Name: F197, also known as Mabel

Sex: Female

Born: 2003

Mabel was the second calf of a dolphin nicknamed Murphy Brown and she’s also the grandcalf of FB05 — one of the first dolphins catalogued in Sarasota Bay, in 1971. We’ve observed Mabel more than 900 times since her birth in 2003. Today, she’s a mom in her own right:

• She had her first calf when she was 9 years old in 2012. That calf, Esther has been sighted more than 600 times since birth and is also a mom to two of her own calves.
• Mabel’s second calf, Gizmo, was born in 2015 and has been observed more than 350 times.
• Her third calf, F291, was born in 2017 and has been observed 100 times.
• Her fourth calf, Ron, has been observed more than 200 times since it was born in 2019..
• Her fifth calf, 1975, has been observed 100 times since its birth in 2022.
• Her sixth calf was unfortunately lost in 2024.
• Her seventh and current calf was first observed on May 21, 2026.

We frequently observe Mabel in an area with high boat traffic that includes local recreational boats, rental boats and dolphin tour operations. We encourage all boaters to enjoy dolphins from at least 50 yards away.

Mabel and her seventh calf, 1977, in May 2026.

This picture shows Mabel and her fifth calf. Calf 1975 was the second young-of-the-year (YOY) calf we observed in 2022 in Sarasota Bay.

A Special Note About the Audio Recording

In collaboration with numerous colleagues over the past 35 years, our dolphin communication research team has collected thousands of hours of acoustic recordings from members of the resident Sarasota bottlenose dolphin community, with a focus on individually distinctive signature whistles. Recordings have been made during periodic health assessments, when we are able to obtain high-quality recordings of known individual dolphins. We are currently in the process of systematically assembling a verified signature whistle catalog, with multiple samples from each of the approximately 1,000 unique recording sessions of almost 300 individual dolphins. Members of this collaborative team, and our student researchers, come from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, the University of North Carolina Wilmington, University of St. Andrews, and Hampshire College. Learn more about dolphin communication.