Make Your Labor Day Boat Trip a Labor of Love

As we approach the Labor Day holiday this weekend, why not make it a labor of love for dolphins (and other wildlife) by doing a few simple things to help protect them and their environment? It’s as easy as:



• Stashing your trash: If you’re heading to the beach or out on the water, be sure to leave no trace behind. That means throwing trash away in closed receptacles or making sure nothing blows out of your boat while you’re underway.
• Watching out for animals in your path: If you’re on your boat, be sure to have someone acting as a spotter to alert you to any animals — dolphins, manatees, sea turtles — in your path. Polarized sunglasses will help to reduce glare on the water. If you’re on the beach making sandcastles, be sure to fill in any holes before you head home — nesting or emerging hatchling sea turtles can easily become trapped.
• Reeling in: If you’re fishing from a boat or from shore, be sure to reel in your lines if dolphins are nearby. That way, they won’t get entangled or hooked, and you won’t lose your bait or catch!
• Adding these numbers to your contact list: In Sarasota and Manatee counties, Mote Marine Laboratory’s Stranding Investigations Program responds to reports of dead, injured and stranded marine life. Call 888-345-2335. Elsewhere in Florida, contact Florida’s Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission at 888-404-3922 or use #FWC or *FWC. Be sure to have your GPS coordinates or location ready to share.

Notes from the Field and Lab

If you’ve been following our research, you probably know that we employ a variety of techniques to study the Sarasota Bay dolphin community, including systematic photography of individuals, following individuals and groups from a boat and observing their behaviors, and using underwater hydrophones to monitor dolphins from shore-based listening stations.

For some projects, we also learn about dolphins from electronic tags. 

Our use of radio-tags and satellite-linked tags for tracking the movements and behavior of dolphins here contributed to the development of the very small transmitters that are today used widely around the world. The early development of digital acoustic archival tags (DTAGs), attached by suction cups for about 24 hours, by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) scientists and engineers benefited from tests on bottlenose dolphins in Sarasota Bay.

Technological innovations continue today, and I’m really pleased to share with you news about our recent successful test of a new tool we refer to as the TADpole!

In 2014, we began working with engineers and a veterinarian from WHOI to develop a tool that would allow us to remotely attach satellite-linked tags to free-swimming, bow-riding dolphins.

Previously, tag attachments had required catch-and-release or the use of a rifle or crossbow to attach a projectile tag via embedding barbs. The former is expensive and logistically complex — especially with animals in deeper water — and the latter was an approach the SDRP did not want to employ. So we began working to develop a new approach.

I worked with WHOI veterinarian Dr. Michael Moore to develop the concept for the TADpole — short for pole-mounted Tag Application Device — with prototypes designed and built by WHOI engineers. This device uses pneumatic pressure to secure a tag to a dorsal fin with a single pin in just a fraction of a second.

After a great deal of lab and field testing and modification, we took it offshore in August.

On Aug. 15, the tagging team — Field Coordinator Aaron Barleycorn, Lab Manager Jason Allen, Staff Researcher Jonathan Crossman and me — used the TADpole to deploy a satellite-linked tag on a bow-riding Atlantic spotted dolphin 45 miles offshore of Sarasota, Florida. A standard Wildlife Computers SPLASH tag was attached and we’ve been using it to track the dolphin, nicknamed Hannah, ever since.

This Atlantic spotted dolphin nicknamed Hannah was tagged 45 miles offshore of Sarasota.

In parallel conservation efforts, the tag has already been used to successfully tag great white and whale sharks.

While work remains to be done before the tool is fully ready for prime time, our most recent test proved the engineering concept and, once fully developed, the TADpole has the potential to facilitate much-needed research on offshore dolphins around the world!

I hope you have a safe and relaxing Labor Day holiday! Until next month, here’s to fair winds, cooler seas and no hurricane or tropical storm impacts!

Randy Wells

P.S. Speaking of hurricanes… if you’re interested what we’ve learned about how dolphins respond to hurricanes, here are two stories you might find interesting:



• Tracking Offshore Dolphins During Hurricane Ian
• Dolphins and Hurricane Season

Offshore Tracking Update

On May 17-18, 2023, we tagged two bottlenose and two Atlantic spotted dolphins 25-38 miles offshore of Sarasota during the third of four planned offshore health assessment and tagging sessions supported by a grant from the Florida RESTORE Act Centers of Excellence Program. Then, on Aug. 15, we used the TADpole to attach a tag to a third Atlantic spotted dolphin.

The map below shows their locations over the past two weeks. The largest red dot at one end of each animal's line is the most recent location, with each animal's Tag ID.

• Tag ID 213788: Bottlenose dolphin "John"
• Tag ID 240130: Atlantic spotted dolphin "Teri"
• Tag ID 240131: Bottlenose dolphin "Per"
• Tag ID 240132: Atlantic spotted dolphin "Michael"
• Tag ID 194978: Atlantic spotted dolphin "Hannah"

For more information on how you can help support wild dolphin research, please email Randy Wells, Director of the Sarasota Dolphin Research Program, or call 941.374.0449.

Dolphin Biology Research Institute — DBA Sarasota Dolphin Research Program — is dedicated to research and conservation of dolphins and their habitat. 

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