The Deepwater Horizon oil spill and several Unusual Mortality Events (UMEs) in the Gulf of Mexico have shown that knowledge of bottlenose dolphins in much of the Gulf is insufficient to meet the mandates of the federal Marine Mammal Protection Act. In much of the Gulf, stock boundaries have been assigned arbitrarily based on geography [...]
I have been very lucky to participate once again in the Sarasota Dolphin Research Program, but this time working on my senior thesis, which will allow me to get my degree when I go back to Argentina. I’ve always been attracted to how a simple algal cell could cause such a big change in the [...]
The 2006 SDRP “Manual for Field Research and Laboratory Activities,” is available as a downloadable pdf file. This 62-page document provides detailed documentation of our protocols used for field operations and data processing. It includes chapters on: 1) Field survey protocols, 2) Post-survey lab protocols, 3) Photo-identification protocols, 4) Database entry, verification, and management, and [...]
Much concern surrounded the potential catastrophic impacts of the April 2010 Deepwater Horizon (DWH) oil spill on wildlife and habitats in the Gulf of Mexico. The most common cetaceans in inshore waters of the Gulf, bottlenose dolphins, reside in coastal waters and bays, sounds, and estuaries where exposure to oil from the DWH incident was [...]
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 [...]
Individual bottlenose dolphins can be identified by their dorsal fins. But how exactly is that done? And why bother? A new report published by NOAA, with SDRP staff members Brian Balmer and Randy Wells as co-authors, explores the use of photo identification as a tool for making abundance estimates of inshore populations of bottlenose dolphins. [...]
Dolphins accumulate pollutants in their blubber. Bottlenose dolphins are thus a sensitive indicator for persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in coastal ecosystems. Brian C. Balmer, a long time member of the SDRP team, just completed his doctoral work. His research examined the effect of pollution from a Superfund site in Georgia on bottlenose dolphins. Congratulations to [...]
Intensive photo-identification and radio tracking studies during 2004-2007 have provided insight into the potential effects of multiple Unusual Mortality Events in and around St. Joseph Bay. However, the recovery rate of bottlenose dolphin populations along the Florida Panhandle cannot be determined without long-term photo-identification surveys in this region. In collaboration with the Florida Department of [...]
We have been able to continue our year-round monthly monitoring of the Sarasota dolphin community thanks to support from NOAA Fisheries Service. The Sarasota bottlenose dolphin community is the most thoroughly-studied, free-ranging dolphin population in the world. We continue to address increasingly refined questions about the lives of these animals with the benefit of information [...]
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