Popular Sarasota dolphin found dead
A group of boaters feed Beggar the dolphin illegally near the Albee Road Bridge. (Photo courtesy Sarasota Dolphin Research Program, taken under NMFS Scientific Research Permit No. 15543)
VINCENT F. SAFUTO
Correspondent
Published: Saturday, September 22, 2012 at 12:59 p.m.
SARASOTA - "Beggar" the bottlenose dolphin got his nickname by begging for food from people near the Albee Road Bridge, a spot the dolphin frequented for two decades.
He was found dead Friday near the same bridge in the Intracoastal Waterway.
Mote Marine Laboratory officials who studied the dolphin's behavior for two decades believe that his close contact with humans contributed to Beggars' death.
"By feeding Beggar, people reinforced the bad behavior that eventually played a role in his death," said Dr. Randy Wells, director of the Sarasota Dolphin Research Program. "Ultimately, it's human behavior that we need to change. We need to make sure that this pattern doesn't repeat itself with another dolphin."
Petting and feeding dolphins is illegal under the Marine Mammal Protection Act. Punishments are up to $100,000 in fines and possibly a year in jail. Recently, three such cases were prosecuted in Florida by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, officials said.
The people who fed Beggar changed his behavior and put him at greater risk of boat strikes, and it appears that other dolphins learned similar behavior to get food from people, Mote officials say.
Beggar is one of a family of dolphins in Sarassota Bay that are the most studied wild dolphins on Earth.
A necropsy, or animal autopsy, on Beggar on Friday evening found fishing gear in his first stomach as well as food dolphins normally do not eat, multiple broken ribs and vertebrae, and external injuries from boat encounters, but no cause of death was identified.
From March to June 2011, Dr. Katie McHugh of the Sarasota Dolphin Research Program observed Beggar for 100 hours. She documented 3,600 interactions between the dolphin and humans, including 121 attempts by people to touch him, resulting in nine bites.
"Compared to the other wild dolphins we study in Sarasota Bay, Beggar was not a healthy dolphin," McHugh said. "In addition to his unnatural feeding behavior, Beggar also had very limited social interactions with other dolphins and moved over an extremely small range when compared to most adult male dolphins."
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