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Sarasota Dolphin Research Program continued

A BRIEF HISTORY

In the very beginning, Dr. Randy Wells didn’t want and testing of satellite-linked tags; observations of
to study dolphins. He wanted to know more about adverse interactions between dolphins and people, such
sharks. But he was given the opportunity to develop an as illegal feeding situations; and biological assessment of
appreciation for both. As a teenager, Wells began helping concentrations of environmental contaminants in dolphins.
project leader Blair Irvine tag bottlenose dolphins off Research into these areas continues to this day.
Florida’s coast between Tampa Bay and Charlotte Harbor In 2004, Wells and his team expanded the program to
in a first-of-its-kind investigation of where they range. gain an ecological perspective for Sarasota’s dolphins by
In the process, they learned something that no one else investigating the abundance of fish—dolphins’ prey—in
knew: these dolphins display a degree of residency. the Sarasota area, documenting dramatic declines in fish
Irvine and Wells’ research was so important that, populations due to a severe red tide and leading to an
several years later, the newly formed U.S. Marine increase in dolphins turning to people for food.
Mammal Commission funded their program. Together, A year later, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
radio-tracking and multiple sightings of the same Administration began using the Sarasota Bay dolphins as a
individual dolphins led to several discoveries about these reference population by comparing their health parameters
animals: for several years, all year long, they live year- to populations of other dolphins impacted by natural or
round in definable ranges over periods of decades and manmade threats. In subsequent years, research has been
across multiple generations; they swim in groups with a conducted on large-scale impacts of biotoxins in the Florida
frequently changing membership; and males may form Panhandle, PCB concentrations near Brunswick, Georgia,
stable pairs lasting until one of them dies. and oil from the Deepwater Horizon spill off the coasts of
In the late 1970s, program staff began using photo- Louisiana, Alabama, andMississippi.
identification as their main research technique. In Just last year, studies of bottlenose dolphins
the 1980s and 1990s, they defined long-term dolphin around Bermuda involving tagging with
communities living north and south of Sarasota Bay. Life satellite-linked transmitters led to the
history studies commenced in 1984, and these evolved discovery that these animals can
into health assessments by 1988. dive to depths deeper than
The Sarasota Dolphin Research Program 3,000 feet and swim in
became part of the Chicago Zoological ranges that include
Society in 1989, kicking off a new much of the
round of long-term research, Sargasso Sea. █
including the development

28 GATEWAYS | UNDERSTANDING DOLPHINS BY LEAPS AND BOUNDS