Betty - December 30

Betty remains in the same area.

Betty - December 27

Three months ago, Betty and son Big Al were released into the Gulf of Mexico from the "Tomcat". After a sojourn through most of the Gulf of Mexico, Betty seems have settled on her current location, on the edge of the continental shelf west of Key West, as an acceptable location for conducting Grampus business. She has spent the past month in this general location, making occasional dives to 800-1,000 m, and staying down for 11-15 min at times. Over the past week, she has made 6 of
these impressively deep dives, but the vast majority of her dives continue to be to less than 50 m. Her deepest and longest dives occurred during the 6-hour period of "Dusk", providing additional support to the findings from Clyde that Grampus are crepuscular animals, most active at Dawn and/or Dusk.

We had hoped for 60 days of tracking, and have now exceeded 90 days. Her tag has made 24,832 transmissions. The specifications for the battery called for an expectation of 25,000 transmissions. The battery voltage on the tag continues to be in a good range, so we can hope for continued data.

Betty - December 23

Happy Holidays everyone. Betty remains in the same area as she has since 27 November, over the edge of the continental shelf. Water depths in the map are in meters. She remains within an area of less than 50 km diameter.

Betty - December 21

Betty remains in the same area.

Betty - December 19

Betty remains in the same small area off the edge of the shelf.

Betty - December 18

Betty remains in the same area she has for more than 3 weeks, near the 1,000 m contour at the edge of the shelf. She has made one dive to 800-1,000 m - the deepest dive ever documented for this species (perhaps approaching the sea floor on this occasion), and double the deepest dive recorded for Clyde. Most of her dives continue to be to depths less than 50 m. One dive lasted 11-15 min, but most contrinue to be less than 4 min in duration. After more than 19,000 transmissions, battery voltage still looks good.

Betty - December 17

Betty remains in the same area as she has for the past 3 weeks.

Betty - December 16

Betty remains in an area of less than 50 km diameter. The contrast to the first 2 months of tracking, during which time she traversed most of the Gulf of Mexico, is remarkable.

Betty - December 14

Betty remains in the same general area as she has since 27 November, but a bit farther to the SE.

Betty - December 12

Betty remains in the same area as she has since 27 November.

Betty - December 11

Betty remains in the same general area as she has since 27 November.

Betty - December 10

After some bad info over the weekend when we thought maybe Betty might be on the move, today shows that she remains in the area where she has been for nearly two weeks, west of Key West.

If she continues to remain in the area, it begs the question about whether she perhaps has found her "home" from before the stranding, or if she has simply found really good habitat for Risso's dolphin after her extended tour of the greater Gulf of Mexico. The entire arc from due west of Ft. Myers to due south, including where she is now, has the 1,000 m contour about equi-distant from the stranding site.

Betty - December 6

Betty remains in the same general area as she has for more than a week, over the edge of the shelf, about 280 km SW of her stranding site.

Betty - December 3

Betty remains in the same small area in about 1,000+ m of water as she has for the past few days.

Betty - December 2

Betty has completed a circle over the past few days in 1,000 m of water off the SW Florida shelf. She has remained in the same area in recent days.

Betty - November 30

Betty has turned around. It is unclear which way she is heading at this point...

Betty - November 29

Betty has turned back toward the West Florida shelf, and is over the 1,000 m contour.

Betty - November 28

Betty has moved a bit farther offshore, but is still generally parallelling the shelf edge as she moves SSE off the SW coast of Florida.

Betty - November 20

Betty continues to the south along the continental shelf edge.

Will she follow Clyde's path around the tip of Florida?

Will she turn back into the Gulf for another round?

Will she go to the Caribbean?

Stay tuned.

Betty - November 26

Betty has turned south along the 1,000 m contour off the west Florida shelf, as can be seen in the attached 4-day track.

Betty - November 25

Big milestone today---we have reached our target on Betty's tracking. The two-month mark was the goal on this project, and we have made it. Battery strength suggests that, after 14,000 transmissions to date, we may be able to continue to hear from her for a while.

Betty continues toward Florida, moving to a position about 105 km SW of her release site, and about 320 km west of her stranding site. Betty has been making a number of dives to 400-600 m depth, and staying down for up to 10-11 minutes.

Betty - November 21

Betty remains near the north tip of the Campeche Bank, but seems to be moving a bit to the SE. Have a happy Thanksgiving!

Betty - November 20

Betty remains off the north tip of the Campeche Bank.

Betty - November 19

Despite what the map suggested yesterday (oops) it does not look like Betty and Al are headed for the Caribbean... She may now be headed back to the Bahia de Campeche.

Betty - November 18

On Saturday, it looked like Betty and Big Al were headed back towards Gulf of Campeche from the middle of the Gulf (north and west of the Yucatan). Sunday, they appeared to be heading to the east of the Yucatan Penninsula, towards the Caribbean Sea.

Betty - November 16

Betty is in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico, heading SSE. The next destination on her tour of the Gulf will be ????

Betty - November 15

Betty is in the middle of the Gulf, continuing to head generally to the east.

Betty - November 14

Betty continues moving east through the middle of the Gulf of Mexico, south of Louisiana/Mississippi.

Last week she made a few dives to a depth of 400-500 m, and even one dive to 500-600 m. They lasted up to 11-15 minutes in duration.

Betty - November 13

Betty continues to move to the east through the deep water south of Louisiana.

Betty - November 12

Betty has moved offshore a bit, south of Louisiana, to waters about 2000 m deep. She has been making a few dives to 300-500 m, but the vast majority of dives continue to be to less than 50 m. Over the past few days, she has made dives lasting as long as 9-10 min, but mostly they are 3-4 min or less. She has sent nearly 11,000 transmissions (of 25,000 projected total) and battery voltage continues to be strong.

Betty - November 11

Betty continues to the east along the edge of the continental shelf south of Louisiana. Betty's tracking has now continued for twice as long as was possible for Clyde, the last Risso dolphin tracked.

Betty - November 10

Betty continues moving to the east along the shelf edge south of Louisiana. She appears to be in the vicinity of a fair amount of oil production activity. Maybe she wants to see what a $100 barrel looks like...

Betty - November 9

Betty continues moving slowly to the east to the south of Louisiana, roughly zig-zagging over the 200-1000 m slope.

Betty - November 6

Betty is moving east along the 200 m contour south of Texas. The attached map includes the most recent 4 days of data.

Betty - November 5

Betty has been on the move! Currently, she is moving east along the 200-1000 m contour south of Texas.

Over the past day she has been picking her way around oil production structures, according to the base chart provided by CLS/Argos. Over the past week she has made a few dives to 400-500 m, and even one dive to 500-600 m, and up to 11-15 min in duration. To date, Betty's tag has transmitted about 9,000 times (of a projected 25,000 for this battery). Battery voltage is still well within the acceptable range.

Betty - October 30

Betty continues north through the Gulf of Mexico. Ignore the recent single point that is far to the west - this was a poor quality (impossibly wrong) location that somehow made it through processing.

Betty - October 29

Betty continues north through the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico, away from the shelf edge off Yucatan. She is currently in about 3,600 m water depth. Her most recent dive data, from before she left the shelf edge, show an increased frequency of dives to 100-400 m, staying down for up to 11 minutes or more.

Battery strength continues to be good, and she has sent about 1/3 the total number of expected transmissions for the battery life.

Betty - October 28

Betty has moved about 88 km offshore of the 200 m contour, into water about 3,500 m deep, and continues moving counter-clockwise around the southwestern Gulf of Mexico.

Betty - October 26

Betty continues to move counter-clockwise through the southern Gulf of Mexico, along the edge of the shelf.

It appears that the location shown for Betty in shallower water on the map distributed yesterday may have been an artifact of location data quality, as subsequent and better-quality data points for the day showed her along the edge of the shelf.

Betty - October 25

A month after her release, Betty is moving through relatively shallow waters (50 m deep) NW of Yucatan. She is not too far from the edge of the shelf.

Betty - October 24

Betty is moving NE along the shelf edge NW of the Yucatan. Seas have been very rough in the area as a result of a front passing through, so signals have been fewer than usual.

Betty - October 23

Betty has moved to the 200 m contour NW of the Yucatan. She has been covering an average of more than 100 km/day for the past few days.

Betty - October 22

Betty continues her circuit of the southern portion of the Bahia de Campeche, paralleling the 1,000 m contour as she moves to the NE. She continues to make occasional dives to 400-500 m, and stays down for as long as 10-11 minutes (though 9 has been more typical). Battery strength is good; she has only used about a quarter of the expected lifetime transmissions.

Betty - October 19

Betty has covered quite a bit of distance since yesterday, moving farther south into the SW corner of the Gulf of Mexico. She remains in deep water. As of today, the duration of tracking for Betty equals the entire tracking period for "Clyde" (a previously tracked dolphin).

Betty - October 18

Betty remains in the vicinity of where she has been for the past six days, in the southwest corner of the Gulf of Mexico, off Vera Cruz, and still in failry deep water..

Betty - October 17

Betty has moved farther offshore. She is now about 157 km offshore of Tuxpan, Mexico, headed SE, and has now circled to within a few km of her position on 13 October.

Arturo Serrano Solis went looking for Betty a couple of days ago. He reports that her location was relatively close to a couple of oil rigs, that she and her calf have stayed along the continental slope, and that the weather has been nice (but we are expecting bad weather at the beginning of next week).

Betty - October 16

Betty has moved back into deeper water offshore this afternoon, but has turned to the south. She is not providing any solid hints about her next significant directional movements, but rather seems to be milling in one area. Her most recent dive data indicate some dives lasting as long as 8-9 min, to 50-100 m.

Betty - October 15

Here is today's position for Betty. She moved to the 100 m contour in the vicinity of Vera Cruz, Mexico, and then turned back offshore. One of our current interns, a PhD student from Vera Cruz, has notified her colleagues in Vera Cruz to be ready to respond if Betty should come ashore, but thankfully she now seems to be headed in a more appropriate direction.

Betty - October 12

Betty has continued to the SW, roughly paralleling the 200 m contour, but remaining in more than 3,000 m of water. About 92% of her dives are to less than 50 m, and 97% are to less than 100 m. Today, she continues moving to the west, toward Mexico. I am on the road for the next few days, with variable access to the internet, so the timing of daily reports may not be regular.

September 15, 2007

Here is today's map. Yaana continues to spend time in deeper waters just off the mouth of the bay. Pablo indicates that tides are not extreme at this time, the
reason for this pattern remains unclear.

September 12, 2007

Yaana is in deeper water today than we have seen her previously, off the mouth of the bay.

September 11, 2007

Yaana is using the entrance channel and the waters immediately outside the bay.

September 10, 2007

Yaana continues the pattern that typfied her movements following her original tagging six months ago. Saturay marked the half-year point for tracking Yaana (not bad for a 2-month battery). It was only fitting that she centered her movements around the original capture and tagging site on that day... Today Yaana continues the pattern that has typfied her movements over the last six months.

September 7, 2007

Yaana continues moving through the entrance channel.

September 6, 2007

Hey, a big welcome to Splash Flash readers! Check back here daily to find out the location of our last satellite tagged Franciscana dolphin---we call her Yanaa. Today she is moving through the northwestern portion of her range.

September 5, 2007

Yaana has moved from one end of her "range" to the other over the past day.

Analyses of data from 2006 and 2007 have been moving forward with Pablo and Andy in Sarasota, and with help from Carpi, Leigh Klatsky, and Janet Gannon. Among the findings from 2006 is that the dolphins in Bahia Samborombon tend to be found significantly farther to the east on low tides, and farther to the west on high tides, confirming hypotheses resulting from our pilot radio-tracking study in 2005. According to local fishermen, this is the same pattern exhibited by the dolphins' prey fish.

September 4, 20076

Yaana continues to move between the bay and the mouth.

August 31, 2007

Yaana is back inside the bay. Pablo, Carpi, Andy Stamper, and I are meeting in Sarasota to work up data for the biennial Conference on the Biology of Marine Mammals and for manuscripts.

August 30, 2007

Yaana is moving through the deeper waters offshore of the mouth of the bay.

August 29, 2007

Yaana has moved from one end of her apparent range to the other.

August 28, 2007

Yaana is deep inside the bay.

August 27, 2007

Yaana is deep inside the bay once again. After more than 43,000 transmissions (battery spec is 25,000), her tag is still showing good battery strength.

August 24 - Up a Creek?

Yaana is using the waters of the bay and just outside. It also appears that she may have moved through the creek to the west of San Blas. My understanding is that franciscanas have been seen in the creek from time to time.

August 23, 2007

Yaana is using the entrance channel to the bay.

August 22, 2007

Yaana is moving back and forth between the bay and the sandbanks just outside.

August 20, 2007

Yaana remains just outside the bay. Pablo will be in Sarasota during 29 August through 5 September to work on data for manuscripts and his presentation at the SMM Biennial Conference, and to make plans for next year's research.

August 17, 2007

Yaana is outside the mouth of the bay.

August 16, 2007

Yaana is on the move, around the mouth of the bay and into the bay.

August 15, 2007

Yaana has moved back into the bay.

August 14, 2007

Yaana remains at the mouth of the bay.

August 13, 2007

Yaana is remaining outside the mouth of the bay (she was around the sandbanks yesterday).

August 11, 2007

Pablo Bordino had an abstract accepted for a talk on our tracking results at the biennial Conference on the Biology of Marine Mammals, to be held in Cape Town, South Africa in late November. He will come to Sarasota later in August to work with me and Andy Stamper on data for the talk and resulting manuscripts. AquaMarina franciscana research team member "Carpi" Echezaretta is currently in Sarasota for several months for training.

August 10, 2007

Yaana has moved to the mouth of the bay.

August 9, 2007

Yaana is using more of the interior of the bay.

August 8, 2007

Yaana is moving widely, between deep within the bay and outside the mouth of the bay.

August 7 - Tons of Transmissions!

Yaana continues her movements from the bay into the waters just outside the mouth.

After more than five months and 37,000 transmissions (half again as many as advertised), the transmitter is still indicating good battery strength. Some tracking weirdness over the weekend---we have been getting a larger number of satellite "hits", which may be indicative of Yaana spending more time at the surface, or may reflect really calm conditions; and the final location Saturday put her in the middle of the island! Hopefully this just indicates a bad position that will be resolved with additional CLS data processing... And if not, well, she has been a lot more aquatic since then, as you would expect...

August 1, 2007

Yaana is at the mouth of the bay. Yesterday, Pablo's team briefly observed, but was unable to photograph, a tagged dolphin in the region where Yaana has been spending time. The tag looked to be intact and in the expected position on the fin.

July 31, 2007

Yaana is moving back and forth in front of the town, from the bay to the mouth. Hopefully this will make it easier for the search crew to find her.

July 30, 2007

Over the weekend Yaana hung out outside the bay. Today she is back inside the bay. We hope this will facilitate the team's search for her, if the weather begins to cooperate.

July 27, 2007

Yaana has moved farther into the bay than we have recorded previously. A team is currently in San Blas, but strong winter winds have precluded boat work for the past 4 days.

July 26, 2007

Yaana is still moving back and forth in front of the town, moving from the interior of the bay to the mouth.

July 25, 2007

Yaana has remained fairly deep inside the bay.

July 24, 2007

Yaana continues the pattern observed on many days, moving in and out of the bay.

July 23, 2007

Yaana has covered at least 50 km in the past 26 hours, moving between the town and the ocean offshore of the mouth. This is keeping things interesting for Pablo's search...

July 20, 2007

Yaana is back to the pattern of the past few weeks, moving between the town and the mouth of the bay during the 8-hr night-time window during which her tag transmits.

July 19, 2007

Yaana continues milling at the mouth of the bay.

July 18, 2007

Yaana is just outside the mouth of the bay.

July 17, 2007

Yaana continues the movement pattern that typified her behavior for the weeks immediately following the tagging more than 4 months ago.

July 16, 2007

Yaana has covered a fairly long distance in a short period of time - 28 km (in a straight-line, not including milling at the mouth of the bay) in four hours, returning to the bay from offshore. It will be interesting to see from the tidal data Pablo is compiling whether these "extreme" movements correspond to strong tides. Pablo plans to return to Bahia San Blas on 20 July, and will operate a single boat (and digital camera) in search of tagged dolphins.

July 13, 2007

Yaana remains near the mouth of the bay.

July 12, 2007

Yaana continues her pattern of the past 2 weeks. Hopefully this will facilitate Pablo's search for her.

July 11 - Snow?

Yaana continues her pattern of the past two weeks. Pablo will be in the field soon to search for her, but the conditions will be very challenging. Several days ago he experienced the first snow recorded at his town since 1928.

July 10, 2007

Yaana continues her movements between the town and mouth.

July 9, 2007

Four months into a two-month tracking project, Yaana continues her movements around the mouth of Bahia San Blas. For the past 9 days, she has been moving between the town and the mouth of the bay.

July 6, 2007

Yaana continues to move between the town and the mouth of the bay.

July 5, 2007

Yaana continues a pattern of movements comparable to the period immediately following tagging in March, from the town to the mouth of the bay.

July 3, 2007

Yaana continues to spend time in the mouth of the bay.

July 2, 2007

Yaana is in the mouth of the bay. She has been moving back and forth between the bay off the town of San Blas and the mouth of the bay, much as she did soon after tagging in March.

June 30, 2007

Yaana remains off the town of San Blas.

June 29 - Yaana Taunting Us?

Sometimes I wonder if dolphins have a sense of humor... Yaana remains off the town of San Blas, seemingly taunting us now that we do not have a team in the area to look for her. She has exceeded the 25,000 maximum expected transmissions, and battery strength continues to be good. Hopefully she will continue to transmit until Pablo is back in the area next month.

June 28, 2007

Yaana has moved back into the bay, conveniently near the town of San Blas. Unfortunately, Pablo has left the area and will not be able to return until mid-July.

June 26, 2007

Yaana is at the mouth of the bay.

Pablo has noted an apparent decline in sightings per unit effort in the bay this winter. Yaana's extensive use of the waters immediately outside of the bay rather than deep in the bay this winter is consistent with this finding.

June 25---Catching a Glimpse...

Yaana is outside the mouth of the bay.

Pablo's team saw a tagged dolphin yesterday, apparently with only one pin still holding the satellite tag onto the fin. Unfortunately, they were not able to get any photos of it, so we cannot determine for certain which dolphin it was. However, Yaana has spent time in the vicinity (near Northeast Sandbanks) on each of the past 3 days before moving offshore at night. Field conditions are very challenging---the extreme cold limits time on the water each day. (That is a shot of calm conditions---you can imagine how hard it is when things are far from ideal, as right now.)

June 22, 2007

Yaana remains outside the mouth of the bay. Pablo has had limited success so far this week getting out on the water, due to wind and fog, but conditions seem to be improving.

June 20, 2007

Yaana has moved back out into the ocean off the mouth of the bay.

Pablo is back in San Blas in search of our Franciscanas. The weather was too poor to get onto the water yesterday, but should be better today.

June 19, 2007

Yaana has spent the past 3 days moving through much of "her range," including the bay and the waters outside the mouth of the bay.

June 16, 2007

Yaana has been on the move over the past day, both deep into the bay as well as outside the mouth of the bay, before returning to the bay.

June 15, 2007

Yaana remains in the bay, moving to the west of her capture/tagging site.

June 14 - Pablo Intro

Yaana has been spending time in the channel just offshore of the town of San Blas.

Pablo is planning to return to San Blas early next week, weather permitting.

Recently, someone asked how Pablo and I hooked up. Dr. Pablo Bordino receives support from Wildlife Trust, a New York-based conservation organization whose base of operations for its Aquatic Conservation Program was at Mote Marine Laboratory for several years. r. Buddy Powell, who heads this program, is a 30+ year colleague and friend. He asked me to become involved in the franciscana program when it became clear that tagging would be a useful progression in the research. Buddy was aware of the pivotal role the Sarasota Dolphin Research Program has played in development and testing of dolphin tagging techniques since 1970. I was introduced to Pablo during a visit to the U.S., and along with Martha Wells, I went to Argentina in September 2003 to scope out potential research sites for tagging. And the rest is history!

June 13 - Maybe no movement...

Yaana is still inside Bahia San Blas. So much for identifying a seasonal pattern of movements into the ocean...

June 12, 2007

Yaana is back in the bay, not far from where she was caught and tagged in March.

June 11, 2007

Yaana has moved back into the bay. Over the weekend she made a brief sojourn back into the bay, then returned to the mouth.

June 8---Is Yaana Vacationing?

Yaana continues her movements around the sandbanks off the mouth of the bay. This is really interesting to me, because if this continues, it would be somewhat reminiscent of the seasonal patterns we see in the Sarasota Bay bottlenose dolphins. They use the passes and coastal waters in Florida to a greater extent in winter. Too early to tell if the pattern will hold, but could be a parallel.

June 7, 2007

Three months post-tagging, Yaana remains within the same general area. She has returned to the mouth of the bay.

June 6, 2007

Yaana remains outside the mouth of the bay.

June 5, 2007

Yaana is moving offshore of the mouth of the bay.

June 4---Cold Water = No Dolphin Sightings

Yaana has moved back toward the mouth of the bay.

Dr. Bordino has been trying to get a visual on the tagged dolphins in the water...but the effort illustrates how tough it is to do this research. The weather was bad---actually below freezing yesterday---so the crew was unable to work. They will return for another try later in June.

June 3 - Still Looking

Pablo and team will spend today searching for tagged dolphins, and then leave San Blas until about 17 June. Pablo is preparing an abstract for the Society for Marine Mammalogy biennial meeting in December in Cape Town, summarizing our initial findings from Samborombon and San Blas.

June 1 - Pablo is searching

Pablo and his team are out looking for Yaana and the other tagged dolphins. They have a mini-flotilla with four different boats. After 2 days on the water, they have found franciscana dolphins, but not yet the ones they are seeking. The weather and sea conditions have been far from ideal with storms in the area. And to complicate things, apparently some of the outboard engines on the boats have not been too cooperative...

May 31, 2007

Yaana has moved near shore south of the mouth of the bay.

May 30, 2007

Yaana remains about 17 km south of the entrance to the bay.

May 29, 2007

Yaana appears to be concentrating her time along the 10m contour south of the mouth of Bahia San Blas.

Hopefully Pablo is out on the water looking for the other animals who were originally tagged. We would like to get a visual on them. These dolphins are very difficult to study. They are hard to find, difficult to see and observe, and they live in areas where field conditions are challenging. So having Dr. Bordino back on site should yield some good information.

May 28, 2007

Over the past 2 days (shown in the map), Yaana has moved out of the bay and to the south.

May 25, 2007

Yaana has moved back into the bay, just in time for Pablo and his team to find her her tomorrow.

May 24, 2007

Yaana remains outside the mouth to the bay. Pablo's trip to San Blas has been delayed again due to issues beyond his control.

May 23, 2007

Yaana has traveled a bit south of the mouth of Bahia San Blas, and appears to be moving roughly along the 10 m contour. Pablo is expected to be in Bahia San Blas starting today, searching for tagged dolphins.

May 22, 2007

Yaana has moved a bit offshore from her position yesterday.

May 21 - Back in Action

Yaana is in the mouth of Bahia San Blas.

We've had some technical problems that prevented posting for a couple days. Yaana has moved in and out of the bay covering a space of about 26 km. Dr. Bordino should be in the area looking for tagged dolphins---so hopefully we will have some pics and an update for you.

May 16, 2007

Yaana has moved back outside the mouth of the bay.

May 15 - Franciscana Future

Yaana has moved back into Bahia San Blas.

Since we are down to one of the four tagged dolphins, I am thinking a bit about the project's history and future.

Pablo Bordino (that's him on the left with a local fisherman named Luis) initiated his franciscana research program in 1992. We have assisted him since 2003, and we will continue to work with him for as long as we can be of benefit to his program, and support can be found. The specific project for next year is currently being defined. Among the questions that should be addressed in the next few years are:

1. Do franciscanas in other parts of the species' range cover long distances in their movements, or do they show site fidelity comparable to what we have found in Bahia Samborombon and Bahia San Blas to date? (Do all franciscanas hang out in one area like these folks.)
   
   
2. What are the ranging patterns of adult males?
   
   
3. How do franciscanas use their habitat? How much time do they spend near the sea floor as opposed to near the surface or in mid-water-column? How much time do they spend in shallows vs. deep channels? This information has important implications for how they might be caught in fishing nets. Small time-depth recording transmitters (same size as satellite-linked tags used to date) could address this question.
   
   
4. Where franciscanas have been shown to exhibit site fidelity, is this year-round or long-term? (photo-identification research and tagging can address this)
   
   
5. Are social associations short- or long-term? (this could be explored by tagging individuals caught together with tags with the same duty cycles)

May 14, 2007

Yaana is at the mouth of the bay. Over the weekend, she had moved into somewhat deeper water from the entrance channel to Bahia San Blas.

Tango, one of the team members, will be on the water this week searching for tagged dolphins, and will be joined by Pablo on Thursday. I hope we will get to see some great photos!

May 11, 2007

Yaana has moved closer to the mouth of Bahia San Blas.

May 10 - La Plata River

Yaana continues to move through relatively deep waters outside the mouth of Bahia San Blas.

Did you know that Franciscana dolphins are also sometimes referred to as La Plata River Dolphins? Though they look like some river dolphin species, this is a misnomer. Tthey have similar features as compared to the true river dolphins (long beaks, large flippers, small eyes, for example), they have arrived there from a different evolutionary path, and they are mostly a marine species. La Plata refers to the large estuary of the La Plata River that separates Argentina from Uruguay, and falls near the midpoint of the species’ range (19oS to 42oS).

May 9 - Yaana wins the marathon...

And then there was one...

One day after achieving our 60 day goal for tracking, Yaana is the only Franciscana continuing to send signals. She remains outside the mouth of the bay. Both Lea and Roberto had used about 60% of their possible transmissions, and battery strength was still good at the time of their final transmissions.

This suggests several possibilities:

1. shedding of the tag, as designed/planned,
2. damage to the tag, such as antenna breakage (Wildlife Computers had made the antennae a bit weaker but more flexible this year) that precludes transmissions,
   
3. loss or movement of attachment pins leading to repositioning of the tag on the fin such that the seawater switch is unable to function, or
   
4. loss of the animal (to sharks, orcas, fishing gear, etc.).

Observations of the animals, with photographic documentation of dorsal fins, will be crucial to trying to figure this out, looking for tags and for animals with marks from where the tags used to be attached. Pablo's team should be on the water soon to do this.

May 8 - Two Months

Today marks the 2-month point, our target for tag duration. In essence, three of the four tagged dolphins have provided data for the two months. They have thus far demonstrated limited movements in, or in the vicinity of, Bahia San Blas comparable to those of the Franciscana dolphins tagged previously in Bahia Samborombon. This supports a change in the way researchers think about Franciscana dolphin home ranges and behavior.

May 7 - Where is Lea?

Roberto remains deep inside the bay, and Yaana is still outside the mouth of the bay.

We have not received any signals from Lea over the past two days. This is not necessarily unexpected. We are just about at the two-month point that we had targeted for tracking. In addition, Lea's tag attachments were modified in an experiment to refine the design to release sooner. Last year, the tags stayed on some of the dolphins longer than we wanted them to. Pablo's next trip to San Blas is extremely important to find and photographically document the tagged dolphins and the conditions of the tags and attachments. Dr. Bordino emailed yesterday to say he plans to be out there getting photos next week.

May 5 - Happy Cinco de Mayo

From north to south: Roberto, Lea, with Yaana still outside the mouth of the bay.

May 4 - Downtown San Blas!

The northern-most dolphin is Lea, with Roberto to the southwest, and Yaana outside the mouth of the bay.

For most people, this year's site could be on the moon. Bahia San Blas, where is that? Well, a bit more on this northern edge of Argentina's Patagonia... The dolphins can be found pretty close to shore. Bahia San Blas is a small town. That's a picture of "downtown San Blas" which only has a population of 300 or so. Though there are not a bunch of people, it seems the dolphins like it just as much as last year's site of Bahia San Borombon which is further north.

May 3, 2007

From west to east: Roberto, Lea, with Yaana outside the mouth of the bay.

May 2, 2007

From north to south: Roberto, Lea, with Yaana outside the mouth of the bay.

May 1 - Getting Data

From west to east the dolphins are: Roberto, Lea, and Yaana has moved back into the bay.

I've gotten some questions from readers asking how we get the tags on the dolphins to create the daily maps that I am posting. It is hard work! The tagging research involves a team of about 40 people on 6-7 boats, and a long net that encircles 1-3 dolphins in shallow water (less than two meters deep). We then measure the dolphin, attach a satellite-linked transmitter to its dorsal fin, obtain a blood sample for health assessment, and release the dolphin---all within about 5-10 minutes! I am lucky to work with such a solid group. The photo on the left is of Yaana's release.

Follow-up work involves receiving downloads of dolphin positions over the computer back in the lab. We plan to initiate periodic observations of the dolphins in Bahia San Blas, in which team members will use small boats to find dolphins and photograph their fins with a digital camera with a telephoto lens, looking for nicks, notches, and tags. In fact, I mentioned last week that Dr. Bordino got some new funding to do this very soon. I am looking forward to posting some of the photos he gets.

April 30, 2007

Roberto to the west, Lea to the north, and Yaana still outside the mouth of Bahia San Blas.

April 29, 2007

Thanks to two generous donations (thank you, Presidente!), Pablo will soon have a team in San Blas for several weeks who will be monitoring the tagged animals, and for initiating photographic identification studies. Hopefully, we will have some photos to post on the blog soon.

April 27 - Dolphins for Dinner?

A bit of follow up on yesterday's post...I got questions about my reference to orcas. On 13 March, we observed two large killer whales passing through the area, in waters where franciscanas had been seen. We know nothing of the diet of killer whales in this area, whether they are strictly fish eaters, or whether they also eat dolphins, porpoises, whales, sea lions, elephant seals, penguins, etc.

April 26 - Where is Marta?

Unfortunately, our daily maps do not include Marta... We originally tagged four Franciscana dolphins, but lost the signal for one fairly early on.

We do not know why we lost Marta’s signal. There were some indications of a possible problem with the electronics of the tag over the last few days of transmission (the tag sends out function status reports periodically when it is working properly, in addition to location data). There are plenty of scenarios that might explain this: the tag could have come off (as it is designed to do if it should become entangled, for example), or sadly the dolphin could have been lost from the population. There are plenty of potential dolphin predators abound in Bahia San Blas. The town’s claim to fame is as a recreational shark fishing site. On our last day, we observed killer whales passing through the area where we had recently received signals from Marta. (I posted the orca picture on the left when we first started the blog.)

While we do not know why we lost the tag, I know the problem was not the battery... The tag indicated good voltage through its last status report. The tag is programmed to provide potentially 100 days of transmissions and we were nowhere near that point.

While it was not a battery problem, the way the tag is affixed to the dolphin is a bit more dicey. The tag is attached to the fin with plastic pins held on with corrosible metal nuts. These are designed to corrode in saltwater. Temperature and salinity will affect how fast this will happen, but it should take several months, at which point the tag will fall off the fin.

So...after all that, we just don't know what happened with Marta...

April 25, 2007

The dolphins are continuing their pattern of the past few days; with Roberto deep in the bay, Lea farther to the east, and Yaana outside the mouth of the bay.

April 24, 2007

From west to east, Roberto, Lea, and Yaana. She continues to spend time near the mouth of the bay.

April 23 - Dolphins Are Different...

Dolphins are different... Different from us and from one another! Here's an example: the tagged Franciscana dolphins have stayed in or VERY close to the mouth of the bay the entire time. I study Atlantic bottlenose dolphins and as a species, they show far more variation in the way they behave depending on whether they live close or far from shore---to the point that some taxonomy folks wonder if there might be subspecies or two different species (but I'll leave that debate to those who specialize in taxonomy).

But with the coastal/estuarine species like the Franciscanas, we do not yet know much about the inshore/offshore distribution. Data from Franciscana dolphins caught in fishing nets suggest that adult males may be found further offshore than mothers with calves. This is consistent with our three years of tagging experience, in which we have caught mostly adult females and juvenile males - no adult males - in the shallow inshore waters.

April 19, 2007

Here is today's map. From left to right: Yaana and Roberto are in the same area, with Lea farther to the northeast.

Apri 18, 2007

The dolphins are: Lea (westernmost), Yaana (southernmost), and Roberto (farthest to the northeast).

April 17 - No sightings yet...

Pablo Bordino has been in San Blas for several days, but the weather has been too poor to sight franciscanas. But if he sends any good images, I'll make sure we post them on the blog.

April 16 - Where do dolphin names come from, anyway?

If you have been following this blog, you might be wondering how a Franciscan dolphin minding their own business off the Patagonian coast of Argentina would suddenly get a name like Lea or Yaana... Fair question!

The Argentine members of the team give names to the dolphins, as a convenient way of distinguishing between the individuals being tracked. The inspiration behind the names ranges from something that would identify the animal with the region, or to honor people of importance to the project.

• "Yaana" (pronounced shaana), the name of the first dolphin tagged, is the Tehuelche word for mother. The Tehuelche tribe was one of the local native tribes in this region of Patagonia.
  
  
• "Roberto" was named after a highly respected member of the San Blas Prefectura (the Coast Guard) who died in 2005, about the same time we tagged our first franciscanas in Bahia Samborombon. Roberto was a close friend of several team members, and the Prefectura in San Blas provided housing for the team, a boat, and crew for the project this year.
  
  
• "Lea" was named after team member Leo Berninsone. Leo participated as an intern with our research program in Florida in 2006. He was seriously injured from a gear failure on the catch boat during the capture of Roberto and Lea on the last day, but is expected to make a full recovery.
  
  
• "Marta" was named after Martha Wells, someone who has played a major role in encouraging and providing support for the project since its inception in 2003, but who was unable to join the team this year due to other obligations.

Now you know our cetacean sensations!

April 14, 2007

Here is today's map. From top to bottom; Lea, Yanaa (back from a trip to the mouth of the bay), and Roberto.

April 13, 2007

Here is today's map. From left to right: Roberto, Lea, with Yaana outside of the mouth of the bay.

April 12, 2007 - "Site Fidelity"

Based on more than a month of tracking, the degree of site fidelity (the attachment that the animals have to the area, or how much they hang out in the immediate area) that is becoming evident is impressive. It seems comparable to what we found for the dolphins of southern Bahia Samborombon. This may point to a change in or understaning of the species.

Aprill 11, 2007

Here is today's dolphin map. From left to right: Roberto, Lea, Yaana.

April 10, 2007 - Getting Photos

Here is today's map. From left to right: Roberto, Yaana, Lea. The positions continue to show the dolphins spending a great deal of time on or near the shallows surrounding the deeper channels in the area.

Pablo will return to San Blas tomorrow, and hopefully will return with photos of the tagged dolphins. That sounds easy, but these dolphins are very small and secretive. Rough seas make work unsafe, and make it nearly impossible to see the dolphins. This was a huge problem in the exposed waters of Bahia Samborombon; we hope it will be less of a problem in the more protected waters of our current site near Bahia San Blas. Unfortunately, Bahia San Blas is much farther away from the base of operations for AquaMarina (Pablo Bordino’s organization), so it will be more challenging to get into the field regularly. Hopefully, we'll get some good photos on this trip.

April 9, 2007

Here is today's map (click on it for a larger image). From left to right, the dolphins are: Roberto, Lea, Yaana.

April 6 - Franciscana vs. Bottlenose Dolphins

From left to right: Roberto, Lea, and Yaana has moved to the mouth of the bay, where she spent time shortly after she was originally tagged, about a month ago.

Over the past few weeks, Tango (a team member from San Blas who has his own boat) has seen several tagged dolphins while out on the bay, but he was unable to distinguish them by eye. Pablo plans to get a team with a digital camera into the field within the next two weeks to document the tags and identify distinctive individuals.

So, what do they look like? Check out the photo to the right... Franciscana dolphins are very different from bottlenose dolphins (the species that I see and study in Florida---and that you can see at Brookfield Zoo). Adult franciscanas are the size of bottlenose dolphin calves. They have a long rostrum, with hundreds of tiny sharp teeth (as compared to the bottlenose’s short beak with about 100 medium sized teeth). They have a chocolate brown body, matching the color of the estuarine water in which they live. Their eyes are small. Their flippers are relatively large, perhaps reflecting a need for greater maneuverability around features on the sea floor. Franciscana dolphins tend to surface slowly, sometimes with their long beak coming out of the water. I have never seen one jump out of the water.

April 5, 2007

Current satellite information shows that Lea and Roberto are deep within Bahia San Blas, while Yaana is a bit more towards the entrance channel of the bay. Click on the map above for a larger image.

April 4, 2007 - Franciscana Dolphin Range

So...we are going to be posting these maps daily. But you might be wondering what they refer to... You can get a sense of where this place is from the project map below, but what is the area like? Well, Franciscana dolphins live in coastal waters and estuaries---areas where there is influence from rivers, but typically in full seawater. The species is found from Brazil, through Uruguay, to northern Patagonia in Argentina, so the species as a whole experiences a wide range of water temperatures, though more temperate than tropical. This year, we worked near the southern extent of the species’ range, in early autumn waters of about 65 degrees. Where we have worked with them, Franciscans seem to prefer habitats with sandy bottoms and murky waters (from the river influence).

April 3, 2007

Here is today's map. From left to right: Yaana, Lea, Roberto. Click the image for a larger view.

March 30, 2007 - Killer Whales?

As we start to post these location maps, everyone is asking "how long will the satellite tags last?" The answer is...well, we do not know. We were receiving signals months beyond the expected life cycle of last year's tags---and we would love to see the same thing this year. But in reality, this year's tagging site is quite different from last year, even though both are on the coast of Argentina. The salinity and water conditions are different. And there's the killer whales (that's one on the left, near our tracking site)... So the real answer is that we should consider each day of transmission to be valuable, as they can stop any day. Keep checking for my postings to and we will see how long the tags last together.