Assessing the Potential Impacts of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill on Florida Dolphins

Results:

This was the first study to receive funding through Morris Animal Foundation’s Betty White Wildlife Rapid Response Fund, which gives wildlife researchers timely monetary aid to respond to unexpected events, such as natural disasters and emerging diseases, that result in the urgent need for animal health research. This grant provided researchers with immediate funds to begin important research on the long-term effects of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico on dolphins in Sarasota Bay, Florida. Researchers from the Chicago Zoological Society conducted a comprehensive survey of the dolphins in Sarasota Bay, collecting tissue, mapping and tracking movements, and assessing long-term residency. Although the researchers found that the oil ultimately did not reach this area and did not directly affect the population, the samples and data collected from this project are being used as baseline data for comparison to samples and data collected in oil-affected areas to better define the impacts of oil spills and provide guidance for handling future oil spills around the world. In addition, this study provided training opportunities to 11 undergraduate interns and two graduate students.

View video of the team in the field http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1DWoorc0vI.

Dr. Randall Wells, Chicago Zoological Society’s Sarasota Dolphin Research Program
D10ZO-700