Franciscana dolphin: Southern Brazil Signals continued to be received through the end of November from two of the five Franciscana dolphins tagged with satellite-linked tags. The dolphins are exhibiting a very high degree of residency to a very small area within the bay. These highly endangered dolphins were tagged as part of a tri-national (Brazil-Argentina-USA) [...]

SDRP Director Randy Wells provides an interesting glimpse into the difficulty of mounting a highly successful dolphin rescue (below). Usually dolphin rescues are not nearly this easy. The life of a bottlenose dolphin calf was threatened by entangling fishing line. It was captured, freed of the line, and released 17 minutes later. The calf had [...]

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 [...]

A yearling bottlenose dolphin whose survival was threatened by entanglement in fishing line was freed by a joint SDRP and Mote Marine Laboratory team. For three months, the calf, known as C797 (the 7th documented calf of female FB79), had fishing line wrapped through its mouth and around its dorsal fin and body. From the [...]

Human activities are the biggest threat to Sarasota Bay dolphins. Some people hook dolphins with fishing gear accidentally, and dolphins can become entangled in fishing line, which can kill or seriously injure them. Some people try to feed dolphins which can make the dolphins sick or make them less wary of other threats. Feeding dolphins [...]

A new research paper by SDRP researchers Jessica Powell and Randall Wells sheds light how anglers and boaters can impact dolphins. The research study presents findings from 2000-2007 shows adverse dolphin-human interactions to be increasing.

Knowing how dolphins use their habitat features and the water column will provide information about how Franciscana dolphin movements and dive patterns overlap with artisanal fishing locations and activities, providing a means for evaluating potential ways to minimize entanglements in gillnets. To this end, the combined efforts of the Aquamarina, SDRP and Disney team led [...]

By Randall Wells January 2010 Recognizing four decades of growth and evolution of the Sarasota Dolphin Research Program. In October 2010, our long-term dolphin research program based in Sarasota Bay, Florida, will celebrate its 40th anniversary. While it remains the world’s longest-running and best-documented study of a dolphin population, over the past four decades this [...]