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) [...]

Human interactions (HI) with wild dolphins are a problem of increasing conservation concern. In 2011, we conducted a controlled experiment testing the effectiveness of law enforcement and educational outreach at reducing interactions at an HI hotspot near Sarasota Bay. The project centered on a notorious begging bottlenose dolphin (“Beggar”) that has frequented a small portion [...]

Conservation research, education, and training are among the core activities of the Sarasota Dolphin Research Program. Professional training, especially as it relates to conservation capacity building, is an important aspect of our program’s mission and that of its parent division of the Chicago Zoological Society, the Conservation, Education, and Training group. The year 2011 provided [...]

January, 2012 Education continues to be a major component of our program’s activities, directed toward the general public, students, colleagues in the United States and abroad, and wildlife management agencies. Public Education and Outreach:  We work to educate the general public regarding bottlenose dolphins and conservation issues through public presentations at the Chicago Zoological Society’s [...]

In May, 2011, I found myself smiling as I packed my bags for a week of field research with the Sarasota Dolphin Research Program. I was reflecting on the fact that in 1991, I had boarded my very first flight, enroute to Sarasota for the first time. Now, 20 years and a couple hundred thousand [...]

A total of 11 oral or poster presentations on SDRP research are scheduled at the Society for Marine Mammalogy’s upcoming Conference in Tampa, FL, from November 27th to December 2nd, 2011. The topics include conservation efforts to reduce dolphin entanglement and public interactions, prey density and foraging, tagging and tracking, and physiology. SDRP staff Brian [...]

5 endangered Franciscana dolphins were captured, tagged and released, by a tri-national team of veterinarians and conservation scientists in Babitonga Bay, Brazil. The dolphins are being tracked with satellite-linked transmitters to learn about their activities, dive patterns, and range in Southern Brazil. This is important new information because Franciscana dolphins are threatened by coastal development, [...]

While we love our bottlenose dolphins, we also support education about other marine mammal species. Interested? If so, check out the Species Fact Sheets on the website of the Society for Marine Mammalogy, the world’s largest association of marine mammal scientists, students, and interested members of the public. There’s a ton of interesting facts about [...]