A 27-year-old female bottlenose dolphin was found dead Saturday, Dec. 8, in Venice Inlet.
Mote Marine Laboratory scientists, report it most likely died from swallowing fishing gear.
The young dolphin was part of the year-round resident population of bottlenose dolphins in Sarasota Bay, according to the Sarasota Dolphin Research Program, which has studied the local population for 42 years.
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A 27-year-old female bottlenose dolphin was found dead Saturday, Dec. 8, in Venice Inlet.
This dolphin, known as FB93, had been observed since 1985.
The dolphin was found floating between Venice and Casey Key by a an officer from the Sarasota County Sheriff's Office, who contacted Mote's Stranding Investigations Program and brought the carcass to a boat ramp in Nokomis. Mote staff retrieved the carcass back to Mote's Sarasota facility for examination.
Results of the animal autopsy suggest that FB93 most likely died from swallowing fishing gear. Fishing line was wrapped tightly and in a slip-knot around the dolphin's "goosebeak" - the flexible tube connecting the blowhole to the lungs, likely leading to asphyxiation. The line was stretched taught and connected to a hook embedded in the dolphin's "melon" (forehead).
Case history suggests it had been thriving before it died.
"Except for the fishing line and hook, FB93 appeared to be in excellent condition," said Dr. Randall Wells, director of the Sarasota Dolphin Research Program, the world's longest-running study of a dolphin population. "She was one of the largest resident females of Sarasota Bay, at nearly 9 feet long and 471 pounds, and her stomach was full of fish."
FB93 was born to resident dolphin "Squiggy" and had given birth to six calves over her lifetime. Squiggy, now 56 years old, the 20-year-old brother of FB93, and FB93's 3- and 6-year-old calves still live in Sarasota Bay. Her most recent calf, born in June, has not been found and is presumed dead following the loss of its mother.
"This premature loss of a relatively young, productive female in her reproductive prime comes as a blow to the resiliency and sustainability of the Sarasota Bay dolphin community," Wells said.
Many Sarasota Bay dolphins have been harmed or killed through boat strikes, ingestion of and entanglement in fishing gear and illegal feeding.
Mote's Stranding Investigations Program recovered 36 stranded or dead dolphins with signs of human interaction from 1984-2009.
Of 10 dolphins stranded or found dead this year, three showed signs of human interaction, including Beggar, a dolphin that developed an unhealthy habit of accepting food from humans after being fed illegally many times. Beggar was found dead in September near where FB93 was recovered bearing healed puncture wounds, broken ribs and other injuries that appeared to have come from boat strikes, hooks and fishing line in his stomach and other signs of ill health. Though Beggar's carcass was found decomposed and no specific cause of death could be pinpointed, his condition and his behavior observed by the Sarasota Dolphin Research Program suggested that interacting with humans played a major role in his ill health.
A study by the Sarasota Dolphin Research Program found dolphin-human interactions during 16 percent of survey days, when staff monitored the local dolphins from a research boat, with about 5 percent of resident dolphins involved. Another program study observed dolphins "patrolling" on about 10 percent of survey days. Patrolling means milling or traveling back and forth within about 65 feet of boats, fishing lines or piers. FB93 had been observed patrolling six times since 2000.
