After Sarasota Bay lost 2% of its long-term resident dolphins due to interactions with recreational fishing gear in 2006, the SDRP increased research efforts aimed at providing a better understanding of unnatural dolphin foraging behaviors and other human-dolphin interactions of increasing concern. As a part of this effort, graduate research by Jessica Powell (MS, 2009) [...]

Preliminary results suggest that targeted outreach and education can reduce illegal feeding.

Preliminary findings show that most incidences of depredation on deep-sea fishing trips are in conjunction with scavenging of discarded fish.

During our pilot project on the South Sunshine Skyway Fishing Pier in 2006, we realized that the problem of dolphins stealing bait and catch from anglers’ lines was worse than anticipated. In addition, lack of monofilament recycling bins resulted in a fishing line littering problem. In 2007 we teamed up with the Ocean Conservancy (TOC) [...]

During 2008, we initiated a new study to assess the problem of harmful interactions between bottlenose dolphins and the sport fishery along the Northwest Florida – Alabama Gulf Coast. Sport anglers and boat operators report increasing incidences of dolphins stealing hook-and-line caught fish, regulatory discards, and bait. Aside from anecdotal information, little else is known [...]

Our pilot project on the South Sunshine Skyway Fishing Pier in 2006 demonstrated that the problem of dolphins stealing bait and catch from angler’s lines was worse than we expected. In addition, a lack of monofilament recycling bins resulted in a littering problem, allowing potentially-entangling fishing line and tackle to get into the waters surrounding [...]

Over the past few years, the dolphins of Sarasota Bay and elsewhere in the southeastern United States have been increasingly engaged in depredation, the act of stealing or damaging a prey item already captured by some other process such as fishing. Dolphins are stealing bait or catch off fishing lines from piers or boats, stalking [...]

These “Best Fishing Practices” were developed in cooperation with NMFS scientists and fishery managers, and other research groups, including the Chicago Zoological Society, Mote Marine Laboratory and Hubbs-Sea World Research Institute. They were developed by reviewing information gathered from research observations at fishing piers and elsewhere, interviewing recreational anglers, and reemphasizing current conservation efforts and [...]