conservation careers and it’s great to know that they got a solid scientific start with us.
Our 2020 interns have opportunities to learn techniques that we use to monitor dolphin populations as well as dolphin prey and predators. The students will also be assisting with long-term synthesis projects related to our program’s 50th anniversary.
Our interns — we usually host about 15 over the course of a year — each work with us for two-to-three months. Recently, we’ve learned that they will no longer have access to scholarship funds that have in the past helped support them during their time with our program.
Now, we find ourselves in the position of asking for your help. We’re seeking funds to help us continue to bring exceptional students to Sarasota so we can carry on the important work of training and educating new generations of dolphin scientists to support dolphin conservation around the world.
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Summer 2020 Interns (from left to right):
Kaelyn Shirley — Cross College Alliance Environmental Discovery Program, Ringling College of Art and Design; Elayna Daniels — Davidson College; Devin Jordan — NSF Research Experiences for Undergraduates, Georgia State University-Perimeter College; Britney Pepper — University of Georgia; Julia Wolfe — University of North Florida; Isabella Michal — Cross College Alliance Environmental Discovery Program, New College of Florida.
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In other student news, some congratulations are in order:
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Theresa Tatom-Naecker, a second-year Ph.D. student in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of California, Santa Cruz, was just elected to the Board of the Society for Marine Mammalogy — the world’s largest marine mammal organization — as one of two Student Members-at-Large.
Tatom-Naecker is an SDRP graduate student (and former SDRP intern) studying the diets of common bottlenose dolphins. Student Members-at-Large focus on improving the support provided to student members through a variety of initiatives, and on engaging students from underrepresented regions.
Theresa extends a long tradition of SDRP involvement in the Society as members, committee members and leaders. SDRP co-founders Blair Irvine,
Michael Scott
and I are charter members of the Society, created in 1984, and I am a past President.
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I’d also like to congratulate SDRP Postdoctoral Scientist (and former SDRP intern and grad student) Krystan Wilkinson, who recently received the inaugural William R. and Lenore Mote Early Academic Career Fellowship from the Mote Scientific Foundation (a separate entity from Mote Marine Laboratory). This award will help support Wilkinson to assess the ranging patterns and diets of large marine megafauna — including sharks and bottlenose dolphins — off Florida’s Gulf coast.
The research builds on ongoing tagging efforts to understand movements, residency time and seasonal use of Sarasota Bay and surrounding areas by large bull sharks, the primary predator of Sarasota Bay dolphins. It also compares the diets of large predatory sharks in relation to bottlenose dolphins and smaller shark species through stable isotope, fatty acid and fecal analysis. Krystan will also engage middle school students, especially girls, in STEM education.
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Speaking of youth… I’m pleased to share that we’ve had four dolphin births so far this season. May, June and July are the most common months for Sarasota dolphins to give birth, though local dolphins can give birth in nearly every month of the year.
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FB55 with our her 7th calf (C557), which is the third resident dolphin baby born this year.
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Our fourth baby (2233) born in 2020 is seen here, in front of her mother, F223.
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Baby 2233 surfaces next to its grandma.
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While calves can swim from the instant they are born, young-of-year calves, or YOYs, have to learn the rules of their new watery world, including how to avoid predators, boats and fishing line. Summer can be an especially dangerous time for moms and new calves, as they spend more time in shallow waters where they are unable to dive below approaching boats.
As we approach the July 4 holiday, typically a very busy boating weekend in Florida, be sure to be a good neighbor and give these new moms and calves plenty of space — at least 50 yards, as per federal guidelines. Here are a few other tips:
- Always follow Coast Guard-approved safe boating guidelines and use vigilance to avoid striking marine animals. Follow posted signs for slow-speed zones.
- Wear polarized sunglasses to give yourself a better chance of seeing marine life in your path.
- Never feed marine wildlife.
- Stow trash and line. Marine debris that accidentally blows overboard (on the water or under tow) can become ingested by, or entangled around, marine life, leading to severe injuries or even death.
- Download our Dolphin-Friendly Fishing & Viewing Tips.
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Until next month, here's to fair winds and following seas!
Randy Wells
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Name:
F271, Babe
Age:
26
Sex:
Female
A Dolphin’s Life:
Babe was the first calf born to dolphin FB99 and has been observed more than 300 times since we first sighted her on July 14, 1994. We most often see her between Terra Ceia Bay and Cortez.
On a recent survey in the Manatee River, our research team located a large group of dolphins near
The Bishop Museum of Science and Nature
in downtown Bradenton.
The group included dolphin Babe, along with three of her four calves: C911 (b. 2007, sex unknown), C912 (b. 2011, sex unknown), F269 (b. 2015, female, also known as Ruth) and 2714 (b. 2018, sex unknown).
Bottlenose dolphins don't often travel in large family groups, so seeing this family gathering was a nice surprise for the team!
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Want More Dolphins? Follow Us on Social Media!
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50 Years of Research,
Conservation
and
Education
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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.
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Dolphin Biology Research Institute (DBA Sarasota Dolphin Research Program), the corporation that we established in 1982 to continue our long-term dolphin research program in Sarasota Bay, is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization. Thus, your donation should be tax deductible.
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