Welcome to Nicks 'n' Notches Online, the enewsletter of the
Sarasota Dolphin Research Program.
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RESEARCH, CONSERVATION
AND EDUCATION SINCE 1970.
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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 began a tagging study to find out if dolphins on Florida's central west coast from southern Tampa Bay to Charlotte Harbor remained in the area or traveled more widely.
Our discovery of long-term residency set the stage for our future efforts, by demonstrating opportunities to study individually identifiable dolphins throughout their lives.
In 2015, two of the dolphins first identified in 1970-71 were seen and we also observed dolphins as old as 65, including members of up to five concurrent generations.
Our dolphin research, conservation, and education work is conducted under the umbrella name "Sarasota Dolphin Research Program." This name links the efforts of several organizations and individuals that work together to ensure the continuity of our long-term dolphin 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 its fleet of six small research vessels, two 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.
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Sarasota Magazine featured an article on our local dolphins and the program in its December issue.
We're excited to note that this issue is sent to people in 40 states and placed in thousands of hotel rooms in Sarasota County, where it stays throughout the tourist season.
We appreciate outreach opportunities like this that help us educate visitors about our local dolphins, the threats they face and the things we do to help uncover their needs and all the facets of their lives.
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We've recently been sharing stories about our research on dolphin acoustics on our Facebook page. Do you follow us there? If not, take a look.
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Notes from the Field and Lab...
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Happy New Year! I hope your year is getting off to a wonderful start. We've been a little hampered in our fieldwork recently by windy weather and cold temperatures -- and even a tornado on Siesta Key (we're happy to report that all is well with us, though some of our neighbors had severe damage).
Despite the challenging weather, though, we still had our first survey of 2016 on Jan. 6. Our first sightings of the year included about 10 percent of the local residents, rescued-released dolphins Ginger (featured in the article at the link above) and Nellie, named after one of our favorite collaborators, N
é
lio Barros, who passed away in 2010.
During that survey, we had the opportunity for best-selling author Amy Tan
(Joy Luck Club, The Valley of Amazement and other great works) to join us. She had heard about our work from "Ant Man" Dr. Mark Moffett (Adventures Among Ants) who described his experiences while helping with a December survey and learning about dolphin societies in Sarasota Bay to Amy, who also has strong conservation interests and a desire to help wildlife.
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Dr. Randy Wells, Amy Tan, Lou DeMattei and Dr. Katie McHugh
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Since she was coming to Sarasota for a speaking engagement and wanted to get involved, we were fortunate that scheduling worked out for her and husband Lou DeMattei to volunteer with us. We truly appreciate Amy's and Lou's help and their thoughtful approach to wildlife conservation. Amy shared a wonderful story about her time in the field with us on her Facebook page.
In December, several of our staff participated in the biennial Society for Marine Mammalogy conference in San Francisco, which was attended by 2,500 scientists and students from around the world. I'm proud to report that our staff members were involved as authors/co-authors on 18 presentations, sharing knowledge of Sarasota dolphins and our research with marine mammal scientists from around the world.
Two students associated with our program won awards: Sam Rossman for the best paper published by a student in the Society's journal, Marine Mammal Science, over the past two years, and Barbara Cheney, for the best poster by a doctoral student.
Participating in such conferences and publishing in peer-reviewed journals is a hallmark of the Sarasota Dolphin Research Program's commitment to furthering dolphin research and sharing it widely to support dolphin conservation.
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 Alright, alright. So this isn't really our regular
Fin of the Month feature. But when we saw this image posted online by satire "news" site,
The Onion, we couldn't help ourselves -- we just had to share it since it's so ridiculous and made us LOL.
And, with the 50th Anniversary Super Bowl game coming up for kickoff on Feb. 7, we thought now would be a fun time to tell you that even the Dolphins football team comes to us for advice about dolphins.
Really. We're not kidding. When the Dolphins were redesigning their logo, Shandon Melvin, the National Football League's Creative Director, asked Dr. Randy Wells to review images for potential designs. Compared to the old logo, the new logo unveiled in 2013 emphasizes the power stroke of the dolphin's flukes and its upward facing head appears more aspirational rather than being at the zenith of a leap and on its way down, as was the case with the old logo.
But really, we just wanted to share this particular image to help remind you that under the federal Marine Mammal Protection Act these are the only dolphins you should ever swim with in the wild! Enjoy the game!
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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.
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