First Baby Dolphin of the Fall Identified

Dolphin Explorer LLC is the proprietor of the 10,000 Islands Dolphin Study Project which monitors the abundance, social behavior, travel range, feeding habits, genealogy, health and overall well-being of the local bottlenose dolphin population. With 17 years of data, the study continues….

It’s September 12th and I am on the boat with my wife Cathy, Captain Eddie and his wife Teri and my daughter Andrea. We are scouring the waters of north Marco Island searching for new baby dolphins. It’s birthing season and we have a strong feeling that a few babies have already been born.

We searched for more than two hours but no luck. We did see a couple of our one-year-olds with their moms as well as a two-year-old and mom, but no new babies. We searched a lot of territory including a shallow water area known as Johnson Bay. As we headed back toward the open gulf, I put my binoculars up and looked behind me. About 200 yards back I noticed the flip of a dolphin tail fin, and we all agreed to go take a look.

We had just been through these waters and no babies were seen 30 minutes prior. But this time there was an adult dolphin breaching the surface and right next to her, a tiny blip also coming to the surface. Cameras were up and everyone was trying to get a picture of the mom’s fin, for identification purposes, and to get a picture of the first new calf of the fall birthing season. I was able to get a good, clear pic of the markings on the mom’s dorsal fin (we identify our dolphins by the unique nicks and notches on this fin) and I began looking through my catalog to determine who is this female. No luck! There was no fin in the book matching the photograph!

When I returned home, I went straight to my database to do some more research. We were all on a mission to identify this female. I wrote an article a few weeks ago saying that our team had 13 females that were potentials to give birth this fall, but there is usually a surprise from another lady that could join the mix. This was that one, and it took some research to figure it out.

You see, dolphin dorsal fins will change over time as they continue to nip and bite at each other’s fins. This mom’s markings had changed dramatically! Thanks to photo identification that we use and saving those photos to our database we determined that this mom is a first-time mother named Phineas. Looking at a fin photo from over a year ago, we noticed two distinct markings, plus a unique curve on the front of the fin. We placed that photo side-by-side with a camera pic taken just hours earlier of the mom in Johnson Bay. With a positive match for three marks on the fin, plus adding the new marks currently on the fin, we came up with this match!

Phineas is 10 years old, and this is her first calf. She had been seen in the past primarily in the waters between the Jolley Bridge and Goodland and not seen very often. But that was her feeding area. She is the daughter of Patch’s Twin and was raised, you guessed it, not too far from Johnson Bay, where she was seen with her new calf. This makes Patch’s Twin a first-time grandmother, the sixth grandmom that we know in our north Marco waters.

So why did Phineas bring her new baby back to Johnson Bay rather than where she normally feeds? First of all, the water is shallow there so getting to the surface for a breath is easy. Secondly, this is where Phineas was taught to feed by her mom, Patch’s Twin. The new calf will become familiar with mom’s original feeding grounds. Third, mom can protect her calf better from predators, like sharks, in shallow water. It all makes sense why Phineas brought her baby back to this area.

Phineas will, more than likely, stay in these waters until the youngster is coordinated and learns to swim better. It is a good training center for a baby dolphin. In a few months, mom may take her calf to the area that she currently feeds, or she might just stay where the calf was first sighted, but time will tell.

Our team will continue its search for more new calves over the next few months and we will update the public as they are documented, so stay tuned!

Oh, yes! So, what is the new baby dolphin’s name? It has been dubbed “Kai,” which is of Asian descent, meaning “ocean.” Welcome, Kai, and here’s to a long and successful life in the Marco Island waters. May we see you often and get to meet your new siblings in the coming years!

Congrats to Phineas with her first born and to Patch’s Twin, now a first-time grandmother!