A team uses a seine net to capture fish in Sarasota Bay. The fish are released after they are catalogued as part of our prey fish studies, which began in 2004.

Notes from the Lab and Field: Prey Fish Surveys Help Us Understand Dolphins

Did you know that understanding dolphins and their behavior also means studying other species? In addition to studying the sharks of Sarasota Bay and their interactions with the dolphin community, we also conduct seasonal purse-seine catch-and-release fish surveys that help us gain an understanding of the relative abundance of fish in Sarasota Bay and how that abundance impacts dolphins.

We’ve been conducting seasonal prey fish surveys across Sarasota Bay’s shallow seagrass meadows since 2004. In a study led by Elizabeth Berens McCabe, we conduct 10 seine-net sets per month during January-March and 10 per month during June-September. Fish are brought aboard, identified by species, measured and then released alive.

During our January surveys, initial catches indicate typical bay-wide abundances, with sets averaging 125.4 total fish and 95.2 dolphin-prey fish per set. Notably, January’s mean catch was the highest for any January in the past three years. Catches spanned a diverse range of species and sizes: of 1,254 fish examined, 75.9% were identified as dolphin prey, driven largely by high numbers of pinfish (906 individuals). Winter cold fronts and abundant drift algae may have influenced January’s totals.

February’s fish abundance increased by 54.7% month-over-month, with catches averaging 194.2 total fish per set and 160.2 dolphin-prey fish per set. This marks the second-highest February mean catch recorded over the past six years. Of the 1,942 fish captured during the month, 82.4% were identified as dolphin prey — driven largely by pinfish (1,441 individuals). Overall, catches included 33 species and a wide range of size classes. The next round of fish surveys is scheduled for March.

Now in its 23rd year, the dolphin prey fish survey program is supported by the Charles and Margery Barancik Foundation.

While conducting the prey surveys, we also gather environmental measurements, including water temperature, depth and salinity and dissolved oxygen, as well as a water sample to check for concentrations of Karenia brevis, the phytoplankton that causes Florida red tide. All of these environmental parameters can impact fish abundance, which in-turn impacts the dolphin community.

• You can read more about what happens when the prey community changes in this story.

A Nighttime Rescue in Crystal River

Capt. Justin Dymond of Florida Bowfishing Adventures in Crystal River contacted Clearwater Marine Aquarium (CMA) in December to report that a dolphin he had been seeing regularly during his nighttime bow-and-arrow fishing charters had line wrapped around its tail fluke. Dymond uses a bright light to attract fish during these charters and a group of dolphins regularly follows his boat for hours, appearing to fish cooperatively with him and often swimming right in front of the bow of his boat.

Personnel from the National Marine Fisheries Service, the federal agency responsible for overseeing the stewardship of marine mammals in U.S. waters, determined that a remote disentanglement attempt would be appropriate and asked the Sarasota Dolphin Research Program to help.

On the evening of Jan. 23, 2026, SDRP Field Manager and Senior Researcher Aaron Barleycorn and a team from CMA and the University of Florida joined Dymond to attempt to remove the gear remotely from the free-swimming dolphin. Using a long-handled cutting tool, Aaron was able to cut two of the three wraps around where the tail stock meets the fluke, but could not completely remove the gear.

After the cuts were made, the dolphin stayed near the boat, but would not come close enough for the team to make another attempt. The team spent several more hours trying to remove the gear with no success and ended the rescue effort around 10 p.m. The team hoped that they had cut enough of the gear to allow the rest to fall off on its own.

On Feb. 13, CMA staff joined Dymond on a charter, locating the dolphin — CMA2514 — and were delighted to see that the rest of the gear had indeed fallen off! The dolphin appeared to be in good body condition and was behaving normally and CMA will continue to monitor the dolphin in the future. Special thanks to Capt. Dymond for alerting CMA, allowing this dolphin to be freed from entangling line.

We know that one of the main causes of dolphin deaths is related to human actions, with fishing gear entanglement, hooking, or ingestion being the most frequent causes of mortality. Please be dolphin safe! Follow these tips to help keep dolphins healthy:

• Reel in your fishing line if dolphins appear.
• Change locations if dolphins show interest in bait or catch.
• Don’t feed dolphins – it is illegal and trains the dolphins to engage in dangerous behaviors.
• Release catch quietly away from dolphins when and where it is possible to do so without violating any state or federal fishing regulations.
• Check gear and terminal tackle to make sure it won’t break off easily and, if your line does break, be sure to collect anything left behind in mangroves or on docks.
• Use circle and corrodible hooks and don’t use braided fishing line.
• Stay at least 50 yards away from dolphins.
• Stash your trash in a lidded container on your boat until you can get to shore and dispose of it safely in a place where it will not blow back into the water.

Click here to learn more about dolphin-safe fishing

CMA2514 shown here free of the entangling gear.

Notes from the Lab and Field: 2025 Dolphin Community Update

January 2026

Happy New Year! A new year begins, and we have been able to conduct the first of our Sarasota Bay monthly dolphin surveys under excellent conditions, before the arrival of a series of cold fronts with strong winds.

I’m pleased to report that we closed out 2025 with our field teams identifying 90% of the Sarasota dolphin community members in November/December and that, overall during 2025, we documented all of the expected residents. In 2025, we observed a near-record 20 calves born to Sarasota dolphins. Our sightings in November/December included observations of 12 of the 14 remaining 2025 calves, all eight remaining yearlings (born in 2024), and seven of the nine 40-or-older community members. Plus: we observed the two young dolphins we disentangled in 2024 in November/December, and they are doing well.

But 2025 wasn’t all good news for Sarasota Bay dolphins. We lost two male dolphins due to vessel strikes. One was 6-year-old C33A, who died of blunt force trauma likely caused by a boat. The second was F266, also known as “Yogurt,” an 18-year-old who was recovered with extensive deep propeller wounds. The necropsy (animal autopsy) showed that Yogurt had been otherwise healthy. His is an especially troubling case because he is a son of Vespa, part of a lineage well-known to engage in risky interactions with humans such as “patrolling” by fishing boats, waiting for caught or released fish. Two of his younger siblings also died from human-related causes, including entanglement in fishing line and a net. (Watch the video below to learn more about Vespa and her offspring.)

Over the years, we’ve repeatedly seen a variety of interactions with humans that lead to bad outcomes, including:

• Provisioning: Intentionally providing bait, catch, or other items to a dolphin.
• Scavenging: Dolphins take fish or bait discarded by anglers in boats or on piers, when the angler did not intend to feed the dolphin. Instead of eating wild-caught prey, dolphins develop the bad habit of approaching humans.
• Depredation: Dolphins remove caught-fish or bait from fishing lines. This puts the dolphin too close to hook(s) and can lead to the dolphins getting hooked or injured themselves.
• Entangling, ingestion, and hooking: Dolphins can ingest, become entangled in, or hooked by active or discarded fishing gear and line. Entanglements can restrict their movements, ability to fish or escape predators. Entangling lines often cut deeply into the relatively soft tissues of the dolphin’s mouth, fins, and tail, leading to lesions, infection, amputations, and even death. Multi-filament braided fishing line is strong, razor sharp, shaped like a saw blade, and especially harmful.

We know from our five-plus decades of research that dolphin moms pass feeding strategies down to their offspring. If mom has developed a habit of seeking handouts from humans, then it’s more likely her offspring will learn these behaviors, which put them more at risk of injury and/or death.

The only way to lessen the risk is for dolphins’ human neighbors — us — to be more thoughtful on the water. Over the years, we’ve compiled a few simple tips that we offer to help anglers protect our finned neighbors. We ask that you take them to heart and please share them with your friends and human neighbors. A healthy dolphin community depends on you!

Here’s to fair winds, following seas and more dolphin-safe fishing in 2026!

Randy Wells

Conservation Tips for Dolphin-Safe Fishing

• Never feed wild dolphins or discard bait when dolphins are nearby. Feeding dolphins is illegal under the federal Marine Mammal Protection Act.
• Reel in your fishing line if dolphins appear. Relax and enjoy the show until they depart.
• Change locations if dolphins show interest in bait or catch.
• Release catch quietly away from dolphins when and where it is possible to do so without violating any state or federal fishing regulations.
• Check gear and terminal tackle to make sure it won’t break off easily and, if your line does break, be sure to collect anything left behind in mangroves or on docks.
• Use circle and corrodible hooks and avoid braided fishing line.
• Stay at least 50 yards away from dolphins.
• Stash your trash in a lidded container on your boat until you can get to shore and dispose of it safely in a place where it will not blow back into the water. (An old tennis-ball can with a lid is perfect for stashing used line until you return to shore.)

Notes from the Lab and Field

In September, we were once again over the West Florida Shelf tagging dolphins. This one, an Atlantic spotted dolphin nicknamed “Patty,” was seen the next day with a somewhat smaller dolphin that was acting like it might be her calf.

In May 2022, we initiated studies of dolphins inhabiting the waters over the West Florida Shelf, offshore of Sarasota. With support from the Florida RESTORE Act Centers of Excellence grant program, our team hoop-netted bow-riding dolphins of three species. The animals were brought aboard a floating mat or onto the afterdeck and we performed veterinary examinations and sampling, and tagged them with satellite-linked transmitters to provide location and dive data, as well as short-term digital archival tags that would provide more detailed behavioral and acoustic data, and then released them.

In September 2025, we again worked offshore, building on our previous work. Our goals were to:

• Increase our sample sizes for health and movement data of dolphins over the West Florida Shelf;
• Test a novel suction-cup-mounted camera tag developed by Dr. Jeremy Kiszka, Associate Professor at Florida International University (FIU);
• Try a new hoop-netting capture approach.

With support from Mote Scientific Foundation and FIU/Fahlo, we conducted an offshore tagging and health assessment project, experimenting with techniques to streamline our operations and reduce expenses. We used a smaller, faster, less expensive boat and a smaller team and focused on shorter handling and quick tagging instead of the more extensive health assessments. Fortunately, we had near-perfect conditions offshore, and the new approach worked well with Atlantic spotted dolphins (we had previously successfully used our TADpole to tag dolphins from this boat).

After examining the dolphins, we tagged them with satellite-linked transmitters. We also deployed FIU’s camera tags on two of the dolphins and successfully tracked and recovered the small floating tags the following day more than 50 miles from our dock. Both tags successfully recorded video and behavioral data (still being processed). This was the first time these cameras have been used on dolphins. (Click here to read more about some of the tools and techniques we’ve developed and/or tested over the years in dolphin studies.)

To date, we’ve now successfully caught, sampled and tagged 15 dolphins over the West Florida Shelf using hoop nets and have used the TADpole to tag another eight dolphins.

Atlantic spotted dolphin nicknamed “Buddy” wearing an orange camera tag as well as a Finmount satellite-linked tag. The camera tag developed by FIU automatically released from the dolphin and was retrieved the next day.

The September Dolphins and Their Travels

The map below shows the locations for dolphins tagged by the Sarasota Dolphin Research Program with satellite-linked transmitters through Oct. 10, 2025, during tagging, health assessment, and FIU camera tag deployments over the West Florida Shelf offshore of Sarasota, Florida. The largest dot at one end of each animal’s line is the most recent location along with its tag ID; only the highest-quality locations are shown. From north to south, the dolphins are Patty, Denise and Buddy.

• ID PTT 286483 (SfG018, Buddy) — Atlantic spotted dolphin, Stenella frontalis, 186 cm male, tagged on 24Sep25, 77 km off North Captiva Island, in waters 35 m deep. This dolphin was named in honor of Dr. Buddy Powell, an amazing conservationist and manatee researcher, whom we lost this summer.
• PTT 286485 (SfG011, Denise) — Atlantic spotted dolphin, Stenella frontalis, 205 cm female, tagged on 24Sep25, 81 km off Captiva Island, in waters 37 m deep. This dolphin was named in honor of Dr. Denise Herzing, the pioneering Atlantic spotted dolphin researcher who also provides us with age estimates for our tagged dolphins.
• PTT 286481 (SfG013, Patty) — Atlantic spotted dolphin, Stenella frontalis, 201 cm female, tagged on 25Sep25, 65 km off Casey Key, in waters 35 m deep. This dolphin was named in honor of recently retired NMFS geneticist Dr. Patty Rosel, who did much to define stocks of dolphins and other cetaceans in the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic Ocean.

Coming to the Aid of Dolphin Calves Near Clearwater

Things got scary for two dolphin calves off Clearwater before Halloween, when staff from Clearwater Marine Aquarium (CMA) received reports about and observed two dolphins in the area they monitor entangled in fishing line. After getting permission from the National Marine Fisheries Service, we mounted a rescue attempt with CMA staff on Nov. 6 to see if we could use a long-handled tool to remotely disentangle the free-swimming dolphins.

CMA2510 is a dependent calf first observed with the entanglement on Oct. 9. Recreational fishing line was wrapped near the base of its dorsal fin and embedded in the leading edge of the fin with a trailing mass that included a strand of line extending behind its flukes. The mass collected more gear and algae over the next few weeks, adding to the drag and cutting deeper into the calf’s dorsal fin.

The second calf, CMA2512, was first observed Oct. 28 with blue and white multi-filament line wrapped tightly around its dorsal fin, embedding in both the leading and trailing edges of the fin with a mass of gear trailing less than a foot behind the fin.

The disentanglement team, including SDRP staff members Aaron Barleycorn and Jason Allen who unfortunately have a great deal of experience with remote disentanglements, left the dock around 10 a.m. The team located the first calf, CMA2510, at Prickly Pear Point near Belleair Bluffs, where its mom was feeding along a seawall. The team followed the pair and made several attempts to get close enough to cut the gear. Finally, around 1:10 p.m. CMA2510 surfaced near the bow of the boat and they were able to hook the gear at the base of the trailing edge of the dorsal fin, using the tool to cut through the line and pull it off the calf. Just as they were taking photos to confirm all of the line had been removed, a local tour boat operator called in a report with CMA2512’s location.

CMA2512 was with its mom and another mom/calf pair. Overcast skies made it difficult to pick out individuals dolphin below the surface and, when they surfaced, they were just beyond reach. The team made contact on two attempts to disentangle the dolphin, but the gear was wrapped so tight on its fin that the tool could not get under it to cut the line. By 3:15 p.m. visibility was poor and the animals even more evasive, so the team headed home without success.

CMA will continue to monitor both animals, with the hope that CMA2512 sheds the gear on its own.

These entanglements truly are scary — especially because we know that they can be prevented.

Based on research with the Sarasota Bay dolphin community, we know that one of the main causes of dolphin deaths is related to human actions, with fishing gear entanglement, hooking, or ingestion being the most frequent causes of mortality among our dolphins, accounting for 20% of all deaths where cause was identifiable. Please be dolphin safe! Follow these tips to help keep dolphins, especially naïve calves, healthy:

• Reel in your fishing line if dolphins appear.
• Change locations if dolphins show interest in bait or catch.
• Don’t feed dolphins – it is illegal and trains the dolphins to engage in dangerous behaviors.
• Release catch quietly away from dolphins when and where it is possible to do so without violating any state or federal fishing regulations.
• Check gear and terminal tackle to make sure it won’t break off easily and, if your line does break, be sure to collect anything left behind in mangroves or on docks.
• Use circle and corrodible hooks and don’t use braided fishing line.
• Stay at least 50 yards away from dolphins.
• Stash your trash in a lidded container on your boat until you can get to shore and dispose of it safely in a place where it will not blow back into the water.

CMA2510 after gear removal.

Meet the 2025 Sarasota Bay Dolphin Calves!

Calf 2134, pictured above with mom F213, was the first Sarasota Bay calf documented in 2025. 2134’s mom, also known as Maddie, was born in 2007 to FB55, who is part of a life-long and well-known female lineage in Sarasota Bay. FB55 is the third calf of a dolphin known as FB05, who was first identified in 1971, the year after the SDRP began.

Maddie had her first calf, now known as F308, in 206; her second, F320 in 2019; her third calf, 2133, in 2022 and now, 2134, in 2025.

We regularly observe Maddie during our monthly photo identification surveys and she is known to frequent an area near New College of Florida, where we have installed a Passive Acoustic Listening Station as part of our PALS network. (Read more about the network.) Thanks to PALS, we’ve been able to match recordings that we have of Maddie’s vocalizations to sounds picked up on our receiver — helping us track dolphin movements even when we aren’t on the water! If you’re interested in hearing Maddie’s signature whistle, head over to her page in our “Meet the Dolphins” section.

2025 Dolphin Calves

1258, first observed May 20. Calf of F125 (Little Orphan’s Annie) and grandcalf of F119 (Bobby Jo). Great-grandcalf of FB37 (Daisy) and great-great-grandcalf of FB43 (Cathy). Five generations! Cathy’s first sighting was in July 1976.

1795* was first observed May 23. Calf of F179 and grandcalf of FB11 (Merrily). 1795 is the great-grandcalf of FB19 (Granny). FB19 was first observed in May 1976.

8741 was first observed May 19. This is C874’s first calf. 8741 is the grandcalf of FB87 (Square Notch), whose first sighting was in September 1980.

HK34 was first observed on May 19. This is the first calf of HWK3 and the grandcalf of F237 (Hawk). F237’s first sighting was in September 1988.

SAL1* was first observed on June 11 and is the first calf of C115 (Sally). SAL1 is the grandcalf of FB11 (Merrily) and great-grandcalf of FB19 (Granny), who we first observed in May 1976.

2592 was first observed on June 16 and is the calf of F259 (Zoey). 2592 is the grandcalf of FB33 (Saida Beth) and great-grandcalf of FB51 (Melba). We first observed FB51 in August 1975.

2852* was first observed on June 20 and is the calf of F285. 2852 is the grandcalf of F175 and great-grandcalf of FB75 (Pup). We first observed FB75 in May 1982.

DB21 was first observed June 20 and is the first calf of DAB2 and grandcalf of DABL (Dabloon). We first observed DABL in July 2004.

2173* was first observed July 01 and is the calf of F217 and the grandcalf of F141 (Big Shout). F141 was first observed in September 1992.

6741* was first observed on Aug. 01. 6741 is the first calf of 1674 and grandcalf of F167, who was first observed in May 2000.

LDY1 was first observed Aug. 05 and is the first calf of C655 (Lady). LDY1 is the grandcalf of FB65 and great-grandcalf of FB67. We first observed FB67 in April 1992.

2391 was first observed on Aug. 06. 2391 is the first calf of F239 and the grandcalf of F237 (Hawk). We first observed F237 in September 1988.

2472 was first observed on Aug. 07. 2472 is the second calf of F247, the grandcalf of F175 and the great-grandcalf of FB75 (Pup). We first observed FB75 in May 1982.

2531 was first observed on Aug. 13. 2531 is the first calf of F253, the grandcalf of F251 and the great-grandcalf of MDNK (Midnick). We first observed MDNK in June 1993.

2772 was first observed on Aug. 14. 2772 is the second calf of F277 and the grandcalf of FB79 (Vespa). We first observed Vespa in June 1985.

2155 was first observed on Sept. 4. 2155 is the fifth calf of F215 and the grandcalf of FB99. We first observed FB99 in September 1989.

2334 was first observed on Oct. 14. 2334 is the fourth calf of F233, the grandcalf of F159 (Aya), the great-grandcalf of F131 (Claire), the great-great-grandcalf of FB59 (Genie) and the great-great-great-grandcalf of FB19 (Granny). Six generations! We first observed FB19 in May 1976.

This is SKE3, who we first observed on Oct. 27. Mom is 1092, also known as Skeeter. SKE3 is the grandcalf of F109, also known as Scooter, and the great-grandcalf of FB79, Vespa, who had given birth to 11 calves over her 43 years. Sadly, Vespa and many of the dolphins in her lineage exhibit unhealthy behaviors like stalking boats, bridges and piers looking for handouts from humans. By the way, that “lump” on SKE3’s back is a splash of water caught at a shutter speed of 1/1250th of a second!

*Not all new calves survive their first year. Five of the calves born in 2025 are presumed to be dead, following repeated sightings of their mothers without them. They are calves 6741, SAL1, 1795, 2173, 2852. Because the carcasses of these calves are rarely recovered, it is difficult to know cause of death.

Help Wild Dolphins and Other Marine Life by Reducing Plastics and Phthalates in Your Life

More than 170 trillion plastic particles end up in our oceans annually where they impact marine life in a variety of negative ways. Animals can mistake plastics for their traditional food sources and eat it — think of plastic bags that look like jellyfish. They can also become entangled in things like discarded fishing line and, if particles are small enough, animals can even inhale them.

As the plastics break down in the environment, the chemicals they release — called phthalates — may do even more harm.

The good news is that you can help by reducing your use of plastics!

A simple web search turns up a lot of great resources where you can find tips for reducing plastic usage in your own home. (Here’s one from the EPA and another from the Plastic Pollution Coalition.) There are also sites where you can learn more about reducing your use of products containing phthalates (like this one and this one.)

In the meantime, here are a few tips to get you started!

Read More

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 possible thanks to our TADpole, the pole-mounted Tag Attachment Device that we developed in partnership with Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

We’ve been successfully using the TADpole to tag free-swimming Atlantic spotted dolphins offshore of Florida’s west coast and our most recent work in Hawaii shows that this tool can be used to successfully and safely deploy tags on a different species — one that is quite acrobatic and fragile — and be used by different taggers on various boats to deploy a variety of tags. These most recent TADpole tests demonstrate its utility as a field conservation tool and takes us beyond prototype testing.

Thanks to the TADpole and satellite telemetry advances, we’re now able to address questions related to spinner dolphin movements around and among the Hawaiian islands, including inshore and offshore movements, diving behaviors and questions that remained from our groundbreaking research under Dr. Ken Norris on spinner dolphins off the Island of Hawai’i 45 years ago.

The tags we deployed (with support from Dolphin Quest) on nine dolphins off the west coast of O’ahu have provided some initial findings, including that most of the dolphins stayed around the O’ahu coast, though two traveled briefly to Moloka’i,and that the dolphins are making nighttime feeding dives to 900 feet and staying down for more than nine minutes.

The map shows the cumulative movements of nine Hawaiian spinner dolphins tagged in June off O’ahu. The tracks run from tagging through July 21, 2025.