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August 2015 - In This Issue:
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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 collaborative partnership 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 all of our future efforts, by demonstrating opportunities to study individually identifiable dolphins throughout their lives.
Two of the dolphins first identified in 1970-71 have been seen in 2015 and we are currently observing dolphins as old as age 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 good boat launching ramps within the home range of the Sarasota Bay resident dolphins.
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Welcome to our new enewsletter
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Nicks 'n' Notches Online will keep you up to date
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We know that our friends and supporters are interested in what our staff, volunteers and research partners are up to. So we decided to create
Nicks 'n' Notches Online, a new monthly newsletter that we hope will keep you informed of our research findings, as well as our efforts to protect and save wild dolphins. In addition to news and updates from the field, we hope you like our "Fin of the Month," a snapshot feature of one of the dolphins we have come to know well over the years.
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Notes from the Field and Lab...
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Randall Wells, Ph.D., Director
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Summer is our busiest field season of the year. Over the past month, photo-ID field teams have documented 10 births to Sarasota Bay residents during regular monthly surveys -- it is shaping up to be a good year!
Our fish survey team is finding typical numbers of dolphin prey in the Bay during their long-term, seasonal purse-seining operations. Ph.D. student Rachel Cassoff is developing her approach to obtaining dolphin body condition measures from overhead images and Ph.D. student Krystan Wilkinson is preparing to conduct a pilot study of tagging and tracking potential dolphin predators -- bull sharks -- in Sarasota Bay. In addition to field work, we are engaged in data analyses and manuscript preparations. Analyses designed to better understand and mitigate adverse human interactions are under way, led by Staff Scientist Katie McHugh.
We are also working on several manuscripts related to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill for submission to peer-reviewed journals. The Sarasota Bay dolphins have played an important role in this investigation, serving as a crucial reference population.
The Sarasota dolphins are also helping with human health issues.
A study led by the National Marine Mammal Foundation, in collaboration with the Sarasota Dolphin Research Program and others, and published in the journal PLOS ONE in July, discovered a saturated fat, called heptadecanoic acid, that may help reverse prediabetes in humans. The researchers discovered that bottlenose dolphins can readily switch in and out of diabetes-like states, and that dolphins -- including those in the wild -- can develop metabolic syndrome, a subclinical condition called prediabetes in humans.
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In 1988, two young male dolphins were caught in Tampa Bay for echolocation studies by Dr. Ken Norris at the Long Marine Laboratory of the University of California, Santa Cruz, with the intent of returning them to the wild upon completion of the project. Two years later, through the collaborative efforts of the Chicago Zoological Society, UCSC and Mote Marine Laboratory, Echo and Misha were returned to Florida, reacclimated in a sea-pen at Mote, and then released at Misha's capture site in Tampa Bay. The two dolphins were monitored closely by SDRP research associate Kim Bassos-Hull for her UCSC Master's degree for the first year post-release. Since then, the SDRP and others have continued to record sightings of them.
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This is Echo within several months of his release in Tampa Bay in 1990.
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Observations indicated that they appeared to have readapted well to life in the wild, reintegrating with their pre-capture social units and that they did not interact with humans. The project demonstrated the importance of home ranges, as Echo left Misha after several weeks and returned to his original home range just to the north of Misha's. In contrast to the failed efforts by others to release captive-born dolphins, dolphins held in captivity for longer periods of time or to release dolphins far from their native home ranges, the Echo and Misha project was considered a success. This project demonstrated that dolphins removed from their home ranges for at least short periods of time could be successfully returned to their native waters. Misha died in 2006, 16 years post-release. In July 2015, we received photographic documentation from the Eckerd College Dolphin Project in St. Petersburg that Echo had been sighted, nearly 25 years post-release. He was found near where he was seen a year ago and with some of the same individuals he was with at that time.
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YOU can help make dolphin research and conservation happen
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If you care about dolphins, then supporting research activities that impact their lives in Sarasota Bay and around the world is important to you.
As a friend of the Sarasota Dolphin Research Program, you may already be familiar with The Giving Challenge, the annual event coordinated by the Community Foundation of Sarasota County to encourage philanthropy in the region. The 2015 Giving Challenge will take place between noon on September 1 and noon on September 2, and we ask that you consider making a gift to the SDRP in conjunction with it.
The Giving Challenge provides the possibility for your gift to be matched*, allowing the SDRP to do even more for dolphins. Your donation will support the longest-running study of a wild dolphin population anywhere in the world -- a program that provides unparalleled information about wild dolphins that is also helping to save and protect them worldwide.
As the 2015 Giving Challenge draws closer, we will be sharing additional information about the opportunity. In the meantime, please email info@sarasotadolphin.org if you have any questions.
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AGE: 33
SEX: Male
A DOLPHIN'S LIFE:
Echo, the dolphin in the back, is readily recognizable from the distinctive nicks and notches in his dorsal fin. After two years of echolocation research in California, he was released back in Tampa Bay in 1990 and he has been seen nearly 40 times since. He was caught in 1988 in Old Tampa Bay and released in southeastern Tampa Bay with Misha. Boca Ciega Bay, near St. Petersburg, is included in his home range. He has been observed twice in the past two years, by the Eckerd College Dolphin Project and he appears to have regular associates.
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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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