During June 11-15, we completed a dolphin health assessment project in Sarasota Bay. Such health “check ups” are a key part of the data collection conducted through our program — the world’s longest-running study of a wild dolphin population.

This year, a new component of the five days of health assessments involved testing and refining cardiac assessment techniques developed by National Marine Mammal Foundation veterinarians and collaborators and compiling baseline information that will be applied in dolphin health assessments in Louisiana and Alabama — dolphin populations affected by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill — later this summer. The work was funded in large part by the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative VI through the Consortium for Advanced Research on Marine Mammal Health Assessments (CARMMHA) project, led by the National Marine Mammal Foundation. 

Over the course of the week, we had 123 participants with about 95 people on the water each day, including 30 veterinarians and techs, along with biologists and dolphin handlers from around the world. They represented more than 20 institutions from the U.S. and other countries working for nonprofit organizations, universities, aquariums and federal agencies. Many of the participants were members of stranding networks from around the Southeast United States who, along with local volunteer participants, work together with us on dolphin rescues throughout the year. This project provides a great opportunity to develop collaborations and rescue team coordination.

We collected samples from 20 dolphins, including six dolphins that received health assessments for the first time.

We publish results from these studies in peer-reviewed journals, our own Nicks’n’Notches annual report and in popular media. ( You can read our 2018 annual report here. It provides summary overviews of all our research projects.)

I’d like to thank all of our participants for ensuring the week was a success for dolphins and humans alike.

Dolphins being released following health assessment...

I’m very sad to report the unexpected death of a dear friend and colleague, and a conservation hero, Dr. Pablo Bordino, one of the world’s foremost advocates for Franciscana conservation.

Pablo began his research on these tiny dolphins in Argentina in 1992. Franciscanas are among the world’s smallest and most endangered dolphins. They live in a very narrow strip of coastal waters off Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay. The primary issues facing the Franciscanas are death from entanglement in fishing nets, habitat degradation and fragmentation, pollution and overfishing. Recognizing the need for expanding his conservation efforts, Pablo established Fundación AquaMarina in 1998 and served as Executive Director and mentor-in-chief for the many students and volunteers who helped with his Franciscana research and education program as well as those who worked with other species. The overall goals of the program were to investigate ways to reduce human-dolphin conflicts, to promote the creation of management areas and to promote public participation in these activities.

Emphases included reducing dolphin bycatch through gear and approach modifications, studying ecology, behavior, health and genetics through examination of carcasses recovered from incidental entanglement and a public education campaign geared toward Argentine fishermen and habitat/wildlife managers at the local, provincial and national levels. Additionally, Pablo worked to evaluate and enforce better protective laws for Franciscanas in Argentina. 

The SDRP worked with Pablo to successfully capture, tag and release Franciscanas — for the first time — in 2005. With this and our subsequent work with satellite-linked telemetry, we obtained critical information for management. The team found that the animals have small ranges, indicating that the current designation of a single management unit ranging over the entire Argentine coastline was incorrect, with important implications for conservation. The local artisanal fishermen were catching their “neighbors” rather than individuals from a larger pool of dolphins passing through the area. Tracking results showed unrelated males and females remained together or re-associated extensively over months, suggesting a mating system unique among small cetaceans. Genetic analyses found joint entanglement of mother-calf or reproductive pairs, rather than random individuals, which might exacerbate the demographic consequences of bycatch. Significant components of genetic diversity could be lost together, suggesting that by-catch could be more detrimental than previously considered.

 

Pablo applied his experience to leverage Franciscana conservation internationally. For example, in response to a request by a Brazilian colleague for ranging information on Franciscanas at a potential major harbor construction site, Pablo provided opportunities in Argentina for Brazilian researchers to learn capture/tagging techniques, assisted by the SDRP. He then brought his AquaMarina team to Babitonga Bay, Brazil in 2011 and 2013, joining the Brazilians, and with assistance from the SDRP, tagged dolphins. The tags showed the Brazilian Franciscanas had even smaller ranges than those in Argentina and they would have been heavily impacted by the harbor development.

During one of our tagging sessions, Pablo’s team included two fishermen new to the project, one of whom had been a vocal opponent of the work just a year earlier. His initial objections came from the misperception that Pablo’s goal was to eliminate fishing in the area. Pablo invited the fisherman to work with the group so he could disagree from a point of knowledge rather than misunderstanding. That fisherman became an ardent supporter. At the dinner celebration following that tagging session, another fisherman who was new to the project offered a toast to thank Pablo “for helping me learn to appreciate something I did not know to appreciate before.” Pablo used this relationship-building approach extensively along the coast to establish bottom-up conservation programs.

 

Although earning a living as a conservationist in Argentina was very challenging, Pablo was committed to living and working there, to make a difference in his country. His accomplishments were acknowledged when he received a Whitley Award, also known as the “green Oscars,” in 2001 and a continuation award in 2002 (“Whitley Awards recognize conservation leaders from around the world who are applying sustained effort to conserve the natural environment”). Among his greatest accomplishments are his many dedicated students and volunteers, who will carry his conservation efforts forward. 

 

Many colleagues from around the world have mentioned how the world is a little worse off today without Pablo – we recognize that he made it a better place while he was here. We and colleagues from around the world miss him terribly, and our thoughts go out to his three sons, his mother and his team members. 

Name: 2211

Age: 1

Sex: Unknown

A Dolphin’s Life: Dolphin 2211 is the first calf of Nellie and first known grandcalf of FB25. This dolphin is one of 21 calves born in 2017 — and it’s likely that the animal wouldn’t be here today without the Sarasota Dolphin Research Program’s intervention. When this calf’s mom was just 9 months old in February 2010, we found her with plastic strapping material embedded around her neck. With our collaborative rescue team, we were able to catch Nellie, her brother Bill and her mom, quickly remove the entanglement, and release them on-site. We’ve continued to see Nellie since that intervention and were pleased to see her with her own first calf. At SDRP, we definitely consider that a success story! As a side note, we rescued her brother Bill from entanglement in a crab trap float line six years later — to the day.

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.