21 



Recommendations 



• Monitoring should be continued at least annually. The more frequent the surveys 

 the better the chance of detecting a trend towards a catastrophic decline. More- 

 intensive surveys would permit more-refined determinations of natality, 

 immigration, emigration, transience, and mortality. 



• Community structure needs to be examined in more detail to define biologically 

 meaningful management units. Existing information on residency, ranging and 

 social patterns, and genetics should be integrated to arrive at population 

 designations. Analysis of community structure is necessary to interpret 

 immigration, emigration, and transience relative to population size. 



• Photo-ID efforts should be expanded to greater distances offshore and north along 

 the coast to examine immigration, emigration, and transience in greater detail. 



• Patterns of habitat use in Tampa Bay should be examined through integration of 

 GIS habitat data with our sighting data. 



• Additional data are needed to describe community structure. In particular, sample 

 sizes for examination of mt-DNA haplotype distributions in Tampa Bay should be 

 augmented through biopsy darting or capture-release efforts. The genetics data 

 should be supplemented with telemetry data on movements and additional photo- 

 ID efforts. 



• Photo-ID work should be expanded to other seasons to examine previous reports of 

 seasonal fluctuations in abundance. If we have surveyed during the peak of 

 abundance, then which of these animals move out during other seasons? Do 

 others move in? The results of other studies indicate that at least some of the 

 Tampa Bay dolphins are present year- around (Bassos 1993). 



• The ability of the NMFS to compare rate parameters from one study site to another 

 would benefit from standardization of methodology. A manual describing our 

 research approach and techniques, from design through analysis should be 

 developed. 



Acknowledgments 



The National Marine Fisheries Service supported all six years of this survey 

 project. We thank Earthwatch and the many intrepid volunteers for participating in 

 and supporting the project during the first four years of the project. The Chicago 

 Zoological Society provided RSW and KWU with funding and logistical field support. 

 Additional assistance was provided by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 

 Dolphin Biology Research Institute, Mote Marine Laboratory, and the Inter- 

 American Tropical Tuna Commission. Dan Odell, coordinator of the SEUS Stranding 

 Network, provided stranding data summaries, and photographs of stranded dolphins 

 were provided by Donna Banowetz and Mark Sweat of the Florida Marine Research 

 Institute, and the Clearwater Marine Science Center. We would like to thank West 

 Marine Products, Cannon's Marina, Mako Marine, Mariner Outboards, Yamaha 

 Outboards, Capt. Tom and Lee Sehorne, "Poppy" Donoghue, Casey Silvey, Mrs. A.G. 

 Wimpy, and Jack and Fran Wells for their crucial assistance with the logistics of the 

 Field work. Blair Irvine and Paul Harrison were responsible for developing our 

 Foxbase database system and associated programming - without their tireless efforts 

 we would not have been able to effectively process the large quantities of data 

 collected. The Sarasota Macintosh User's Group helped us over the inevitable hurdles 

 of problems with cantankerous new computers and software. We very much 

 appreciate the field and lab contributions of Jill Madden, Michelle Wells, Kate 

 Grellier, Forbes Darby, Tristen Moors, Sue Hofmann, Gabi Prochnow, Monica Oring, 

 and Chris Dold. Alejandro Angenuzzi helped with the bootstrap variance estimates. 



