Using Aerial Drones for Dolphin Research SDRP has a long history of taking to the skies to study dolphins. In the 1990s and early 2000s, a video camera suspended from a tethered blimp was used to get overhead behavioral records of dolphins and manatees. Today, given the sharp rise of
High-resolution data-loggers reveal fine-scale movement and foraging behavior of offshore dolphins “Bill,” an Atlantic spotted dolphin, with a satellite-linked tag on his dorsal fin and DTAG on his back upon release in September 2022. During offshore health assessments in September 2022, we deployed digital-acoustic archival tags (DTAGs) via suction cups on
Since 1970, we’ve been studying Sarasota Bay’s dolphin community — getting to know their lineages, their companions and even their favorite hangouts. But understanding the dynamics of a population of animals also includes understanding how they interact with their environment, especially learning about the types of food they prefer, the places where they find
As we approach the Labor Day holiday this weekend, why not make it a labor of love for dolphins (and other wildlife) by doing a few simple things to help protect them and their environment? It’s as easy as: Stashing your trash: If you’re heading to the beach or out on the water, be
Disentangling a Cedar Key Dolphin On Aug. 9, 2023, the SDRP partnered with University of Florida Marine Animal Rescue (UFMAR) and the Cedar Key Dolphin Project (CKDP) to help disentangle an estimated 5-month-old dolphin calf, also known as DTNL, that had plastic mesh wrapped around and cutting into its torso and pectoral flippers.
This year (2023) we’ve been getting a lot of questions about a tagged dolphin that people have been seeing frequently around Siesta Key. Meet dolphin F326, also known as Squirt! He is a young male dolphin born in 2019. We first observed him in November 2022 as an independent juvenile and, during a health
Feeling the Heat During a Hot Summer People around the world are feeling extreme heat this summer and we’re receiving a lot of questions about what the heat might mean for dolphins. In 2010, we wrote an article about potential impacts of climate disruption on the resident dolphins of Sarasota Bay. We thought
On May 17-18, 2023, we tagged and collected biological samples from two bottlenose and two Atlantic spotted dolphins 25-38 miles offshore of Sarasota during the third of four planned offshore health assessment and tagging sessions supported by a grant from the Florida RESTORE Act Centers of Excellence Program. All four dolphins received suction-cup-mounted
We’ve all probably done it: Change the pitch and tone of our voices when talking to babies. Now, new research from Sarasota Bay published in the peer-reviewed journal The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, shows that dolphin moms do it, too! “Motherese” (also known as “parentese”) is a speech pattern that human
A Successful Dolphin Rescue Near Marco Island Earlier this month, Florida’s Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) received several reports from the Naples/Marco Island area about a calf whose tail flukes were entangled in fishing line. After determining that the entanglement was life threatening, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) asked us to
