16 years later, what’s changed?

No one has gone out to survey the bottlenose dolphin population in Drowned Cayes since Peterson 1999. My goal is to repeat the bottlenose dolphin survey of 1999 by Peterson (2001) to determine any change in the ecology, behavior and habitat use by the population previously identified and described. Peterson's study in 2001, found that most of the study area is used for foraging, particularly in the mangrove channels. There were also high occurrences of foraging behavior combined with either travel or social interactions. Not enough information was collected to determine if the dolphins show site fidelity. Additionally, a high number of calves were recorded, suggesting that the area is used as a nursery (Petersen 2001). Our study will observe and record our data using the same methods to see if there has been changes to Peterson's observations.

So what do we expect?

Based, on the exponential growth of boat traffic in the lagoon system, I expect that the dolphin population has changed their distribution and behaviors. The number of dolphins should be relatively the same as Peterson (2001), but there should be more dolphins within the Swallow Caye Wildlife Sanctuary (SCWS) due to dolphins trying to avoid human activity. The behaviors outside of the SCWS will be different within the SCWS; resting and feeding will occur more frequently away from human activity.

 

Image of Swallow Caye Wildlife Sanctuary. Established in July 2002 after manatee operators pushed for MPA to minimize increasing human impact. SCWS encompasses 8,970 acres of seagrass beds, deeper channels, and mangrove islands, including to northern mangrove islands in the Drowned Cayes (two right most islands in image).