Episode 29: What Dolphins Are Telling Us About the Indian River Lagoon’s Recovery

Jessy:

Hello everyone, and welcome to One Lagoon One Voice, the podcast from the Indian River Lagoon National Estuary Program, where we talk all things lagoon with smart people doing great work in the Indian River Lagoon. I am Jessy Wayles, community engagement coordinator for the IRLNEP, and your host for this episode.

Who doesn’t love seeing dolphins in the wild? Even after all the years I’ve spent on the water, I still stop and smile every time one surfaces nearby. But as much as I enjoy seeing them, I didn’t realize that I actually don’t know too much about dolphins that call the Indian River Lagoon home. So that’s exactly what we’re diving into today.

Joining us is a guest who will answer some of the most common questions about these amazing animals, like what species of dolphins actually live in the lagoon? How many are there? Are they different from the dolphins we se in the Atlantic? What have you learned about what they’re doing? And if you could be a dolphin for a day, what would you do? We’ll cover all of that and more, so stay tuned and let’s get started.

Jessy:

So here today to talk about dolphins is Wendy Noke, senior research scientist with Hubbs-SeaWorld Research Institute. Welcome, Wendy.

Wendy:

Thank you so much for having me, Jessy. I’m so excited to be here.

Jessy:

So can you tell us a little bit about yourself, who you work for, who you work with, and your role at Hubbs-SeaWorld Research Institution?

Wendy:

Sure, of course. So I’m a senior research scientist with Hubbs-SeaWorld Research Institute, and I oversee our Marine Mammal Research and Rescue Program.

Jessy:

Awesome.

Wendy:

And that includes our stranding program. So we respond to whales and dolphins along about 40% of the East Coast of Florida. We’re pretty busy. We’re one of the busiest programs in the State of Florida, so we get about 70 animals each year. And then we have a dolphin population biology program that’s really focused on abundance, health distribution of dolphins that reside in the Indian River Lagoon.

Jessy:

Excellent. That’s super cool.

Wendy:

Thank you.

Jessy:

I love dolphins. I always have since I was a kid, but what drew you originally to dolphins?

Wendy:

I don’t know. I think I’ve always just kind of been captivated by dolphins ever since I was a kid. I moved to Florida as a young child, and I spent a lot of time on the Indian River Lagoon where I was seeing dolphins. And I just was amazed by how smart they were and how social the animals were. And for most of my life, I just wanted to study them. So I feel fortunate to have made it here.

Jessy:

Oh, absolutely. It’s definitely a dream job for any budding marine biologist out there. So how long have you been working with dolphins in the Indian River Lagoon? Has it been since middle school when you were going out there, volunteering, high school? What are we looking at?

Wendy:

It would’ve had to been middle school because it’s been 28 years. No, it was a while, almost a few decades. For a long time. I started studying them when I was in college. My master’s project focused on dolphins in the Indian River Lagoon, and I’ve been studying them ever since.

Jessy:

I know that whenever we talk about dolphins in the lagoon, your name always comes up. So you are known as the leading dolphin researcher of the lagoon, which I think is super cool.

Wendy:

Oh, thank you. That’s super sweet.

Jessy:

I do want to learn a little bit more about the dolphins in the Indian River Lagoon because I know that they’re kind of unique to dolphins that we necessarily see out in the ocean. So can you tell me, the dolphins that we see in the lagoon, are they the same species as the dolphins out in the Atlantic? Are they a different species? How does that work?

Wendy:

Oh gosh, that’s very tricky. Currently it’s very tricky, but in prior years it had not been tricky. The dolphins in the Indian River Lagoon currently are considered just common bottlenose dolphins, but there are dolphins that reside out in the ocean that are a different ecotype. So the dolphins that live in deep waters out in the ocean, they’re larger. They’re genetically distinct from Indian River Lagoon dolphins, and they will incorporate squid into their diet. Whereas Indian River Lagoon dolphins are smaller, they’re primarily feeding on fish, and they’re really accustomed to shallow habitats versus these animals that inhabit really deep habitats and are adapted for deep diving.

Jessy:

Okay. So same species as the dolphins out in the Atlantic, but a different ecotype. So a little bit smaller. Interesting. Very cool.

Jessy:

So if a visitor were to come down to Florida, and they rent an awesome beachside condo and they see dolphins out in the ocean off the shore, those are not the same dolphins that they are seeing in the lagoon, right? The ones in the lagoon, are they year-round residents? Are they moving in and out of the inlets? How does that work?

Wendy:

So Indian River Lagoon dolphins are actually considered year-round residents. So they will, for the most part, live their lives within a relatively small area of the Indian River Lagoon. That being said, we have witnessed them going out into the ocean. We’ve put satellite telemetry tags on animals and watched from afar as they travel out into the ocean for short time periods.

So Indian River Lagoon dolphins, while they are resident to the Indian River Lagoon, they can spend a small amount of time out in the ocean. So to answer your question, you couldn’t be 100% sure, but for the most part, yeah, the dolphins in the ocean are not going to be the same individuals that live in the lagoon year-round.

Jessy:

They like to travel and go on vacation just like we do. So they just want to see different scenery. I like it. So as we know, the Indian River Lagoon has three main bodies of water. We have the Mosquito Lagoon, the Indian River Lagoon Proper, and the Banana River. Are the dolphins that we’re seeing in Mosquito Lagoon moving down through the Banana River system down into the IRL system, or do they really stick to their favorite territories? And how wide is their footprint on average?

Wendy:

So Indian River Lagoon dolphins, dolphins that are in Mosquito Lagoon, they’re really a little bit separated out from the ones that are in the Northern Indian River and the Banana River. Those animals will move around a little bit. They’ll even move around to what we’re going to call the North Central Indian River. So there’s some movement there. But Mosquito Lagoon dolphins, for the most part, those animals stay within the Mosquito Lagoon. Only about maybe 10% of them are going to be moving outside, going into, for example, the Northern Indian River.

They may also traverse into other estuarine systems. So if you go a little bit north of Ponce Inlet, depending on who you talk to, that might be considered not the Indian River Lagoon anymore. I know IRLNEP recognizes it as part of the Indian River Lagoon.

Jessy:

For management purposes. Yeah.

Wendy:

No, they do. The Indian River Lagoon dolphins will move into the Halifax River. They’ll even travel a little bit further north. But for the most part, they’re going to have a pretty small home range, a linear home range, that could be over a short term anywhere from eight miles to 17 miles. So pretty small. Yeah. And they’ll stay there for most of their life.

Jessy:

So I know that, since they are residents, on average, how many dolphins do we have living in this population within the IRL system? And how can you tell them apart? Dolphins all kind of look the same to me. Some are bigger, some are smaller. But how are you able to tell them apart to be able to count them all?

Wendy:

Yeah, so there’s actually about 1,000 dolphins that live within the Indian River Lagoon. And the primary way that we can tell them apart is by markings on their dorsal fin. So markings that are on the front side of their dorsal fin or on the back side of the dorsal fin, we can follow these little marks throughout their entire lifespan, and that’s how we’re able to tell individuals apart.

Jessy:

So if I were to rent a boat and head out onto the IRL to go looking for these distinct dolphins, what should I do if I happen to encounter one?

Wendy:

Well, I mean, I think they’re really cool, so you’ll be excited to see a dolphin. Give them a little bit of space. I think sometimes people really want to interact with them. They want to get close to them. They want to drive their boat really near to them, or maybe do things that are even crazier, like get in the water with them.

But they are protected by the Marine Mammal Protection Act. And so the federal guidelines actually suggest giving them at least 50 yards. Because as you get closer, that would be considered harassment. And it’s prohibited just because it can disrupt their social activities, it could separate moms and calves, and it can ultimately put the animals at risk.

And so enjoy them from a distance. And if they happen to come to you, and sometimes they do, they want to ride on your boat and you’re minding your own business, but they’re coming alongside your boat, they’re riding on your bow. Just make sure you’re not making any rash changes in your direction or speed that could put them at risk.

Jessy:

So it does seem like they are naturally curious about people. I have seen them come up to our boat. They like to ride in the boat wake and everything. How intelligent are bottlenose dolphins?

Wendy:

I think that they are very intelligent. They have really large brains compared to their body size. And so they also have sophisticated communication and they have long-term social relationships that exhibit intelligence. It’s hard to compare intelligence across different species, but they are considered one of the most intelligent mammals.

Jessy:

So you’re a dolphin for the day. You’re out there, you’re swimming. Let’s say it’s a pretty day out. It’s a nice day. It’s got some breeze, it’s sunshiny, the fish are flowing. What does a typical day look like for a dolphin? What are you eating? What are you doing? If you have a calf, how long are you caring for it? That kind of thing.

Wendy:

Okay, sure. We’ve actually spent a lot of time looking at dolphins. At one point we had radio tags, so a little tag that makes a beeping noise. And so we could go out and find the dolphins and actually check on that question, exactly that. What they doing all day long?

They spend most of their time either traveling or foraging with a little bit less time socializing. That can change from day to day. If there’s large groups, they might be socializing a lot. We notice that young calves will spend a lot more time playing. So they’ll play with inanimate objects like mangrove propagule, they’ll play with seagrass, they’ll play with cannonball jellyfish. We’ve seen them play with fish. I’ve seen them throw spotted eagle rays. They’ll literally play with anything they can get their little teeth on. So calves will spend a lot more time playing than adults do.

As far as what they’re eating, dolphins in the lagoon primarily eat fish. For a long time it was known that their most favorite fish was spotted sea trout, but they eat all kinds. They can eat mullet, croaker, toadfish, pig and pinfish, ladyfish. And their diet can vary depending on what’s available to them. So that might change. If any of those species are low, they might start eating other different kinds of fish.

Jessy:

So sushi for days is what I’m hearing.

Wendy:

Right. Yes.

Jessy:

So maybe I do want to come back as a dolphin in the next life because I really do enjoy sushi.

Wendy:

I’m like, I do not, but I would love to be a dolphin still.

Jessy:

So obviously if they’re intelligent creatures and they like to socialize, they must have different personalities. Does any of that really come out when you’re out there on the boat researching them, looking for specific dolphins? I know that you identify them based on your dorsal, but can you also see it and be like, “Oh, that’s totally a Bertha thing to do”?

Wendy:

Yeah, I think that’s true. I mean, I think they do have personalities, and I think maybe that’s one of the most rewarding parts about having a long-term research project is you get to know these individuals. So some of them are super curious, and some of them are really social or some of them might spend more time by themselves, but it’s interesting to see the personalities come out.

Jessy:

Have you ever encountered a specific dolphin that has stood out from the rest of them? Do you have a favorite dolphin? We won’t tell them, I promise.

Wendy:

I have a lot of favorite dolphins. I do. I would say there’s many of them that have stood out over the years. We had one dolphin calf, and he was a neonate, so he was probably only two weeks old. So very unusual for these animals to travel away from their mother, even a short distance, at that young. But this animal was so curious about us and the boat, and he would run right up to us and approach our vessel.

It was actually, I called him Andy, but later on found out it was a female. So she stayed with her mom until she was about eight and a half years old, which was kind of unusual. She stayed with her mom until her mom sadly passed away. And this whole time she’s been running up to our boat, and now she’s had two calves of her own and still runs up to the boat with her kids. So she’s kind of stood out just because we’ve known her since she was born, and she’s just very social with us.

Jessy:

So how long is a dolphin considered… Is neonate short for neonatal?

Wendy:

Yeah. So a neonate would be, or a young of the year, would be considered a one-year-old, a very small animal. They’ll have fetal folds on them, which are lines that run alongside their body. So if you’ve seen them in the wild, and they’re really dark and have what looks like up and down stretch marks going up and down on white lines, that’s a really young animal. That’s an animal that’s probably only two months old at the most.

Jessy:

So how long do neonatal dolphins tend to spend with their moms before they branch off and become part of the pod and do their own thing?

Wendy:

So they’ll stay with their mom in the Indian River Lagoon on average about four years, but there’s a range. So like I said, Andy stayed with her mom eight and a half years. So we’ve seen a range from about two years to eight years. And then even after they leave their mom, a lot of these animals will still keep her as one of their top affiliates, if you will, or top companions. So they’ll still spend a lot of time with their mother, even though they’ve gone on to live their own life.

Jessy:

Oh, that’s interesting. That’s super cool. So as you guys are out there in the boat studying the dolphin, what is the primary focus of the study other than just counting dolphins and seeing how their population is doing? Are you guys looking for disease? Are you looking for different behaviors? What’s the primary focus?

Wendy:

Actually, we’re doing quite a bit while we’re out there. So we do a lot of different studies that are related to photo ID. We do drone overflights. We’re collecting respiratory vapor to look at the health of the animals. But primarily from photo ID, we’re looking to get information about the population size. We’ll look at movement patterns in their home range, how small of a range they’re staying in. We can look at survival rates. We can look at calving rates, how often moms are having calves, and how often they’re raising successful calves. A lot of times sometimes calves will perish before they are able to disperse from mom. We’ll look at social relationships, we’ll look at nutritional conditions. So are these animals in good condition? Are they skinny? Are they really skinny? We document all kinds of injuries.

And one of the things that we come across often out on photo identification survey would be entanglements. So if we do see an entanglement, and it’s because we’re using a long lens camera, we can see them maybe better than the general public. But discovering these while we’re out there allows us to actually implement a rescue effort. But I would say photo ID is probably one of the most powerful tools to be able to study a dolphin over a long term.

Jessy:

Right. Right.

Wendy:

So yeah.

Jessy:

On average, how long do dolphins live?

Wendy:

On average, I would have to make a guesstimate here, I’m going to say into their 30s is probably pretty old for Indian River Lagoon dolphins. We have seen them live into their 40s and into their 50s. There’s a few out there that we know have lived into their 50s because they were part of a research program in the 1970s and they were branded. So there’s number s on them. So when you see them, I’m like, wow, that animal’s really old. Well, I won’t say really old, but kind of old.

Jessy:

Old for a dolphin. Old for a dolphin.

Wendy:

Old for a dolphin.

Jessy:

We can say that, I think.

Wendy:

Yeah. Old for a dolphin. And so it’s cool to see them out there that long. In other places I know, and under human care, they can live into their 60s, but that seems really old as well.

Jessy:

Yeah. For sure. So as you’re out there, how often do you encounter the same dolphin? You mentioned that Andy used to, or still does, come up to your boat every single time you guys go out to that area. Are many of the dolphins like that? Do you see the same faces, same characters, time and time again? And also a segue to that is how does it feel when you see a brand new dolphin that you haven’t cataloged before? That has to be a really cool feeling too.

Wendy:

It is. I mean, we do quite often we’ll see the same dolphin. Some of these animals, we have hundreds of sightings of them. When we see a new dolphin, it’s actually, if it’s an area that we’re in frequently, it’s a little bit perplexing, like, who are you? Where did you come from? If it’s a new birth, then that’s exciting.

Jessy:

Yeah. But an adult dolphin coming in, does that happen where an adult dolphin gets kicked out of their original pod and then comes into the IRL pod?

Wendy:

We’ll see what I believe might be transient animals coming in, especially around the inlet areas. I think a coastal animal could easily come in for a little bit. And we’ve seen animals that we know have entered into the Indian River Lagoon from estuarine populations to the north of us. So that does happen, but a lot of times we’ll know them even still because, if they do that more than a few times, you might know who they are.

But I guess when we get really tricked up is when there’s been some kind of substantial injury to the dorsal fin and then it’s hard to match it back to who it was before. If an animal gets struck by a vessel or bit by a shark, or an entanglement happens to the dorsal fin and takes part of it off, you hope that at least the small marks that it had before were in that portion that’s not there anymore.

Jessy:

I never thought about that, but yeah, that could be really difficult to be able to ID it if that’s the main way of identification.

Wendy:

And it’s hard. You give them a new name, and you’re like, you probably had a name before. I just can’t figure it out.

Jessy:

Yeah, right. So I know that there’s currently about 1,000 individuals living in the lagoon. How many overall have you guys cataloged within this study?

Wendy:

I would say, I mean, we’ve been doing photo ID for about 18 years, so we’ve cataloged thousands of animals, but that includes ones that have been born, that have perished, animals that have come in, come out. I would say there’s probably about 2,000 in the IRL, in the Indian River Lagoon Proper that have been documented. And some of those come from estuarine stocks to the north, but they’re frequent visitors.

Jessy:

Do the personalities of the pods differentiate between the three bodies of water? So I feel like with the way that the lagoon is set up, the Mosquito Lagoon dolphins are a little bit more, I don’t know the right word, they’re not as connected, I guess, to the Banana River or the Indian River Lagoon dolphins because of the small Haulover Canal. There’s more of a bottleneck there. So have you noticed any differences in populations and personalities between those populations?

Wendy:

I mean, we’ve noticed different feeding styles in different populations. So we’ve seen animals in the Banana River, what we’re calling head slapping. They’ll slam their face into a fish and that’s how they try and catch fish. We see animals in the northern part of the river, of the Northern Indian River, will do headstand feeding. So they’ll put their whole face down in the muck and their tail’s flailing around. So we do see different behaviors.

I don’t know about personalities necessarily. I know when we were studying animals, for a while we were doing surveys to include the entire Indian River Lagoon and that included, we had gotten permission to enter places where boats don’t normally go, up by NASA. And I do feel like those animals were more interested in you. I think because if they stay up there a lot, they don’t see as many boats. And so that might be the only personality difference that I noticed. If they’re not around boats a lot and they don’t see a lot of people in that area, they might be more curious about you than in some of the other areas.

Jessy:

Yeah, that makes total sense. we know that the lagoon has kind of been in decline in the last few years. We’ve seen algal blooms coming in. We have seen the unusual mortality event that happened a few years ago that really impacted the manatees and also impacted a lot of dolphins, right?

Wendy:

Yeah, it did.

Jessy:

What do you feel is the biggest threat facing the dolphins in the Indian River Lagoon today?

Wendy:

Oh gosh. I mean the lagoon dolphins have a lot of challenges. They’re an immune compromised population. Many of them are very skinny, and they face a lot of anthropogenic threats. But I do think their biggest challenges have been ecosystem decline in unfortunately human activities. So one of the leading causes that we see for these animals, and it actually is the leading cause of mortality in the Banana River, is entanglement in fishing gear.

Jessy:

Oh, interesting. Okay.

Wendy:

Yeah. And so we’re not really sure why that’s happening. We don’t know if it’s potentially related to ecosystem decline. So if there aren’t as many fish, maybe they’re going to take more risky behaviors and approach people who are fishing and end up getting entangled, or go after fish that are hooked and end up ingesting a fish with a hook in it, and that could cause mortality or issues for them. So we’re not sure if all these things are related, but those seem to be the two biggest, the ecosystem challenges and declines in human activities, particularly in recreational fishing.

Jessy:

Gotcha. So since dolphins are mammals, they obviously breathe air. They don’t have to breathe water the way the fish do to get the dissolved oxygen out of it. Does water quality impact dolphins at all?

Wendy:

Well, I mean it does just because they’re a top predator, and so they depend on a healthy lagoon. So if there’s poor water quality, it could lead to algal blooms, and that could impact habitats like seagrass. And then with the seagrass declines, this could reduce the amount of prey that they have to feed on. And so ultimately dolphins really rely on a healthy lagoon. And if they’re not healthy, that’s an indicator of the lagoon as well.

Jessy:

Absolutely. I know that we’ve been seeing a decline in the water quality, which has led to a decline in the seagrass, although we are starting to see it come back a little bit in Mosquito and in the-

Wendy:

It’s exciting.

Jessy:

… northern IRL, which is awesome. I know. We are so jazzed about that over here. Have we seen a decline in the fish population as well? And if we have, how is that impacting them? Are they able to feed as much? You did mention that they were a little bit skinnier than past years.

Wendy:

Yeah. I mean if the fish population declines, then the animals actually are going to have to work harder to find food. And so we have seen an actual prey shift where they are switching to species that have less calories. So they’re eating fish that aren’t as fattening, let’s call it that. And so this means they’re going to have to catch 15% more fish to get the same energy that they could have before because some of these species aren’t as plentiful as they used to be. And so that may be why we’re seeing them in declining nutritional condition.

We ran out in 2023, and we wanted to see what’s going on with the lagoon. It had been a while since there had been an unusual mortality event, which I can segue into that in a little bit. But what we found were that 93% of the animals were either thin or emaciated. So we’re not seeing high mortality, but the animals are not in good shape. They’re just highly resilient animals, which is impressive in itself.

Jessy:

Do you think that’s going to push them out into the ocean to feed more?

Wendy:

I mean, I think it could in some places, but in other places where you might be 50, 60 miles away from an inlet, you don’t really have a choice. And because these animals have such a small home range, they’re kind of stuck. If you live in the Northern Indian River Lagoon, it’s going to take you a long time to get to an inlet. And so that’s where we see the thinnest animals, in the Banana River, in the Northern Banana River and the Northern Indian River. So yeah, all these health-related things are also related to ecosystem health.

Jessy:

So hearing this as a listener who is passionate about dolphins, it sounds like I should go out and throw fish out for the dolphins. Can you tell me why that is a horrible idea?

Wendy:

Yes. Well, number one, it’s incredibly illegal, and it could land you with some jail time, or at a minimum, fines. But from what-

Jessy:

Even if I fed them scraps after I went fishing, and I filleted my fish, can’t I toss the leftovers over to the dolphins?

Wendy:

Unfortunately not. The animals, if we are feeding them or if people are feeding them, it teaches them to associate boats and fishing gear with food, and that can lead to injuries over time. The food may not be good for the dolphins. It’s teaching them to approach fishing lines. And we do believe this might be how some animals get repeatedly entangled and/or we have animals where multiple calves, the mom will have three calves, and all three of them get entangled. And it might just be the habitat that she’s hanging out in or potentially the foraging skills that she’s teaching her young. And so we don’t really want dolphins to be spending a lot of time around propellers or fishing gear because that can lead to injuries in the animals.

Jessy:

That makes a lot of sense. So what have we learned from the unusual mortality event that happened recently?

Wendy:

So in 2013, we had an unusual mortality event, or UME for short, and that just meant that there were a lot of dolphins that were dying in a small confined area. Usually it’s over a short time period. This one actually extended over a year. And then typically these animals will exhibit similar symptoms or findings.

And so in 2013, we actually had a multi-species unusual mortality event. So there were over 100 manatees that died. There were hundreds of pelicans that died. And we had 77 dolphins that perished as well. So that was about 8% of the population. And when we looked at the unusual mortality event and tried to get to the root cause of these, almost all of the animals were emaciated. And after running all the pathology, looking at the tissues, trying to determine what caused these animals to die, all that we found was that these animals had starved. And so it was related potentially to the loss of seagrass, to the fish kills that were ongoing.

And so from these unusual mortality events, we really see just how closely dolphin health is linked to ecosystem health and highlights the importance of us needing to monitor these animals as well. Because if we’re able to track them over time, we may have a better inkling on what factors are involved in causing these events to occur, and we’ll be able hopefully to track them as they recover in the future. So we are pretty hopeful. That event was in 2013. So prior to that, we had an event in 2001, in 2008, seemed like every seven years. And so I mean, knock on wood, it’s 2026. I feel like the animals are holding their own. They look a little bit, a lot of them, most of them look really thin, but they’re not dying en masse. They’re incredibly resilient animals.

Wendy:

We share an office with the FWC folks. So anytime they start getting really busy, we start also getting worried that things might go sideways. But the dolphins are tough and they’ve been holding their own.

Jessy:

So you guys have been seeing signs of recovery in recent years since that?

Wendy:

I don’t know if I would say recovery, because the animals are still very thin, but we are not seeing, and I don’t even like to say this out loud, we are not seeing increased mortality. You’re going to get me on a tangent, but we’ve had small increases in mortality in winter time unrelated to unusual mortality events because animals are contracting avian influenza, but we haven’t seen a true unusual mortality event occur since 2013.

Jessy:

Excellent. So what is something that gives you hope for the future of the lagoon dolphins?

Wendy:

A, these animals are incredibly resilient. The things that we have seen them overcome, the injuries that they’ve overcome, the challenges they’ve overcome, really give me hope that they’re going to hang in there. I mean, the fact that we haven’t had a UME in 13 years, that gives me a lot of hope.

But second, I would say all the organizations that have really come to the table to try and help the Indian River Lagoon and to protect the Indian River Lagoon, and particularly the IRLNEP. And so we’re grateful for everyone that’s contributing to the recovery of the lagoon because ultimately that helps the dolphins that live there.

Jessy:

So is there anything that we can do as lagoon lovers to help protect dolphins for the future?

Wendy:

Yeah, I mean, I think residents really play a key role, or can play a key role, in helping dolphins. There’s simple things you can do like keeping waterways clean, disposing of fishing line properly. It always worries me when we see a lot of fishing line in the lagoon because that can be there for hundreds of years and that perpetuates entanglement, not only for dolphins, but for other species. Reporting dolphins that if you see a dolphin that needs help, reporting them, that can make a huge difference. If we know about these animals quicker, they have a greater likelihood of surviving. And so reporting these animals when you see them is a huge help.

Wendy:

Yeah, of course. I mean, SeaWorld is a key partner in all of our Indian River Lagoon dolphin response to live animals. As far as rehabilitation, honestly, entangled animals to date have never gone to rehabilitation. We care for them right in the field because it’s the safest thing to do.

So we’ll come with a large team, multiple organizations under the guidance of NOAA Fisheries and disentangle the dolphin, and provide them with antibiotics and veterinary care and they’re released within 15, 20 minutes right back to their mom and right back into the lagoon. And then we’re able to follow these animals for decades to come and watch them thrive in the wild.

So as far as stranded animals that do strand, SeaWorld, it’s the only place currently I believe in Florida that is accepting animals for rehabilitation. And so it’s really a great resource, and we’re very fortunate to have that resource here within our study area. Because a lot of places, in the majority in fact, of the Southeastern United States does not have that option. So their only option is euthanasia.

Jessy:

So can you tell me a little bit more about what you guys do at Hubbs-SeaWorld Research Institute?

Wendy:

I have done whale and dolphin research since I came to Hubbs. And so most of my research either focuses on the health of the animals or the population biology of the animals. And we’re always trying to create new ways in which we can help the animals.

So for example, we’re having entanglement issues. One year in 2014 we had 16 entangled dolphins. It’s a huge workload for three people. So we have three people on staff. We get 70 whales and dolphins that strand each year. We get about a dozen to 16 animals that are entangled each year that require monitoring. And so we went out, we got our drone licenses just so we could help these animals quicker, understand what’s going on underneath the water, be able to give NOAA Fisheries and the veterinarians a really good idea of what the entanglement configuration is, what the wounds are on these animals so that we can immediately treat it once we have hands on it and release it.

So we’re always trying to think of other ways that we can help these animals. We started again doing remote disentanglement training. So we use long poles that have concealed blades or grapples on them so we can drive up with our boat alongside a dolphin, and cut fishing gear off of them, just to be able to deal with the caseload that we have because there’s so many animals. And honestly, a lot of times remote disentanglement is the quickest and most safest way. Especially if the animal’s in critical shape, they might not survive being caught in a net and handled. And so we’re really just trying to broaden our skills to help these animals any way we can.

Jessy:

But you guys do more than just dolphins, right? You guys also have a seagrass nursery. Do you guys do anything with sea turtles or anything like that? Anything-

Wendy:

We don’t work with sea turtles. We do have a seagrass nursery. Our partners have a seagrass nursery, so we’re trying to get more into restoration and working with collaborators that are based out of our property in order really to help the lagoon, to help the dolphins. And so yeah, we are starting to do more restoration work. Seagrass, potentially in the future, we might have fish on our property as well to be raised and released, but currently these are things that are just kind of in the works.

Jessy:

That sounds like a lot of fun though.

Wendy:

Yeah.

Jessy:

So can you tell me, we’re getting close to wrapping up now, but what is one thing that everybody should know about lagoon dolphins? A good soundbite that I can take to my girlfriends tonight over a glass of wine and say, “Did you know that lagoon dolphins…”

Wendy:

I think something that most people maybe don’t know about lagoon dolphins is how social they are and the relationships that they actually form. So we’ve looked at dolphin calves. And as they leave their mothers, so again, four years old, eight years old, they decide to leave mom. They’re best friends, if you will, I mean there’s a scientific term, they’re affiliates, and we look at how much they hang out, but their best friends are going to be-

Jessy:

Besties.

Wendy:

Yeah. Their childhood friends, they’re siblings, and their mothers. And so I think it’s really cool how close they are with their moms, how close they are with their siblings. We have several pairs that are best friends, if you will. They have a strong alliance. They’re called an alliance pair, and they’re siblings, and I find it really cool.

Jessy:

That is super cool.

Wendy:

Yeah.

Jessy:

Well, thank you so much for joining us today. I really appreciate it. Do you have any lasting advice for lagoon lovers on how they can help to protect the lagoon for future generations of dolphins?

Wendy:

Oh gosh. I mean, anything you can do to help recover or sustain the lagoon, keeping our trash out of the lagoon. I would say trying to make sure cleaning up fishing line that gets into the lagoon, these are going to make huge impacts, not only for dolphins, but for other wildlife. It’s just amazing the amount of entanglement that we’re seeing. And I know dolphins aren’t the only species. It’s turtles, it’s birds, it’s manatees.

And these aren’t typically commercial fishery things. These are people’s fishing line that accidentally gets into the lagoon and causes the mortality of many, many animals. And so really if people could help with fishing line not getting into the lagoon or sponsoring cleanups for fishing line, I think that would really help dolphins out a lot.

For me, if they can keep eyes out for dolphins that might need help and call the FWC number, that’s the 1-888-404-3922. The quicker we know, the better chance that animal has of surviving. And honestly, we’re always out driving around looking for dolphins that are entangled. And it’s hard. They might live in 17-mile linear home range, but put that on either side of the point that you saw them on, that’s 34 miles. And in some places that could be multiple different water bodies. The more eyes we have out looking out for these animals, the better chance they have. So we appreciate the general public looking out for the animals because we need and they need all the help they can get.

Jessy:

Yep. So if you’re out on the lagoon, keep an eye out. You never know. You might have a dolphin secretly smiling at you. Well, thank you so much for joining us, Wendy. We really appreciate it.

Wendy:

Of course. You have a great day.

Jessy:

You too.

Jessy:

If you enjoy these discussions about the Indian River Lagoon, please like, subscribe, and follow this podcast wherever you get your podcasts. To learn more about the Indian River Lagoon National Estuary Program, how you can get involved in tips on living lagoon friendly, visit us at onelagoon.org. Hit the shop tab at the top of the page to check out our branded One Lagoon merch or hit the license plate tab to find out how you can support our work by buying a lagoon license plate. To stay informed about lagoon news and upcoming events like our monthly What’s Up in the Watershed webinar, follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube all at One Lagoon.