Three Generations of Dolphins

The 10,000 Islands Dolphin Research Project is not well known in Southwest Florida, but the vessel where this research is collected is definitely better identified by the public as the Dolphin Explorer. Excursions on board this boat have received several awards, including the number four Best Boat Tour in the Country by a public voting forum, and have already been named the 2026 “Best of the Best” Dolphin Tour locally.

The research team boasts a well-educated team of individuals, including an Environmental Scientist with a Doctorate's Degree in Cetacean Biology, a Marine Biologist, and three Master Naturalists certified through the University of Florida. The program has been monitoring the local bottlenose dolphin population for nearly 20 years, which brings us to our topic today.

With this much research logged on every excursion and saved in our database, you can see that we know our dolphins very well, and we’ll introduce you to three generations of a mom, her seven children, and four grandchildren at this time. Our story begins back in 2006, the year the dolphin study began.

One of the very first dolphins we met was an adult female and a calf by her side that appeared to be about one and a half years old. The mom had one nick in the middle of her dorsal fin, that fin you see when a dolphin surfaces to breathe, so the mom was named Halfway. The calf, being so young, had no identifying marks on its dorsal fin, but the team was excited to “see more” of the youngster, so it was named Seymour. We don’t know if Halfway had any calves prior to Seymour since no dolphin studies were in place for the Marco Island area prior to our program.

The team quickly learned that a calf will stay with its mom for three to four years, and such was the case with Seymour. Estimating that Seymour was born in 2004, sure enough, he left Halfway’s side in 2007 when he turned three years old and mom had a new baby. This new calf was named Simon. Simon stayed with mom until 2010 when Halfway gave birth to her third known calf that was named Kaya. Can you see a pattern developing here as the study team did? Halfway was producing a new offspring every three years!

Kaya learned from mom, just as her older siblings, for three years when Halfway gave birth to Skipper in 2013. Yup, the pattern was very clear that every three years, Halfway was giving birth.

Skipper took all of the life lessons from Halfway that she could until her little brother Wyatt was born in 2016. Unlike the older siblings, Skipper stayed around with mom, babysitting her new little brother and watching mom’s motherly habits for an extra few months before going out on her own. This was interesting to the team and a new behavior to document.

Wyatt stayed with mom for three years as well, until Ben was born in 2019. Again, that three-year interval between births was right on schedule for Halfway. She had proven herself as a very good mom and a great teacher to her first five offspring, but then disaster struck. Ben was only seen for about six weeks and then, no more. It was obvious that this newborn had perished, being way too young to survive on its own, in need of mother’s milk for food and mom’s protection from predators. The exact reason for Ben not surviving is not known, but there are sharks in our waters, and Ben was likely taken by a Bull shark or Hammerhead.

Now, the three-year pattern was disrupted, so what would Halfway do? The study team was not new to baby dolphins not surviving and they were already documenting a pattern with other moms that lost their young. Halfway followed that pattern exactly.

Not having a newborn to nurse, Halfway did not need to produce milk at this time. Within two months, she was ready to mate, to become pregnant, and continue her role as a mom. The last sighting of Ben was in October of 2019. Halfway became pregnant in December of 2019, and with a gestation period (pregnancy term ) of 12 months, she gave birth to Cubbie in December of 2020.

This accounts for Halfway’s seven offspring, but this is where the story becomes very interesting. Kaya, born in 2010, was a daughter of Halfway and gave birth to her first baby in 2018. This young boy would be Halfway’s first grandbaby and was named Ariel. Kaya would have her second offspring in 2022. This new calf was named Venture and, just like Ben, did not survive but a month or two. As Halfway did, Kaya was mating about two months after Venture was gone, and with that 12-month pregnancy period, she gave birth to Peter in December of 2023. Peter will be two years old this December and is still by Kaya’s side for at least one more year.

Halfway’s other daughter, Skipper, gave birth to her first baby in 2021 and he was named Fergie. Fergie is now four years old and just left Skipper’s care recently. Skipper was also the victim of a shark bite when she was eight months old and escaped with minimal damage. She was also the subject of a rescue on her first birthday when fishing line became entangled around her tail fin, a life threatening event. She survived these trials to become a very good mom, just like her mom Halfway.

So, what are the further adventures of now four-time grandmother Halfway? In September of 2022 Hurricane Ian hit the Marco Island coast pretty hard. All of our dolphins, after the hurricane, were accounted for except for three: Halfway, her calf Cubbie, and another adult female named Sydney. Sydney has never been seen again. There was no sign of Halfway and Cubbie for the remainder of 2022. Then, in January of 2023, Cubbie showed up again in the Marco Island waters. Born in December of 2020, Cubbie was just over two years old. Calves typically stay by a mother’s side for three to four years. Cubbie was old enough and educated well by Halfway that he could catch fish on his own. Also, with brothers, sisters, and other relatives in this area, Cubbie had a strong social family tie here. Cubbie is still seen in the area on a regular basis and turns five years old this December.

Halfway has not been seen since Hurricane Ian in 2022. The survey team has no way of knowing how old she was when the storm hit our area. She could have been 20 years old or more when she was first sighted in 2006, or she could have been as young as nine years old at that initial sighting. Since the study program was new in 2006 and no other studies were performed in the area prior, it is simply impossible to know.

What the 10,000 Islands Dolphin Project does know is that the female offspring of Halfway are showing signs of the same virility as their mom and it is very possible that we could see a fourth generation from Halfway’s bloodline in the coming years.

In addition to Halfway there are two other females that have produced seven offspring. They are Darwina and Avery and both are seen on a regular basis in our study area of north Marco Island. There are now 12 grandmothers in our study thanks to the superb documentation of this dedicated team.

As years go by the Project will continue to diligently and accurately collect data to determine all of our dolphins’ habits and bloodlines for the sake of science. Reports are sent quarterly by the team to universities other dolphin study programs and to government offices regarding their findings and these reports are available for the public to read on our website. Go to dolphin-study.com and click “About,” then click “News,” and you can see the last six reports.

Stay in touch with the Coastal Breeze News in print or online to find out more about our local dolphin population!