Pod Protectors of Fort Myers Beach

24/06/2026

Did you know?🐬
Dolphin calves have best friends! 👇
Photos: Monica Lynn

21/06/2026

👇How often do dolphins hunt? 🐬🐟

🐬 Dolphins are opportunistic, high-energy predators. In the wild, they hunt and eat frequently throughout the day—often every 1.5 to 2 hours—to fuel their non-stop swimming and maintain their body temperature.

🐟An average adult bottlenose dolphin consumes roughly 4% to 6% of its total body weight in food each day. For a large dolphin, this equates to roughly 15 to 30 pounds of fish, squid, or crustaceans daily.

🍼Nursing mothers require even more, bumping their intake up to about 8% of their body weight.

💧Dolphins never drink seawater. Because their food is swallowed whole, they absorb all the fresh water they need to survive directly from the fluids inside the fish and squid they eat.

🤷‍♀️Why do we care? When we're on the water, we are in their dining room. Let's be respectful guests and not interrupt their meals by noisily demanding their attention or purposely creating boat wakes to pull them away from dinner. ❤️

19/06/2026

👇Why Mangroves Matter🐬🐟🐬

16/06/2026

👇How to protect dolphins when you are fishing.🐬🎣🐟

🐬“In the span of two weeks, three dolphins died in Sarasota Bay because of human activity, two adults and one four-month old calf. Their deaths were preventable. The two adults likely died from hook-and-line fishing gear, and the third was killed by a boat strike, according to Randy Wells, director of the Sarasota Dolphin Research Program.

💔To Wells, and others with the program, these animals are more than study subjects, they are individuals with complex lives and friendships. The loss of these three animals is particularly heartbreaking for the people who have studied them because they didn’t have to happen.

💔 “We’ve known some of these animals for more than four decades,” said Wells. “We know their kids, their grandkids and their great grandkids and their great great grandkids. We know the dramas that they’ve gone through, the entanglements we’ve rescued them from, and the boat strikes they’ve had to live through.”
(Read the complete article from the Wild Dolphin Project:
https://www.wilddolphinproject.org/human-activities-cause-deaths-of-sarasota-bay-dolphins/ )

🐬How can we help keep our dolphins safe here in Fort Myers Beach when fishing?

🎣While fishing, please protect dolphins by following these guidelines:
• Don’t feed wild dolphins.
• Reel in your fishing line if dolphins appear.
• Change locations if dolphins show interest in bait or catch.
• Release catch quietly away from dolphins when and where it is possible to do so without violating any state or federal fishing regulations.
• Check gear and terminal tackle to make sure it won’t break off easily and, if your line does break, be sure to collect anything left behind in mangroves or on
docks.
• Use circle and corrodible hooks and avoid braided fishing line
• Stash your trash in a lidded container on your boat until you can get to shore and dispose of it safely in a place where it will not blow back into the water.

🐬Our dolphins are intelligent, sentient individuals and deserve to live out their lives peacefully in the waters they call home. Let's do all we can to to keep them safe & free from harm. ❤

11/06/2026

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/19CUP2nDCs/

We would like to introduce you to our local gentle giants, the manatees. Wanted to share this from Visit Fort Myers

08/06/2026

👇Did our dolphins feel the effects of the earthquake today? ❓❓

🐬Our local pod likely felt the underwater acoustic shockwaves from the strong 6.1-magnitude earthquake that struck just northwest of Cuba. Water conducts sound and pressure waves incredibly well and dolphins have highly sensitive hearing and echolocation systems that would allow them to perceive the energy from the event.

📣High Sound Sensitivity: Dolphins are very sensitive to underwater sounds and pressure changes. Sound travels about four times faster in water than in air. The earthquake occurred at 2:00 p.m. Eastern Time in the Gulf of Mexico, roughly 65 miles northwest of Cuba. The energy released into the water would have been clearly audible to marine life across the Gulf

👩Human residents in Fort Myers and across Southwest Florida reported feeling floors vibrate and office items shaking around 2:00 p.m.. Since the vibrations were strong enough for people on land to notice, dolphins swimming in the local waters definitely would have picked up the physical and acoustic vibrations.

🐬Were the Dolphins Hurt or Affected?
No. Dolphins regularly experience underwater background noises, including heavy shipping traffic, storms, and distant seismic activity. A brief vibration from a 6.1-magnitude quake might startle them or cause them to temporarily shift their swimming patterns, but it does not pose a direct threat to their health.🎉

06/06/2026

👇Myth: Jet Skis Can't Hurt Dolphins

❌️We often hear the claim that jet skis & jet boats can't hurt dolphins because they don't have propellers.

🐬This is simply not true. Jet skis can kill dolphins from sheer impact.

🚑In Australia in 2011, a two-month-old dolphin calf found dead off Melbourne's Portsea Back Beach suffered fatal skull and jaw trauma, including a broken mandible, which wildlife authorities concluded was caused by a high-speed collision with a jet ski. Eyewitnesses had observed jet skis chasing dolphins in that area.

🐬 NOAA labels "coralling" or circling dolphins with jet skis as "harrassment," as it causes them great distress. No wonder, as dolphins often hunt by circling their prey.

🐬When we know better, we can do better. So let's spread the word but always educate with kindness & respect! ❤️

04/06/2026

❓️A good question that bears repeating....

🐬 If dolphins like to jump in a boat wake, why is wrong to encourage it? Excellent question!

🚤Here's the answer from a News Press article from June 1, 2015. Experienced dolphin tour captain, J.R. Trepper follows NOAA guidelines to protect our pod:

🌊"If you deliberately make a wake for the dolphin to ride purposefully, that's considered harassment. Wake riding separates the mothers from the babies. Mom rides the wake, but the baby can't keep up. The mother can't hear the baby's cries because of the engine noise. The baby has to stop, and the pair gets separated."

🐬He says sometimes the separation of parent and child is permanent. Enticing dolphins to wake-ride also accustoms dolphins to approaching boats, as does feeding, and this leads to another danger.

🚑In 50 percent of the pictures we take, the dolphins have a scar from a boat impact," Trepper says."

❗️In the first picture below, note the scars on this dolphin calf's body. It takes time for calves to master the art of echolocation and they can easily have a deadly encounter with a boat prop.

❤️No sound enticement or boat wake was used when these photos were taken. Photos: Monica Lynn

03/06/2026

👇What color are our local dolphins?

🐬 Our local dolphins are common coastal bottlenose dolphins and feature a distinct two-tone coloring: a darker gray (or steel gray) on their top and a lighter gray to almost white underbelly, which acts as camouflage from above and below.

🐬 Newborn calves are a charcoal color, darker than adults. This serves as camouflage to protect them from predators.

❓️ Why do our dolphins appear copper or a deep dark gray at times? This is simply a result of the angle of sunlight hitting them. ☀️

01/06/2026

Male "Allies"--Beneficial Bonds 🐬🐬

🐬Male dolphins often form lifelong alliances with other males when they are still young calves.

🐬Allies bond through a complex mix of signature whistles, synchronized swimming, and physical affection.

🐬These tight-knit "bromances"—usually formed by pairs or trios—rely on these behaviors to build trust and coordinate cooperative strategies for hunting and mating.

🐬Locally, we see a pair of allies named Clarence and Frederick hunting, playing and pursuing females together. ❤️