We only get occasional glimpses of dolphins feeding, but sometimes it’s spectacular. Fish whacking is one of the most noteworthy feeding behaviors. As first documented in the SDRP in the 1980s (and more recently in Time Magazine), a dolphin will “whack” a fish with its tail flukes, sometimes sending the fish 20 ft or more [...]
Bottlenose dolphins often listen for their next meal. While they eat many different fish species, among the favorites in Sarasota Bay are soniferous or noise-making fish, which include pigfish and toadfish. That’s right, dolphins, which are famous for their sonar, use passive listening to help when hunting prey. Building on ground-breaking work by the late [...]
Predation constitutes a suite of behavioral, individual, and population effects and plays a critical role in population regulation. One important effect is the influence that predatory pressures exact upon the abundance and distribution of prey species. Conversely, individual predators such as bottlenose dolphins can be affected by changes in prey density by consuming more of [...]
Dolphins in Sarasota Bay eat a variety fish species. The most common prey are those that make sounds. Dolphins have excellent hearing, and they use it to help catch sound-producing fish . Common prey fish include pinfish, pigfish, spot, and mullet. But when the opportunity presents, dolphin exhibit a preference for sea trout, toadfish, ladyfish, [...]
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.
Learn about different ways dolphins catch fish, and what kinds of fish they eat.
By Mike Twiner, PhD, University of Michigan and Spencer Fire, PhD, NOAA Marine Biotoxins Program Marine sentinel species such as bottlenose dolphins can be negatively impacted by toxic compounds produced by naturally occurring phytoplankton (single-celled marine algae). The Sarasota Bay bottlenose dolphin population is frequently exposed to toxic blooms of the marine algae Karenia brevis [...]
These data indicate that at the population level resident bottlenose dolphins of Sarasota Bay select soniferous prey. These results lend further support to the hypothesis that bottlenose dolphins use passive listening to locate sound-producing fishes.
This summer, the Shannon-Weaver diversity index was calculated to be 1.91, nearly identical to last summer’s high of 1.92.
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