Meet the 2026 Sarasota Bay Dolphin Calves!

On May 1, 2026, we spotted the first calf of the year. 22-year-old Mom, Keeley (F209), had her sixth documented calf. Keeley is the granddaughter to Rebecca (FB55). Rebecca’s mom, W-2 (FB05), was first identified in 1971. Interestingly, the place we saw Keeley and her new calf was just two miles from where Greatgrandma was first identified! This is a great reminder that Sarasota Bay’s dolphins are long-term residents that inhabit the same areas over generations. (By the way, in case you were wondering, the nicknames Keeley and Rebecca are from the TV show Ted Lasso.)

2026 Dolphin Calves

Our second calf of the season was observed on May 6, 2026, with mom Patch (F227). The calf, 2275, is Patch’s fifth. Patch is the 21-year-old daughter of Pumpkin, (FB09) and the grandcalf of Ms. Mayhem (FB63). The appearance of the season’s new, naive babies are a good reminder for boaters to practice safe boating behaviors — especially in Sarasota Bay’s shallow grassflats.

Did you know that every six minutes, a power boat passes by dolphins in the Bay? Collisions with boats have the potential to injure or even kill dolphins. For instance, Pumpkin and her family are some of the dolphins that have been affected by boats in this area. In 1996, Pumpkin was hit by a boat propeller while swimming with her year-old calf named Pi. The propeller cut deeply into her dorsal fin and she became separated from young Pi for several days. A few years later, Pi and his buddy Noah were also hit by boats, leaving minor injuries on Pi’s dorsal fin and deep cuts along Noah’s side. Fortunately, they survived the accident but Seed, Pi’s younger sister, was not as lucky, and was killed when a boat hit her at the age of 3. Sadly, stories like these are not uncommon, with 1 in 20 dolphins in Sarasota Bay having boat collision scars like those seen on Pi, Pumpkin and Noah.

On May 12, 2026, we documented the third calf of the season. Meet 1655*, shown here with mom, Lily (F165). We first observed Lily as a calf in 1999. Since then, we’ve recorded well over 600 sightings of her. Her own mother, FB75, died during a bad red tide in 2006 after ingesting a fishing lure.

F165’s first calf was born in 2011, but did not survive. Her second, 1652, was born in 2016 and, despite the fact that we observed this calf with shark bites when it was only days old, the calf survived. F165’s third calf, 1653, was born in 2019. In 2023, she gave birth to the first calf of the year, 1654. This year, when we saw her with her newest calf, they were also with 1653 and 1654.

Sadly, we’ve observed F165 several times since our initial observations without her calf, who we now presume is deceased.

On May 18, 2026, we observed Mabel (F197) with her new calf, 1977. 1977 is the fourth calf of 2026.

Mabel was the second calf of a dolphin nicknamed Murphy Brown and she’s also the grandcalf of FB05 — one of the first dolphins catalogued in Sarasota Bay, in 1971. We’ve observed Mabel more than 900 times since her birth in 2003. Today, she’s a mom in her own right:

She had her first calf when she was 9 years old in 2012. That calf, Esther has been sighted more than 600 times since birth and is also a mom to two of her own calves.

  • Mabel’s second calf, Gizmo, was born in 2015 and has been observed more than 350 times.
  • Her third calf, F291, was born in 2017 and has been observed 100 times.
  • Her fourth calf, Ron, has been observed more than 200 times since it was born in 2019..
  • Her fifth calf, 1975, has been observed 100 times since its birth in 2022.
  • Her sixth calf was unfortunately lost in 2024.
  • Her seventh and current calf was first observed on May 21, 2026.

We frequently see Mabel in an area with high boat traffic that includes local recreational boats, rental boats and dolphin tour operations. We encourage all boaters to enjoy dolphins from at least 50 yards away.

  • Click here to learn about dolphin-friendly boating techniques.
  • Click here to visit Mabel’s page and listen to her signature whistle.

We first observed 2234 on June 6, 2026. This dolphin is the calf of Smart head (F233) and the grandcalf of Low 2 (F225). Grandma was first observed in September 2003.Low 2 was an immigrant from Charlotte Harbor, first seen there in 2003. We then observed her in Sarasota Bay in 2007. She continued to move north and was eventually seen as far as the Manatee River. We have not observed her since February 2025, but we don’t know whether she died or continued her northward outside of the range of our regular surveys.

2214 was first observed June 6, 2026. This calf’s mom is Nellie (F221), who is the seventh calf of CD (FB25), first observed in June 1984.

Nellie’s story is an especially interesting one. In 2010, we discovered her with plastic twine and a metal hook tightly wrapped around her head. A team of about 30 people temporarily captured, disentangled and released her on March 1, 2010. She was nicknamed in honor of Dr. Nélio Barros, who was manager of Mote Marine Laboratory’s Stranding Investigations Program between 2000-2006, and a great friend and colleague of the SDRP. He died in 2010.

2214’s birth shows the larger success of Nellie’s rescue, as this is the fourth calf she has given birth to. It shows that interventions to save individuals with life-threatening anthropogenic — human induced — injuries provide benefits not only to the welfare of those individuals, but also to the stability and growth potential of their local populations.

*Note: Not all new calves survive their first year. After repeated sightings of a mother without her offspring, we presume a calf to be deceased.