Nicks 'n' Notches Online
October/November 2017

Welcome to Nicks 'n' Notches Online, the enewsletter of the 
Sarasota Dolphin Research Program.
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 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.
 
Saving the Vaquita: Update
Dr. Randy Wells, director of the SDRP, left Sarasota earlier this month to help lead the international effort to save the Vaquita in the upper Gulf of California. With fewer than 30 of these tiny porpoises left in the wild, the animals are nearly extinct. The first few days of the rescue effort were hampered by windy weather, but there has been some recent success.


Notes from the Field and Lab...
   Randall Wells, Ph.D., Director
The Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GOMRI) recently awarded a new grant for continued studies of the impacts of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill on dolphin populations. The project, called the Consortium for Advanced Research on Marine Mammal Health Assessment (CARMMHA), is led by the National Marine Mammal Foundation and includes the Chicago Zoological Society (Sarasota Dolphin Research Program) and investigators from the University of St. Andrews, University of Connecticut, Dauphin Island Sea Lab, NOAA NMFS Office of Protected Resources and the University of Illinois.  
 
The $4.7 million grant will fund two years of research and allow us to continue to investigate:
  • Whether there are ongoing cardiac and immune impacts of the oil spill on dolphin health;
  • How impacts on lower trophic species -- particularly dolphin prey fish -- are affecting dolphins' nutrition and health;
  • Where population-level impacts have occurred, to reassess population recovery and to project future impacts using state-of-the-art modeling techniques.
Ultimately, our goal is to develop a comprehensive understanding and synthesis of the health impacts of oil-associated chemicals on cetaceans and develop a suite of models that will integrate available information collected prior to the spill, immediately following the spill and over the eight years following the spill, to demonstrate where impacts have occurred and to reassess the current recovery trajectories.

The grant will also help support outreach about our results not only in the scientific community, but to public groups so that we may more broadly educate society on the impact of the spill and help support a better understanding of the impacts that human activities have on our marine animal communities.
A dolphin health assessment in Barataria Bay.

Celebrating Our 47th Anniversary
The Sarasota Bay dolphins continue to serve as a reference population. It is because of our long-term studies here -- October marks our 47th Anniversary -- that we have baseline information on a "normal" bottlenose dolphin population to compare and contrast with other bottlenose dolphin populations elsewhere.

When we started our dolphin studies in 1970, we had no idea that our research would continue. But the more we learned about the resident cast of characters, the more we appreciated the valuable opportunity to follow these animals through time. We had no inkling back then that we would one day be studying the dolphins' health, life history, behavior, ecology, communication and the effects that human activities have on them.
And we certainly had no idea that this long-term research would become a crucial reference population for comparative studies of the health of other dolphin populations.

Over the years, research involving the Sarasota Dolphin Research Program has resulted in hundreds of scientific publications, provided data, samples, research opportunities and guidance for more than 70 graduate student theses or dissertation projects. We've documented human impacts on dolphin populations and helped to provide wildlife management agencies and the public with information that will help lessen human impacts on dolphins worldwide.

But our long-term studies aren't just about the science we've been able to accomplish over the last four-plus decades; they are also testament to public support for adding to our knowledge base about dolphins. That support has come in the form of grants from public sources, private foundations and individual donors. It has also come in the form of our enewsletter readers and social media followers, who help us share our information so it has the broadest impact possible.

And for that, you have my most sincere thanks!

Here's to fair winds and following seas...

Randy Wells
Follow that Whale
On July 1, beachgoers found a 725-pound short-finned pilot whale stranded on the beach in Dixie County, Florida. A team from the University of Florida and Clearwater Marine Aquarium transported the whale to SeaWorld Orlando, where the animal was cared for until she was ready for release about a month later.

SDRP has funding through NOAA's John H. Prescott Marine Mammal Rescue Assistance Grant Program to place satellite-linked tags on rescued/rehabilitated cetaceans and track their movements once they are released. The funding supports the cost of the satellite-linked tags as well as the satellite tracking time.

Director Randy Wells and Field Coordinator Aaron Barleycorn attached the tag and the animal, nicknamed "Gale," was released offshore of Tampa Bay from a Coast Guard vessel on Aug. 8.

Since then, we've watched her travel around the southern tip of Florida, over to Cuba, and up to waters off the coast of North Carolina.  Off Cape Hatteras, she was in waters frequented by pilot whales, as determined by ongoing studies by the Duke University Marine Lab. Along the way, she dived to depths of about 800 meters -- just under half a mile -- and stayed underwater for about 16 minutes.
Fin of the Month 
Name: Merrily, aka FB11
Age: 33
Sex: Female
A Dolphin's Life:
Merrily is one of our most recognizable and most frequently observed dolphins in Sarasota Bay -- she's been observed by our research teams more than 1,400 times and in every year since her birth in 1984.  
 
Merrily, who has a distinctive notch near the top of her dorsal fin, is the calf of Granny and the younger sister of Genie. This was the first matriline that we determined to extend through at least three generations in Sarasota Bay.
She appears to be a good mother herself, as she has given birth to five calves. To date, all of them have survived -- which is a rare occurrence in the dolphin world. Merrily's second calf (F179) has even given birth to her two grandcalves.
 
Merrily -- the larger dolphin in the back --
surfaces with her fifth calf (in the middle) and her second calf (in the front) in March 2017.
Sarasota Dolphin Research Program
708 Tropical Circle
Sarasota, FL  34242
941.349.3259
info@sarasotadolphin.org 


Dedicated to dolphin research, conservation  and education since 1970.

Dolphin Biology Research Institute (DBA Sarasota Dolphin Research Program) is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization dedicated to research and conservation of dolphins and their habitat. Employer Identification No. 59-2288387; Florida Charitable Contributions Solicitations Registration No. CH1172. A COPY OF THE OFFICIAL FLORIDA REGISTRATION AND FINANCIAL INFORMATION MAY BE OBTAINED FROM THE DIVISION OF CONSUMER SERVICES BY CALLING TOLL-FREE (800-435-7352) WITHIN THE STATE OR AT WWW.FRESHFROMFLORIDA.COM. REGISTRATION DOES NOT IMPLY ENDORSEMENT, APPROVAL, OR RECOMMENDATION BY THE STATE. THIS ORGANIZATION RETAINS 100% OF ALL CONTRIBUTIONS RECEIVED.