These posts are about health and physiology studies conducted by the SDRP.
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
Dolphins Living Near Urban Coastline Show More Frequent Exposure to Chemicals from Plastics than those in Rural Area New study compared concentrations of endocrine-disrupting compounds between dolphins from Sarasota Bay, Florida, and Barataria Bay, Louisiana Dr. Leslie Hart, Associate Professor at the College of Charleston (left) and Miranda K.
The Sarasota Bay Dolphin Diet May Provide Important Clues to Prevent Diabetes Just like people, some dolphins are susceptible to prediabetes, also called metabolic syndrome. This syndrome includes elevated insulin, glucose, triglycerides, fatty liver disease and associated iron overload. While metabolic syndrome is not a direct cause of death in dolphins, it
¿Los cambios en los patrones climáticos expondrán a los delfines a más sustancias químicas? Un estudio en la bahía de Sarasota, Florida, tiene como objetivo comprender si el exceso de lluvias y las mareas rojas afectan la concentración de contaminantes químicos en los delfines. Desde 2016, el College of
Will Changing Weather Patterns Expose Dolphins to More Chemicals? Sarasota Bay, Florida, study aims to understand whether excess rainfall and red tides impact the concentration of chemical contaminants in dolphins Since 2016, the College of Charleston and its partners at the Sarasota Dolphin Research Program (SDRP) have been studying
Every Breath They Take? New Study Suggests Dolphins are Inhaling Plastics A member of the SDRP research team holds a petri dish over a dolphin's blowhole to collect a breath sample during a health assessment. In a first-of-its-kind study, researchers have detected microplastic particles in the
Study Finds Evidence that Dolphins are Ingesting Microplastics A new study in the peer-reviewed journal Frontiers in Marine Science has found evidence that members of the Sarasota Bay dolphin community are inadvertently ingesting microplastics as part of their diet — a finding that has implications for another long-lived apex predator that eats seafood:
A Dozen Years After the Deepwater Horizon Disaster, We're Still Documenting Impacts to Dolphins April 2022 marks the anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon (DWH) oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. A dozen years after this disastrous event, scientists are still identifying the long-term impacts on the local Barataria Bay
What Happens When Dolphins and Freshwater Mix? Prolonged exposure to freshwater is linked to adverse health conditions, immune deficiencies, and even dolphin deaths, but there’s still a lot we don’t understand. SDRP Post-doctoral Scientist Dr. Christina Toms was conducting photo identification surveys in Pensacola Bay, Florida, as part of an
Exploring Microbiomes The science of understanding microbiomes has received increasing attention over the past few decades, especially in the context of understanding animal health. Microbomes are a collection of microorganisms (bacteria, viruses, fungi, etc.) living together and interacting with each other in an environment. Animals — including humans — have
