Nicks 'n' Notches Online

An enewsletter from the 

Sarasota Dolphin

Research Program

April/May 2024

Thank You!

We want to offer a great big THANK YOU! to all of the supporters who contributed during Giving Challenge 2024! Thanks to your help, we will be able to replace an outboard engine on one of our research vessels. Thanks also to the Community Foundation of Sarasota County for bringing donors together for nonprofit organizations like ours and to The Patterson Foundation for increasing the power of their giving!

Notes from the Lab and Field

Happy May everyone! Some exciting news: With our colleagues from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and others, we just published a new paper in the peer-review journal Animal Biotelemetry about the development of our TADpole, a tool that allows us to remotely attach satellite-linked tags to free-swimming, bow-riding dolphins. This tool has been under development since 2014, when I began working with WHOI veterinarian Dr. Michael Moore, and subsequently WHOI engineers, on the concept.

TADpole, short for pole-mounted Tag Application Device, uses pneumatic pressure to secure a tag to a dorsal fin with a single pin in just a fraction of a second. 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 this new approach.

We have spent years developing and refining prototypes, leading to the deployment of three tags on dolphins so far, and publication of this paper. We expect the TADpole will create new opportunities for tagging large marine animals (it’s also been used on white and whale sharks).

We published this paper in an open-access journal so we can share this methodology with others working to study and save species.

At SDRP, we believe animal conservation takes a village, and throughout our 50-plus year history, have developed partnerships and worked with colleagues all over the world for the benefit of animals and the environment.

As the recent Giving Challenge proved, you are an important part of our village. Thanks to the support we received, SDRP will be able to replace an aging outboard engine on one of our research vessels, helping us to continue our work.

As we head into the busy summer boating season, please remember to watch out for our other village neighbors — the dolphins and other marine life that call our waters home. Please motor slowly and safely in shallow areas, where moms with new calves will be hanging out, fish responsibly and remember to “Stow It, Don’t Throw It” — stow your fishing line and other trash, that is, to make sure it doesn’t end up in the water.

Here's to fair winds and following seas!

Randy Wells

Anna Maria Elementary School’s motto is “Home of the Dolphins” so it was only fitting that SDRP’s Dr. Katy Holmes and Dr. Krystan Wilkinson spent some time with the fifth graders talking about dolphins — especially how they sound and how we tell them apart using their fins during an “Our Dolphin Neighbors” program.

The school lives up to its motto by hosting one of our Sarasota Bay Listening Network stations and the kids made a better home for dolphins when they created “Stow It, Don’t Throw It” monofilament collection bins during the program.

These bins help to keep fishing line out of the environment, protecting dolphins and other animals from entanglement!

• Click to learn how to make your own Stow It, Don't Throw It monofilament collector.

Fin of the Month

Meet “Ping,” an Atlantic spotted dolphin that we tagged on April 18 using our TADpole. We tagged Ping 46 nautical miles offshore of Venice in water 130 feet deep. Because we used a remote tagging device and did not have to bring the dolphin on the boat to attach the tag, we don’t know whether Ping is male or female or have exact information on length and weight, as we have had with dolphins tagged during previous offshore health assessments. (Read more about that here.)

It will be interesting to see whether this dolphin’s ranging pattern is similar to that of other spotted dolphins we’ve tagged. At these early stages of this research, it’s still hard to define what “typical” Atlantic spotted dolphin movement patterns are — though we’re betting on Ping and the other offshore dolphins we tag to help us fill in these blanks in support of dolphin conservation.

This map shows Ping's movements from April 18 through April 29.

Tagging and tracking for this research is supported by the NOAA RESTORE Act (through WHOI), Fahlo, and Mote Scientific Foundation. Tagging was performed under NMFS/MMPA Scientific Research Permit No. 26622.

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

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