Remembering Ralph Arden On Feb. 6, 2026, we were saddened by the death of our friend and longest-serving volunteer, Ralph Arden, after an extended battle with cancer. Ralph first engaged with the SDRP as a volunteer in 1975, by way of being one of my college roommates and a sailing buddy. Ralph (pictured
A team uses a seine net to capture fish in Sarasota Bay. The fish are released after they are catalogued as part of our prey fish studies, which began in 2004. Notes from the Lab and Field: Prey Fish Surveys Help Us Understand Dolphins Did you know that
A Nighttime Rescue in Crystal River Capt. Justin Dymond of Florida Bowfishing Adventures in Crystal River contacted Clearwater Marine Aquarium (CMA) in December to report that a dolphin he had been seeing regularly during his nighttime bow-and-arrow fishing charters had line wrapped around its tail fluke. Dymond uses a bright
Notes from the Lab and Field: 2025 Dolphin Community Update January 2026 Happy New Year! A new year begins, and we have been able to conduct the first of our Sarasota Bay monthly dolphin surveys under excellent conditions, before the arrival of a series of cold fronts with strong winds. I’m pleased to
Notes from the Lab and Field In September, we were once again over the West Florida Shelf tagging dolphins. This one, an Atlantic spotted dolphin nicknamed “Patty,” was seen the next day with a somewhat smaller dolphin that was acting like it might be her calf. In May 2022, we initiated
Coming to the Aid of Dolphin Calves Near Clearwater Things got scary for two dolphin calves off Clearwater before Halloween, when staff from Clearwater Marine Aquarium (CMA) received reports about and observed two dolphins in the area they monitor entangled in fishing line. After getting permission from the National Marine Fisheries Service, we mounted
Meet the 2025 Sarasota Bay Dolphin Calves! Calf 2134, pictured above with mom F213, was the first Sarasota Bay calf documented in 2025. 2134's mom, also known as Maddie, was born in 2007 to FB55, who is part of a life-long and well-known female lineage in Sarasota Bay. FB55 is the third
Help Wild Dolphins and Other Marine Life by Reducing Plastics and Phthalates in Your Life More than 170 trillion plastic particles end up in our oceans annually where they impact marine life in a variety of negative ways. Animals can mistake plastics for their traditional food sources and eat it — think
TADpole Breaks New Ground in Spinner Dolphin Studies During field work in O'ahu, Hawaii in earlier this summer (2025), SDRP collaborated with Robin Baird of Cascadia Research Collective to deploy satellite-linked tags on spinner dolphins. This was the first time this species has been tracked with satellite-linked tags — a feat made
A Tribute to James A. “Buddy” Powell, Ph.D. We lost a wonderful friend and colleague, and the world has lost a conservation hero with the death of Buddy Powell early on July 19 from cancer. Buddy was a pioneer in manatee research and conservation, whose work led to protected spaces
