of individual dolphins (e.g., Shane 1977, Wiirsig and Wiirsig 1977, Acevedo- 

 Guti^rrez 1989, Harzen 1989, Peddemors 1989, Ballance 1990, Bel'kovich 1991, 

 Delgado 1991, Rudin et al. 1991, Wells 1991, Smolker et al. 1992, Bearzi and 

 Notarbartolo di Sciara 1993, Curran et al. 1993, Mallon-Day 1993, Swingle et al. 

 1993, Brager et al. 1994, the present study, Defran et al. in press). Across 

 studies, there is variation in resighting rate, which seems to correlate with 

 range size where such information is available {e.g., Weller 1991, Wells 1991, 

 the present study). For most study sites, one cannot yet conclude "lifetime" 

 residency, and there will always be differences among individuals, but many 

 sites show residency over several years {e.g., Golfo San Jos6, Argentina 

 [Wiirsig and Harris 1990]; Sarasota Bay, Florida [Scott et al. 1990a]; California 

 coast [Weller 1991]; and Shark Bay, Western Australia [Smolker et al. 1992]. In 

 Texas, resightings for a few well known individuals have spanned 6 yr 

 (Galveston Bay, Fertl 1993) and 15 yr (Aransas Pass, L. Price-May personal 

 commuTucation). Our results indicate that long-term residency may be a habit 

 of many within-bay bottlenose dolphins on the Texas coast. 



Although dolphins were not radio-tracked out of the study area south of 

 the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, we received a report of a freeze- 

 branded (number unknovm) dolphin occurring at the Corpus Christi Ship 

 Channel jetties, 100 km south of Port O'Connor, in November 1992. Other 

 evidence of occasional long-distance movements along Texas comes from 

 several sources. Gruber (1981) describes a Matagorda Bay sighting of a dolphin 

 originally identified by Shane (1977) in the Corpus Christi area. Jones (1991) 

 describes two dolphins that were resighted at Gulf inlets 517 km and 622 km 

 from where they were initially identified. Jones (1991) found that 11 of 146 

 identified dolphins occurred at two or more inlets, and all but the above two 

 long-distance movements were of distances < 300 km. The May 1992 and May 

 1993 Matagorda Bay surveys yielded identifications of two dolphins that had 

 been previously seen in the South Padre Island area, 285 km south (Wiirsig 

 unpublished data). Finally, FB523 was photographically documented in 

 Galveston waters in May 1994. At present there is little information on how 

 the long-range movement exhibited by some dolphins interleaves with 

 possible long-term residency to relatively small geographic ranges of other 

 individuals. 



In Califonua, such long distance movements seem common (Defran and 

 Weller 1993). Similar long distance movements are reported sporadically 

 from other areas as well. Dolphins in the Moray Firth, Scotland, are known to 

 travel 225 km (Currim et al. 93). Dolphins in Ciolfo San Jos^, Argentina, were 

 seen to travel 600 km round-trip (Wiirsig 1978). The sporadic nature of these 

 reports may be due to lack of effort more than rarity of long-distance 

 movement. 



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