2011 Entanglement in fishing gear is a significant conservation concern for marine species in the state of Florida and worldwide. The Florida Entanglement Working Group (FEWG) was formed in 2003 to focus on these issues in Florida state waters and includes several state (FWC), federal (NOAA), and non-profit organizations as contributing members (the Sarasota Dolphin [...]

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) [...]

Dolphin entanglements and strandings in the Sarasota Bay area and elsewhere in recent years have led to rescues involving the SDRP. We were involved in three bottlenose dolphin disentanglements in 2011. The ongoing field efforts of the SDRP provide opportunities to follow-up on local rescue cases, as summarized below. Ginger In December 2008, a 3-year-old [...]

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 [...]

By Steve Shippee, PhD student, University of Central Florida With the support of the Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium, I conducted a study to assess the problem of harmful interactions between bottlenose dolphins and the sport fishery along the Northwest Florida – Alabama Gulf Coast. I made observations on deep-sea sport fishing trips and used photo-identification [...]

By Jessica Powell, MS and Stacey Horstman, MES, NOAA Fisheries Service, Southeast Regional Office The NOAA Fisheries Southeast Regional Office (SERO) is located in St. Petersburg, Florida. This office is responsible for managing and ensuring all wild dolphin populations within the southeastern United States (North Carolina through Texas and the Caribbean) are protected in accordance [...]

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) [...]