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
What do TADpoles have to do with dolphins? Development of a remote Tag Attachment Device The Sarasota Dolphin Research Program has acted as a testbed for the development of many innovative methods to study marine mammals. Since 1975, Sarasota Bay has been used extensively for testing electronic tags, including radio-tags and
¿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
We participated in or led a dozen presentations during the 25th Biennial Conference on the Biology of Marine Mammals hosted by the Society for Marine Mammalogy, the largest global organization of individuals interested in marine mammal research and conservation. The conference, which took place in Perth, Australia, in November 2024, focused on "Culture and
Dolphins Tagged Off the West Florida Shelf We were able to sneak in a day of offshore field work between fronts the week of Dec. 18, 2024. We tagged two Atlantic spotted dolphins off the central west coast of Florida as part of our ongoing testing of our pole-mounted Tag Attachment Device
Paper Provides New Insights on How Microplastics are Moving From Prey to Predator A new research paper based on studies conducted in Sarasota Bay is providing insights on how microplastics are moving from prey to predator — indicating that dolphins are ingesting microplastics contained in the fish they eat and potentially providing
Dolphin ID Catalog Uncovers Life History of Dolphin Recovered on North Florida Beach In July 2024, Gulf World Marine Institute (GWMI) submitted dorsal fin pictures of a deceased bottlenose dolphin they recovered at Panama City Beach to the Gulf of Mexico Dolphin Identification System (GoMDIS), an online archive for dolphin ID catalogs
Oh Baby! Meet the 2024 Sarasota Bay Dolphin Calves! 2075 is the first young-of-the-year (YOY) Sarasota Bay dolphin of 2024! We captured this image on May 7. If you look closely at the calf, you can see stripes between its head and dorsal fin. These wrinkles are called “fetal folds” or “neonatal
Boat Collision Injures Sarasota Bay Dolphin In July 2024, members of the public reported a dolphin with an injured dorsal fin. Subsequent surveys by the Sarasota Dolphin Research Program allowed us to identify the dolphin as F312, an 8-year-old male dolphin born to FB90, also known as “Killer.” Since his birth in
June 2024 Offshore Dolphin Research Update Since 2022, we’ve been conducting health assessments of offshore dolphins to gather data needed to address critical information gaps for the little-known species that regularly inhabit west Florida’s continental shelf waters. In May 2024, we conducted the final field session of our Florida RESTORE Act Centers of
