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 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 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.
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SDRP Thanks Generous Donors
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We're very pleased to announce the results of our Giving Challenge campaign this year and just wanted to take a moment to say Wow! and Thank You!
The annual Giving Challenge is a 24-hour event sponsored by the Community Foundation of Sarasota County, with support strengthened by The Patterson Foundation, the Manatee Community Foundation, John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, William G. and Marie Selby Foundation and the Herald-Tribune Media Group.
During the Challenge, 57 generous donors contributed $8,605 in direct donations to the Sarasota Dolphin Research Program. The foundations provided matching funds of $6,760 for a grand total amount raised of $15,365 -- more than we've ever raised during a Giving Challenge event!
This amount wonderfully exceeded our $7,500 goal to cover our share of the costs to develop automated fin-matching software. We will be able to use the additional $7,865 to support our secondary goals of replacing outdated computers for several senior staff members and replacing an aging outboard engine for one of our research vessels.
Thank you all so much for caring about Sarasota's dolphins, and for helping us to help them!
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Notes from the Field and Lab...
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Randall Wells, Ph.D., Director
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We wrapped up a busy summer with a special  trip to Bermuda, where we worked with Dr. Andreas Fahlman, Director of Research at the Oceanographic Foundation in Valencia, Spain, and Dolphin Quest as part of an Office of Naval Research-funded project to study deep-diving dolphins.
The goal of the study is to compare the behavior, ecology and physiology of the pelagic bottlenose dolphins that live off Bermuda with those of the dolphins here in Sarasota Bay. Our Bay dolphins live in very shallow coastal waters (less than 30 feet deep) while the Bermuda dolphins spend most of their time in waters thousands of feet deep. The project is specifically focused on investigating the animals' lung function through comparisons with Sarasota Bay dolphins.
During the trip, we deployed satellite-linked tags on four subadult dolphins -- nicknamed Devonshire, Hamilton, Paget and Pembroke after parishes in Bermuda. Dr. Frants Jensen, of the Aarhus Institute of Advanced Studies, Denmark, also deployed digital archival recording tags (DTAGs) on three of the animals. These tags record sounds produced and received by the animals over a 24-hour period and relate these to water depth and animal movements.
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So far,
overall maximum dive depth and overall maximum dive duration have exceeded previous documented records for Bermuda dolphins. We are seeing animals make dives
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This is a bottlenose dolphin near Bermuda with a satellite-linked time-depth recording tag and a 24-hour suction-cup-mounted DTAG. Photo copyright: Dolphin Quest. |
to 500 meters (nearly 1,700 feet) or more and stay underwater for more than 12 minutes -- and in one case 13.5 minutes. One of the dolphins dove to 1,008 meters -- more than half a mile! To the best of our knowledge, that's a new record for a bottlenose dolphin. The DTAGs showed that they are echolocating and foraging during these deep dives.
If you're interested in learning more about this study, you can read the press release or follow along as we record their movements by reading our field notes on the Dolphin Quest website.
Speaking of tracking, we've also been monitoring animals recently released from rehabilitation. This work is funded through NOAA's John H. Prescott Marine Mammal Rescue Assistance Grant Program.
Octavius is a young male bottlenose dolphin that spent six months in rehab at Audubon Nature Institute before being released in Grand Isle, Louisiana, in April. We tracked his movements through Barataria Bay and other nearby bays until his tag stopped sending us location data. The tag was still transmitting other occasional signals through August, suggesting that Octavius was still alive.
We also provided satellite-linked time-depth-recording tags and tracking services, for follow-up monitoring of a pair of male pygmy killer whales that underwent rehabilitation by the Institute for Marine Mammal Studies in Mississippi. These small whales were released at the 200 meter depth contour in July. The tag on one animal stopped transmitting at the end of July but the other continues to be tracked as it moves along the shelf edge south of Louisiana. We have documented dives to more than 300 meters, with the animal staying down for more than six minutes.
Once again, I'd like to thank all of you for your support of our research and for helping us understand the often cryptic lives of the world's marine mammals. Here's wishing you fair winds & following seas!
Randy
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Name: 1253, aka Joker 
Age: 5
Sex: Male
A Dolphin's Life:
This is Joker, a 5-year-old male dolphin who has been observed by the Sarasota Dolphin Research Program more than 173 times since he was born in 2011. Joker is the third calf of Annie and is a member of one of the five-generation lineages we have documented in Sarasota Bay.
Joker and his great-great-grandmother, Cathy, both were members of the long-term resident dolphin community until her disappearance in 2012.
Joker still has other family members in the Bay -- a 9-year-old brother named F256 and a 1-year-old sibling whose sex we do not yet know. That calf is still closely associated with their mom, Annie.
How did Joker get his name? Near the end of 2011, when he was just a few months old, we saw him with a deformity around his mouth, presumed to be from entanglement in line. The injury left him with scars on the left side of his mouth and face. We also think that he could have damage to his left eye. In June 2015, Joker acquired cuts in his dorsal fin, believed to be from a boat propeller.
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Joker's mouth.
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Joker's dorsal fin.
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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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STAY CONNECTED
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