Dolphins and Microplastics
Nadine Slimak2024-11-13T13:25:36-04:00Study 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:
Your Support on Giving Tuesday Makes This Possible
Nadine Slimak2022-11-29T14:59:26-04:00Your Support on Giving Tuesday Makes This Possible As people who regularly follow our research and progress know, since 1970, we’ve been working to better understand dolphins and their ecosystem, and sharing the knowledge we've gained locally, statewide, nationally and internationally to help reduce the threats that dolphins worldwide face in the wild.
Tracking Offshore Dolphins During Hurricane Ian
Nadine Slimak2024-06-27T16:00:29-04:00We’ve got some exciting news to share about our ongoing efforts to conduct health assessments of offshore dolphins: In September, we were able to conduct assessments and tag four dolphins over the West Florida Shelf. The SDRP is leading this project, which involves a multi-institution team funded by the Florida RESTORE Act Centers of
Winter Internship with SDRP: Apply Now
Nadine Slimak2022-09-24T11:51:39-04:00Are you a college student studying marine biology, biology, ecology, zoology, wildlife, fisheries, or a related field and interested in learning more about how dolphin research is conducted by participating in the world’s longest running study of a wild dolphin population? We’re now accepting applications for our Winter 2023 Internship Program, which this year
Whistling Away in Sarasota Bay
Nadine Slimak2022-09-02T13:49:27-04:00To record dolphin sounds, we place non-invasive hydrophones mounted on suction cups on a dolphin’s melon (“forehead”) and record the sounds that they make. We’ve been recording dolphin whistles since the 1970s. Today, the Sarasota Dolphin Whistle Database contains 926 recording sessions of 293 individual dolphins; we know the age, sex and
Understanding Animal Residency
Nadine Slimak2022-08-24T13:24:18-04:00What is animal residency and how do we define and measure it? In marine mammal research, residency is often used to describe the place that animals (or groups of animals) occupy in a given geographic space over a long period of time. In fact, the SDRP made the discovery that bottlenose dolphins can form
Identifying Dolphins Throughout the Gulf of Mexico
Nadine Slimak2022-08-17T14:01:15-04:00The CZS-SDRP curates the Gulf of Mexico Dolphin Identification System (GoMDIS), which combines, standardizes, and serves as an online archive for dolphin ID catalogues from groups throughout the Gulf of Mexico — including Mexico and Cuba. This repository allows us to identify dolphins throughout the Gulf and discover changes in ranging patterns or even
Barbed! Stingray Spine Injuries
Nadine Slimak2022-08-12T14:32:29-04:00Did you know that stingrays are dolphin neighbors? They share share shallow seagrass habitat in Sarasota Bay where they forage for food. Dolphins are even occasionally "barbed" by the stingray's venomous spine. These spines can also break off in the dolphins, causing injury or even death. Mote Marine Laboratory's Strandings Investigation Program determined that
Fatty Acid Signatures
Nadine Slimak2022-08-12T14:11:35-04:00If they are what they eat, what are dolphins eating? Thanks to our long-term studies — including seasonal fish surveys — we know what the most common prey fish are in Sarasota Bay dolphin diets. But how do their diets change during events like red tides? SDRP’s Theresa Tatom-Naecker is testing a technique called
