Nicks 'n' Notches Online
A monthly enewsletter from the
Sarasota Dolphin Research Program
May 2021
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Watch Out for Marine Life |
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May and June are prime calving season for dolphins in Southwest Florida. Manatees are in summer feeding grounds (or heading there), sea turtles are starting to come ashore to nest. In other words, late spring and summer along our coast is a busy time in the marine environment!
Do you know the best ways to keep wildlife safe while you’re boating and fishing? Please take a moment to watch these videos to learn more. Please share them with your friends and neighbors!
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Learn About Dolphin-Safe Boating |
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Learn About Dolphin-Safe Fishing |
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Notes from the Field and Lab |
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As COVID winds down and we are able to begin working on a backlog of postponed and new field projects, things seem busier than ever.
We’ve increased the range of our dolphin survey area into Tampa Bay to include the community of dolphins that typically lives near Piney Point, where more than 200 million gallons of wastewater were released when the wall of a holding pond breached at this now-defunct fertilizer plant. The Charles and Margery Barancik Foundation initially made it possible for us to undertake these surveys when they allowed us to apply some of the funds normally used to monitor Sarasota Bay dolphins to the Piney Point work. Now, the Mote Scientific Foundation has stepped in to provide additional grant monies that will support Piney Point surveys for 12 months. Individuals have also made donations to support this work during the interim and I can’t thank them enough.
Our preliminary findings suggest that dolphins are not using the waters off Piney Point to the level expected based on surveys of the area we conducted in the 1980s and 1990s. We’ve also had two notable incidents during these Piney Point surveys that I wanted to share with you.
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The first took place in early April, when we observed an entangled dolphin known as CMA1917. The dolphin had fishing gear embedded in its dorsal fin and trailing behind. This entangled young animal was first reported to the stranding network in June 2019.
As you can see from the picture, the line was entangled around and cutting through the dolphin’s dorsal fin. After sighting the animal on April 7, we equipped our survey boat with a long-handled line cutting tool in case we found CMA1917 again. Within a few minutes after the dolphin was found on April 9, we were able to approach it and cut much of the trailing line.
We were unable to make another approach closely enough to make a second attempt to remove more gear but the line and gear we did remove had a wet weight of 29 grams (just over an ounce) and included at least two different tests of monofilament fishing line, a lead weight, a swivel and the top of a small broken hook.
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Dolphin CMA1917 before the gear was removed. |
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CMA1917 after much of the gear was removed. |
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Fishing line and hooks removed from CMA1917. |
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The second notable event took place at the end of April when we found a dolphin nicknamed SWAN with her newborn calf. This was only the second time we’ve observed SWAN; the first was in the same area in 2013.
In addition, we have had the opportunity to catch-up with several individuals from the SE Tampa Bay community that we first identified in the 1980s and 1990s, from as far back as 1984 in one case.
As we continue monitoring the dolphins near Piney Point, we’ll continue to watch out for CMA1917, SWAN and her newborn calf, and the long-term residents.
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As red tide threatened to move into the area, we’ve also begun taking water samples from 10 locations during our monthly Sarasota Bay dolphin monitoring surveys that will help us track bloom dynamics and movement throughout the estuary.
So far, red tide development has been fairly slow.
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You can get the latest bloom information from:
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Our colleague Dr. David Mann has recently installed or replaced six of the next-generation Passive Acoustic Listening Stations (PALS) as part of our collaborative network around Sarasota Bay and vicinity. These stations allow us to monitor the soundscape — including sounds made by fish, dolphins, and manatees, as well as boat noise as a measure of human activities.
The improvements include a better dolphin detector and more efficient sampling regime for data transmission. We’re also working with Dr. Mann and Haikubox to develop the capability for web-based, real-time listening — which means the sounds we’re recording will be available for anyone to listen to on the web.
The site is still under development, but you can listen to samples here. (Learn more about Haiku Marine here.)
And just a quick reminder before I go: May and June are prime calving season for dolphins in Southwest Florida, so be sure you’re giving moms and calves plenty of space!
We’re happy to report that we recorded our first young of the year (YOY) in April! The proud mom of new calf C79A is Vespa. This is Vespa’s 11th calf. You can learn more about Vespa on our website. (She’s also featured in the Dolphin-Safe Fishing video we mentioned above.) So far, we’ve documented seven births this season. Not a bad start to the summer at all!
Here's to fair winds and following seas!
Randy Wells
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Name: F220, also known as Stormy
Age: 22
Sex: Male
A Dolphin's Life: We’ve observed Stormy more than 600 times since his birth in 1999. He’s the fourth calf of FB07, also known as Lightning.
In our research, we’ve found that adult male bottlenose dolphins in Sarasota Bay develop male alliances when they reach sexual maturity. These bonded male pairs spend much of their lives together, helping each other do things like mate and feed. We were the first to describe these long-term relationships.
We don’t think that Stormy has developed such a relationship yet, but he could be exploring one with another Sarasota Bay dolphin named Pat.
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Visit Stormy’s website page to watch a short video snippet of him swimming with a dolphin nicknamed Bobbitt and to listen to his signature whistle.
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Male dolphins Pat, in the foreground, and Stormy, in the back, surface on either side of an adult female dolphin nicknamed Murphy Brown. |
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Celebrating
50 Years of Research,
Conservation and Education
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Support Dolphin Research Today |
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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
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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.
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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.
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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.
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