Randall S. Wells, PhD, Program Manager

        I direct the activities of the Sarasota Dolphin Research Program (SDRP), the world’s longest-running study of a dolphin population. I began studying bottlenose dolphins in Sarasota Bay, Florida, as a high school volunteer at Mote Marine Laboratory in 1970. I received my BA in Zoology from the University of South Florida in 1975, my Master’s in Zoology from the University of Florida in 1978, and my PhD in Biology from the University of California, Santa Cruz in 1986. I was awarded a Post-doctoral Fellowship in Biology from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in 1987. I have worked with the Chicago Zoological Society since 1989, where I am currently a Senior Conservation Scientist, and in this capacity I also manage Mote Marine Laboratory’s Dolphin Research Program. I am a Professor of Ocean Sciences (adjunct) at the University of California, Santa Cruz, where I serve as major advisor for MS and PhD students. I also hold an adjunct Professor position with the University of North Carolina, Wilmington, and an associated faculty position with the University of Florida’s College of Veterinary Medicine.
       My current research program uses a collaborative approach to examine the behavior, social structure, life history, ecology, health, and population biology of bottlenose dolphins along the central west coast of Florida, with studies focusing on five generations of a locally resident 160-member dolphin community. Recent research topics include the effects of human activities on coastal dolphins, such as boat traffic, fishing activities, human feeding of wild dolphins, and environmental contaminants. I have served as principal or co-principal investigator for more than 150 funded marine mammal research projects. In addition to bottlenose dolphin research, I have engaged in studies of the behavior of Hawaiian spinner dolphins, blue, gray, and humpback whales, ranging patterns of franciscana dolphins off Argentina, the effects of industrial activities on bowhead whales, the impacts of boat traffic on manatees, and the reintroduction of captive and rehabilitated dolphins back into their native waters.
       I have authored or co-authored 4 books, more than 100 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters, 66 technical reports, and 13 popular or semi-popular pieces. I have been presenter or co-author of more than 250 presentations at professional meetings and more than 150 invited public or university lectures. I also serve as member and past-chair of the NOAA/USFWS Atlantic Scientific Review Group, and I am a charter member and past-chair of the NOAA/USFWS Working Group on Marine Mammal Unusual Mortality Events. I serve on IUCN’s Cetacean Specialist Group and Reintroduction Specialist Group, and I am President-Elect of the Society for Marine Mammalogy.