Anatomy of a Dolphin Rescue – Part One

A few weeks ago, I wrote about some of our local dolphins that have had issues with fishing line entanglements around various parts of their anatomy and the threats to their behavior. Line around the dorsal fin, that fin we see when a dolphin surfaces to breathe, is not life-threatening and is not cause for alarm. However, an entanglement around the fluke, also known as the tail fin, could be life-ending. Here we go again…

The 10,000 Islands Dolphin Study Project prides itself on managing the abundance, distribution, movement, travel range, association patterns, social behavior, genealogy and overall health of the bottlenose dolphin population around the north end of Marco Island and the surrounding vicinity. As a result, many community members contact us with questions, pictures, videos and more about our dolphins. This is important because they often see events in the waters before we do, which brings us to the subject of this column.

On April 7th of this year, I was texted a video by Holly Romer, a resident at Twin Dolphins condominiums on Isles of Capri. Living several stories above ground level, Holly had a great look at a mom and calf swimming along the seawall and the calf had something trailing behind its fluke (tailfin). Thanks, Holly, for your video!

I immediately contacted the Marco Island marine police division, Florida Wildlife Commission (FWC), Mote Marine of Sarasota, and a few individuals active with agencies concerned with animal protection. FWC responded first and quickly. We have worked with FWC on several occasions regarding our dolphins, and they maintain a log of our area events.

Here is the plan of how a dolphin rescue begins. To narrow the search range for the dolphins, FWC requests sighting times and GPS coordinates. Since our team knows the mom, nine-and-a-half-year-old Skipper, and we have documented her calf, Fergie, since its birth in December 2021, we knew their travel range and general patterns of behavior.

I forwarded a history of Skipper and Fergie to FWC, and our team on the water texted or called me with every sighting of these two, including the GPS coordinates and any photos of the entanglement that we were able to take. Fergie was swimming freely by Mom’s side and was not in any stress at each sighting over the next few days.

On Thursday, April 13th, FWC decided that there was enough information from our team that warranted their staff to physically look at Fergie and plan some type of intervention in the foreseeable future. My wife Cathy, also a Master Naturalist, and I were on the water at 7:15 AM in a small boat, knowing FWC would be in our waters by 8:00 AM. We sighted Skipper and Fergie within 30 minutes of our hunt and phoned FWC.

Mom and calf stayed within our eyesight for about 45 minutes then took off. When FWC arrived, both of our boats searched the area for the two dolphins with no immediate luck. Moving around to the entrance of Collier Creek, another area that the two frequent, Cathy and I located them again and alerted FWC. They met us within minutes at a cove just south of Collier Creek on the Marco River.

I backed our boat away to allow FWC to do their job. With the increased elevation of a flying bridge on their boat, FWC was able to get a great angle to photograph Fergie’s dilemma. They stayed in the cove for just a short while and then headed into the river. Skipper and Fergie just met up with Skipper’s 28-month-old younger brother, Cubbie, and the three were now traveling together.

We spotted the trio heading toward the point of Isle of Capri, across from Factory Bay. Again, Cathy and I trailed at a distance to let FWC do their work, obtaining more photographs. The shallow waters here provided FWC with a great opportunity to assess the injury to Fergie. That was all that was done on April 13th.

They will return to their office and analyze the photos to understand exactly how the line was entangled, the best way to try and remove it and determine what type of intervention would be best and safest for the dolphins.

Our team has continued to take photos this week and will continue to stay in touch with FWC to ensure that Fergie is swimming freely and send GPS coordinates where mom and calf are being seen.

We are anxiously awaiting a date when a rescue or intervention will take place. This article is being written on the morning of April 15th, and I will report in Part Two about the results to save Fergie’s life.

As mentioned previously, our team has helped in the rescue of other dolphins. In September 2014, a major rescue to release fishing line from a one-year-old was successful. That dolphin…Skipper, Fergie’s mom!

Thanks again to Mrs. Romer for her video and to all of the citizens that keep watch over our wildlife. Thanks to the area agencies that are so passionate about helping our local dolphins, and a special thanks to Molly and Emily of FWC for their efforts to assess a rescue so quickly.

Stay tuned for Part Two, hopefully in the next Coastal Breeze edition!

NOTE: Dolphins are wild animals and protected by law. It is illegal to touch them or feed them in the wild. The Dolphin Explorer team is not authorized or trained to rescue dolphins and members of the public should obey the law as well. Our team has been criticized for not doing more... This is the reason. Thank you.