SDRP Leader Receives Lifetime Achievement Award We're proud to offer congratulations to one of our own: Dr. Randy Wells, Vice President of Marine Mammal Conservation at the Chicago Zoological Society and director of the Sarasota Dolphin Research Program. Dr. Wells received the Kenneth S. Norris Lifetime Achievement Award from the
A Risky Dolphin Rescue Near Clearwater Beach, Florida —Notes from the Field from SDRP Director Dr. Randy Wells This month (January 2022), we were asked by NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) to lead a risky rescue: A dolphin living to our north near Clearwater monitored by the Clearwater
SDRP staff includes (top row, in the tower) Jonathan Crossman, Dr. Katie McHugh; (middle row) Kim Bassos-Hull, Aaron Barleycorn, Dr. Krystan Wilkinson; (bottom row) Jason Allen, Dr. Randy Wells and Dr. Christina Toms, with interns Jessica Barrios, Leticia Megpali Estevão and Amy Cabeceiras. CZS's Sarasota Dolphin Research Program Earns Disney Conservation Hero Award
Evaluating the costs and benefits of intervening when dolphins face life threatening entanglements Some of the most popular stories we tell are about the successful rescues we’ve undertaken to save wild dolphins with life-threatening injuries from entanglement in fishing gear or other types of debris. Social media posts about these
When we began thinking about ways to celebrate our milestone 50th year, our initial plans called for an in-person symposium focused on our dolphin research and the achievements that we, along with our research partners and colleagues, have made over the past five decades. Though we still hope to make that happen in 2021, when
On Oct. 3, 1970, researcher Blair Irvine attached the first tags on Sarasota bottlenose dolphins, beginning what would become the world’s longest-running study of a wild dolphin population — today known as the Chicago Zoological Society’s Sarasota Dolphin Research Program. On that day, Blair attached plastic tags to the dorsal fins of a pair of
The mission of the Chicago Zoological Society is “to inspire conservation leadership by engaging people and communities with wildlife and nature.”
