Nicks 'n' Notches Online
A monthly enewsletter from the
Sarasota Dolphin Research Program
July 2021
2021 Calf Update
So far this year, we’ve documented 15 calves (also called young of the year, or YOYs)! We told you about the first one we documented back in April. Since then, we’ve documented six calves born in May and five born in June — including three births to first time moms! This month, we’ve documented three, including our 15th calf — the sixth generation we've documented since we started studying her maternal lineage in the 1970s — born to mom F233. (Learn more about them below.)

Please don’t forget that this is the time of year when distracted moms are busy taking care of naïve newborns — often in shallow water where they can’t dive beneath your boat — so keep a close eye out when you’re boating and be sure to give dolphins plenty of space!
Notes from the Field and Lab
Summer is typically our busiest time of the year for field work here at the Chicago Zoological Society’s Sarasota Dolphin Research Program, and this year is certainly no exception as we work on a variety of field projects following Covid-19 delays.

In June, we began a new project funded through the Department of Defense’s Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program that is designed to help us understand the cumulative impacts of multiple stressors on marine mammals.

This project is funded through the University of St. Andrews; other partners include Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and the National Marine Mammal Foundation. These studies focus on dolphins in Barataria Bay, Louisiana, which are still feeling the effects of the Deepwater Horizon and other stressors.

We developed protocols for the work based on focal animal behavioral follows that we developed for the Sarasota Bay dolphin community, and then refined them here in June for this specific study. We recently tested them in Barataria Bay. Having the opportunity to develop and refine research methodologies is one of the reasons why our natural laboratory setting in Sarasota Bay is so critical to dolphin conservation not just locally but in other parts of the U.S. and world.
Of course, that’s not to say Southwest Florida’s dolphins don’t deal with multiple stressors in their own right.

We’re continuing to conduct photographic ID surveys in southeast Tampa Bay, in the vicinity of Piney Point, where more than 215 million gallons of polluted water from a decommissioned phosphate mine spilled into the Bay. This work is funded through the Mote Scientific Foundation and will continue through next April.

During our initial surveys just after the spill, we had not seen the numbers of dolphins in the area that we would have expected, though sightings have been increasing recently, indicating that dolphins may be moving back into the area.

The Piney Point spill was just one stressor that dolphins on our coast are facing this summer. You may have seen reports of millions of pounds of dead fish washing up on Tampa Bay and St. Petersburg beaches over the last couple of weeks. The fish kills are caused by a red tide.  As I write this, I am seeing mats of dead fish floating out on the tide in New Pass, connecting Sarasota Bay to the Gulf of Mexico — it is heart-wrenching to see so much death, to know that it could probably be reduced through people preventing runoff of nutrients, and to know from experience what can follow for other creatures living in the bay.

Different red tides provide different threats — sometimes dolphins die from the red tide toxins, other times they do not. One common problem across many red tides is the depletion of the dolphins' prey fish within their long-term home ranges. This results in increasing adverse interactions with anglers as they both vie for the few remaining fish, leading to dolphin ingestion of, entanglement in, and hooking by recreational fishing gear, and illegal feeding of dolphins that increases their risky contact with humans.
We can’t easily change the dolphins’ behavior but we are stepping up our outreach to human communities along the coast to help educate people about the potentially fatal interactions that can occur when dolphins interact with anglers.

We’re also developing a new app that will allow us to collect reports of human-dolphin interactions and are seeking volunteers to help us test it. You can register at http://dolphin.report. Then, if you’re out fishing and a dolphin approaches you or your gear, steals your catch or damages your gear, you can use the simple report form to tell us about the interaction. Our goal is to track dolphin behaviors of concern and develop mitigation strategies. Fishing guides and commercial fishers are also invited to help.

In the meantime, please follow our Dolphin Friendly Fishing and Viewing Tips. You can download a card at bit.ly/tipssdrp. And, if you see a dolphin or other marine life in distress, you can report it to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission at: 1-888-404-FWCC (3922). From your mobile phone, use #FWC or *FWC. You can even text a report to Tip@MyFWC.com. If you’re reporting a stranded, sick or dead animal, please be sure to take a GPS reading so that responders have the greatest chance of finding the animal.

Here’s wishing you all toxin-free fair winds and following seas.

Randy Wells


P.S. Here are a few helpful links with information about red tide you can bookmark to get the latest on the bloom.
Fin of the Month
Name: F223
Age: 11
Sex: Female

A Dolphin's Life: We’ve observed F233 more than 330 times since her birth in May 2010. She gave birth to her own first calf in 2019. We had just one sighting of F233 and that calf before the calf disappeared. The next time we saw F233, she had fresh shark bites and no calf.

On July 11, we observed F233 with a brand new calf. We estimate that the calf was just days old because of the visible fetal folds ("tiger stripes") and the hairs still present on its rostrum.

Both F233’s new calf — 2332 — and her previous calf are the first documented sixth-generation calves in the Sarasota Bay dolphin community.

  • Check out the chart below to learn more about this maternal lineage that we have documented through six generations since the 1970s!
  • You can also visit sarasotadolphin.org/f233/ to hear F233’s signature whistle!
Follow Us on Social Media
We’re on Facebook (@sarasotadolphins), Twitter (@dolphinsarasota) and Instagram (@SarasotaDolphinResearchProgram). Be sure to check us out and watch for these tags: #tursiopstuesday, #funfact, #history.

Celebrating More than 50 Years of Research, Conservation and Education
Support Dolphin Research Today
Each year, it takes approximately $1 million to fund the Sarasota Dolphin Research Program. Each grant and each gift helps to ensure that we can continue to learn about and help some of the world’s most fascinating creatures.

You can help ensure the future of this important and unparalleled wild dolphin research by making a gift today.

Gift options
Donate online to the Chicago Zoological Society, which has operated the Sarasota Dolphin Research Program since 1989.
Donate to the Dolphin Biology Research Institute. This Sarasota-based nonprofit organization was established in 1982 to provide critical logistical and other operational support to the Sarasota Dolphin Research Program.
For more information on how you can help support wild dolphin research, please contact Cindy Zeigler, CZS Chief Advancement Officer, at cindy.zeigler@czs.org or 708.688.8263.
Dolphin Biology Research Institute — DBA Sarasota Dolphin Research Program — is dedicated to research and conservation of dolphins and their habitat. Community Foundation of Sarasota County Giving Partner Profile available here.

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.