South Florida Bottlenose Dolphin Photo-identification Cooperative

The main goals of this monitoring are detection of large-scale change in bottlenose dolphin abundance and establishment of archival databases for long-term trend detection. In 1990, the National Oceanographic Administration (NOAA), NMFS, Southeast Fisheries Science Center (SEFSC) Miami Laboratory initiated low-level monitoring of bottlenose dolphins, Tursiops truncatus, in Biscayne Bay, Florida using photographic identification (photo-ID) methods to gather information on the numbers of bottlenose dolphins that utilize this area.

Biscayne Bay has been greatly influenced by the development of the Miami area in the past 75 years. Information from 12 years of photo-ID surveys has confirmed the presence of a relatively large, long-term resident, core population of bottlenose dolphins in the Bay. Their role as apex predators characterizes these animals as excellent indicators of the overall health of Biscayne Bay.