It’s been 50 years since the first dolphins were tagged by researchers in Sarasota Bay. It was a new approach to gaining understanding of dolphin behavior. Over the past five decades research on that local dolphin population has continued through the work of the Sarasota Dolphin Research Program. It’s part of the Chicago Zoological Society but based at Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota. It is the longest-running study of a wild dolphin population anywhere in the world.
Through its efforts, since 1970 more than 52,400 dolphin group sightings have yielded more than 158,000 identifications of more than 5,600 individually distinctive dolphins — there in and around Sarasota Bay. The program is celebrating its 50th anniversary on Saturday so we’re joined by its director, Dr. Randy Wells, a Senior Scientist and Director of the Sarasota Dolphin Research Program.
