Where is Betty today?

A mother and calf pair of Risso’s dolphins stranded near Bonita Beach, Fla., on May 4, 2007. The animals, nicknamed Betty and Big Al, were rehabilitated at Mote’s Dolphin and Whale Hospital and released early Thursday, Sept. 27, 2007, marking the first time a cow and such a young dependent calf have been rehabilitated and released in the Southeast Region of the U.S. Marine Mammal Stranding Network.

Betty was tagged with a satellite-linked transmitter. Click on the links below (the dates) to view her current location. The text describes her movements.

1-12-08
After 105 days of tracking, we have not received any signals from Betty for the past two days. Several lines of evidence suggest that this is likely due to the tag coming off the fin, rather than any problem with Betty herself or with the tag electronics. The sequence in which different kinds of data stopped being transmitted (longer messages stopped first) suggests a repositioning of the tag on the fin, as would happen if one or more of the three attachment pins were no longer functional. The battery strength was still adequate as of the most recent status message. Betty was still making a few dives to 600-800 m and staying down on occasion for 8-9 minutes within the past week or so.

This pattern of events leading up to cessation of signals is comparable to what happened with the rehabbed Risso's dolphin "Clyde" after a little more than three weeks of tracking. In Betty's case, the performance was greatly improved, with the tag remaining attached and functional for 45 days longer than our expected 60 days.

As of earlier this week, Betty was still in the same area where she had spent the past six weeks or so, west of Key West. Unless we receive more signals from Betty, this will be the final update.

1-10-08
Betty remains in the same general area as she has for the past six weeks.

1-9-08
Signals were received from Betty today, but no location data were provided.

1-8-08
No word from Betty today.

1-7-08
Betty has returned north to the general area where she has spent the past six weeks.

1-6-08
Betty is a bit south of her 10-day cluster of positions, but still over the edge of the shelf. We'll have to wait to see if she is moving on, or returns to the area of the cluster.

1-5-08
We have begun receiving location data from Betty once again, as seas in the Gulf of Mexico subside. She remains in the same area where she has been since 27 November, west of Key West, over the edge of the continental shelf.

1-4-08 (no map)
Betty is still transmitting, but we are not getting location data from the transmissions. My first guess is still that the rough seas are interfering with transmission. Seas are subsiding today, so we should be able to test this over time.

1-3-08 (no map)
So far today, no news from Betty. There were only two transmissions received yesterday (an unusually small number). Given that the battery and dive data from Jan. 1, 2008, appeared reasonable, I would speculate that the high waves and steep seas associated with the continuing strong winds of the major cold front that passed through are interfering with signal transmission.

1-2-08
Betty remains in the same area. She is in the middle of the 11-day cluster of positions.

1-1-08
Today, Betty is in the middle of the cluster of positions from the most recent 11 tracking days.

12-31-07
Betty continues her pattern as developed over the past five weeks.

12-30-07
Betty remains in the same area, as shown in the attached map of the past nine tracking days.

12-29-07
Betty continues her pattern in the same general area.

12-28-07
Betty continues what has become her "usual pattern" since Nov. 27, as shown in this map of the most recent seven tracking days.

12-27-07
A milestone!
Three months ago today, Betty and son Big Al were released into the Gulf of Mexico from the TomCat, a private vessel owned by Tampa Bay residents Cathy Unruh and Tom Sansone, who donated the yacht's use for the release.
After a sojourn through most of the Gulf of Mexico, Betty seems have settled on her current location on the edge of the continental shelf west of Key West as an acceptable location for conducting Grampus business. She has spent the past month in this general location, making occasional dives to 800-1,000 m, and, at times, staying down for 11-15 minutes. Over the past week, she has made six of these impressively deep dives, but the vast majority of her dives continue to be to less than 50 m.
Betty's deepest and longest dives occurred during the six-hour period of dusk, providing additional support to the findings from Clyde that Grampus are crepuscular animals, that is, they are most active at dawn and/or dusk.
We had hoped for 60 days of tracking, and have now exceeded 90 days. Her tag has made 24,832 transmissions. The specifications for the battery called for an expectation of 25,000 transmissions. The battery voltage on the tag continues to be in a good range, so we can hope for continued data.

12-26-07
Betty continues to work the edge of the shelf west of Key West.

12-25-07
12-24-07
Betty is spending the holidays in the same area where she has spent the past month.

12-23-07
Betty remains in the same area where she has been since Nov. 27: over the edge of the continental shelf. Water depths in the attached map are in meters. The movements in the map are those from the past 11 tracking days, showing that she remains in an area of less than 50 km diameter.

12-22-07
Betty remains in the same area she has been in since Nov. 27.

12-21-07
Betty remains in the same area. Her most recent position this morning is indicated by the red dot in the middle of the cluster. The other dots are from the most recent 11 days of tracking. The blow-up is meant to show how she concentrates her activities in a very limited area over the edge of the shelf. Water depths are in meters.

12-20-07
Betty remains in the same area - her first position of the day is in the middle off the cluster of positions recorded for her over the past 11 days in the attached map.

12-19-07
Betty remains in the same small area off the edge of the shelf.

12-18-07
Betty remains in the same area she has for more than three weeks, near the 1,000 m contour at the edge of the shelf. She has made one dive to 800-1,000 m -- the deepest dive ever documented for this species (perhaps approaching the sea floor on this occasion), and double the deepest dive recorded for Clyde. Most of her dives continue to be to depths less than 50 m. One dive lasted 11-15 min, but most continue to be less than 4 min long. After more than 19,000 transmissions, battery voltage still looks good.

12-17-07
Betty remains in the same area as she has for the past three weeks.

12-16-07
Betty remains in an area of less than 50 km diameter, as shown in the attached map for the past seven tracking days. The contrast to the first two months of tracking, a period when she traversed most of the Gulf of Mexico, is remarkable.

12-15-07
Betty did not venture far away from the area where she has been since Nov. 27, and has now returned.

12-14-07
Betty remains in the same general area as she has since 27 November, but a bit farther to the Southeast.

12-13-07
Betty remains in the same general area where she has been since Nov. 27.

12-12-07
Once again, Betty remains in the same general area where she has been since Nov. 27. The attached map shows the most recent 11 tracking days.

12-11-07
Betty remains in the same general area where she has been since Nov. 27.

12-10-07
Betty remains in the same general area where she has been since Nov. 27.

12-9-07
Yesterday's poor-quality position appears to have been just that - an inaccurate outlier. Betty remains in the area where she has been for nearly two weeks: west of Key West.

12-8-07
Betty may be on the move to the southwest, but the quality of the single reasonable location for today was not good. Over the past few days, she has made a number of dives to 600-800 m (a record for this species), and stayed down for up 11-15 min, although most dives continue to be to 50 m or less, and 3-4 min. After more than 18,500 transmissions, battery voltage is still looking good.

12-7-07
Betty remains in the same general area as she has been now for 11 days, an area of about 100 km diameter, about 290 km Soutwest of her stranding site. If she continues to remain in the area, it begs the question about whether she perhaps has found her "home" from before the stranding, or if she has simply found really good habitat for Risso's dolphin after her extended tour of the greater Gulf of Mexico. The entire arc from due west of Fort Myers to due south, including where she is now, has the 1,000 m contour about equi-distant from the stranding site.


12-6-07
Betty remains in the same general area as she has for more than a week, over the edge of the shelf, about 280 km Southwest of her stranding site.

12-5-07
Betty remains in the same general area over the shelf edge where she has spent the past week, as can be seen in the attached map depicting the most recent 11 tracking days.

12-4-07
Betty has remained in the same general area as the past few days, about 190 km west of Key West, in about 1,000 m of water. The attached map shows the past 11 tracking days.

12-3-07
Betty remains in the same small area in about 1,000+ m of water as she has for the past few days.

12-2-07
Betty remains in the same area as the past few days.

12-1-07
Betty has completed a circle over the past few days in 1,000 m of water off the Southwest Florida shelf.

11-30-07
Betty has turned around - it's unclear which way she is heading at this point. The attached map showing the most recent seven days of tracking has been filtered to eliminate unreasonable locations.

11-29-07
Betty has turned back toward the West Florida shelf, and is over the 1,000 m contour.

11-28-07
Betty has moved a bit farther offshore, but is still generally parallelling the shelf edge as she moves SSE off the Southwest coast of Florida, as can be seen in the attached map showing the most recent five-day track.

11-27-07
Betty continues to the south along the shelf edge. Will she follow Clyde's path around the tip of Florida? Will she turn back into the Gulf for another round? Will she go to the Caribbean? Stay tuned.

11-26-07
Betty has turned south along the 1,000 m contour off the west Florida shelf, as can be seen in the attached 4-day track.

11-25-07
The tracking of Betty reached a milestone today, achieving the two-month mark that was the target for tracking duration. Battery strength suggests that, after 14,000 transmissions to date, we may be able to continue to hear from her for a while. Betty continues toward Florida, moving to a position about 105 km southwest of her release site, and about 320 km west of her stranding site. Betty has been making a number of dives to 400-600 m depth, and staying down for up to 10-11 min.

11-24-07
Betty is headed back toward the shelf edge off west Florida, roughly 100 miles southwest of her release site about two months ago.

11-23-07
Betty seems to have returned north a bit, although the quality of the single location provided so far today is poor.

11-22-07
Happy Thanksgiving! It looks as if Betty is likely to be enjoying a feast of Mexican seafood today, as she heads to the southeast along the edge of the shelf northeast of Yucatan.

11-21-07
Betty remains near the north tip of the Campeche Bank, but seems to be moving a bit to the Southeast.

11-20-07
Betty remains off the north tip of the Campeche Bank.

11-19-07
The attached map shows Betty's track over the past 11 days without filtering out the "bad" locations in order to include some important "good" locations of the same location quality code. Please ignore points that are way off the general track formed by the majority of points, including, apparently, the point that suggested that yesterday Betty was headed for the Caribbean. She may now be headed back to the Bahia de Campeche.

11-18-07
Betty now appears to be heading to the east of Yucatan, toward the Caribbean Sea.

11-17-07
Betty may be starting to head back towards Campeche from the middle of the Gulf.

11-16-07
Betty is in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico, heading south, southeast. The next destination on her tour of the Gulf will be ?

11-15-07
Today's report was delayed due to technical difficuties at CLS/Argos. Betty is in the middle of the Gulf, continuing to head generally to the east.

11-14-07
Betty continues moving east through the middle of the Gulf of Mexico, south of Louisiana/Mississippi.

11-13-07
Betty continues to move to the east through the deep water south of Louisiana. This plot shows the most recent 11 tracking days (with obviously incorrect positions filtered out).

11-12-07
Betty has moved offshore a bit, south of Louisiana, to waters about 2000 m deep. She has been making a few dives to 300-500 m, but the vast majority of dives continue to be to less than 50 m. Over the past few days, she has made dives lasting as long as 9-10 min, but mostly they are 3-4 min or less. She has sent nearly 11,000 transmissions (of 25,000 projected total), and battery voltage continues to be strong.

11-11-07
Betty continues to the east along the edge of the continental shelf south of Louisiana, as can be seen in the attached map of the most recent nine tracking days. Betty's tracking has now continued for twice as long as was possible for Clyde.

11-10-07
Betty continues moving to the east along the shelf edge south of Louisiana, as can be seen in the attached six-day plot. She appears to be in the vicinity of a fair amount of oil production activity.

11-9-07
Betty continues moving slowly to the east to the south of Louisiana, roughly zig-zagging over the 200-1000 m slope. The attached map shows the current location data and the previous 5 tracking days.

11-8-07
Betty is generally making way to the east, south of the 200 m contour off Louisiana, as can be seen in the attached map depicting the past 6 tracking days.

11-7-07
Betty is to the south of Louisiana, now moving westward near the 200 m contour.

11-6-07
Betty is moving east along the 200 m contour south of Texas. The attached map includes the most recent 4 days of data.

11-5-07
Betty is moving east along the 200-1000 m contour south of Texas. The attached 10-day tracking map has been filtered to eliminate the obviously incorrect positions. Over the past day she has been picking her way around oil production structures, according to the base chart provided by CLS/Argos. In the past week she has made a few dives to 400-500 m, and even one dive to 500-600 m, and up to 11-15 min. in duration. To date, Betty's tag has transmitted about 9,000 times (of a projected 25,000 for this battery). Battery voltage is still well within the acceptable range.

11-4-07
Betty is off the coast of Texas, moving north-northeast, in waters 100 - 200 m deep.

11-3-07
Betty continues moving north, approaching the 1,000 m contour south of Texas. The two obvious outlier locations to the west of the general northerly track should be disregarded.

11-2-07
Betty continues to the north, crossing the Mexico-U.S. border today, headed toward Texas.

11-1-07
Betty continues to the NW through the deep waters of the western Gulf.

10-31-07
Betty is continuing to move north through the Sigsbee Deep portion of the western Gulf of Mexico.

10-30-07
Betty continues north through the Gulf of Mexico. In the 10 day tracking map posted, please ignore the recent single point that is far to the west - this was a poor quality (possibly wrong) location.

10-29-07
Betty continues north through the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico, away from the shelf edge off Yucatan. She is currently in about 3,600 m water depth. Her most recent dive data, from before she left the shelf edge, show an increased frequency of dives to 100-400 m, staying down for up to 11 min or more. Battery strength of the transmitter continues to be good, and she has sent about 1/3 the total number of expected transmissions for the battery life.

10-28-07
Betty has moved about 88 km offshore of the 200 m contour, into water about 3,500 m deep, and continues moving counter-clockwise around the southwestern Gulf of Mexico.

10-27-07
Betty continues moving north along the edge of the shelf, to the NNW of Yucatan.

10-26-07
Betty continues to move counter-clockwise through the southern Gulf of Mexico, along the edge of the shelf. It appears that the location shown for Betty in shallower water on the map yesterday may have been an artifact of location data quality, as subsequent and better-quality data points for the day showed her along the edge of the shelf. It must be recognized that subsequent data and continued data processing by CLS/Argos may change the picture somewhat as we continue to try and post location information as soon as the first data arrives daily.

10-25-07
A month after her release, Betty is moving through relatively shallow waters (50 m deep) NW of Yucatan. She is not too far from the edge of the shelf.

10-24-07
As can be seen in the 10-day summary, Betty is moving NE along the shelf edge NW of Yucatan. Seas have been very rough in the area as a result of a front passing through, so signals have been fewer than usual.

10-23-07
Betty has moved to the 200 m contour NW of Yucatan. She has been covering an average of more than 100 km/day for the past few days.

10-22-07
Betty continues her circuit of the southern portion of the Bahia de Campeche, paralleling the 1,000 m contour as she moves to the NE. She continues to make occasional dives to 400-500 m, and stays down for as long as 10-11 min. The battery strength on the transmitter is good; she has only used about a quarter of the expected lifetime transmissions.

10-21-07
Betty continues moving counter-clockwise around the Bahia de Campeche, along the 1,000 m contour.

10-20-07
Betty is moving along the 1,000 m contour in the SW corner of the Gulf, in Bahia de Campeche.

10-19-07
Betty has covered quite a bit of distance since yesterday, moving farther south into the SW corner of the Gulf of Mexico. She remains in deep water. As of today, the duration of tracking for Betty equals the entire tracking period for the Risso's dolphin nicknamed "Clyde."

10-18-07
Betty remains in the vicinity of where she has been for the past six days -- in the southwest corner of the Gulf of Mexico, off Vera Cruz, and still in fairly deep water.

10-17-07
Betty does not seem to have moved far since yesterday. Her daily straight-line distance traveled has diminshed markedly over the past few days. She continues the dive patterns that we have seen since release: occasional dives to 300-500 m, but the majority are less than 50 m deep. Maximum dive durations are up to 8-9 min.

10-16-07
Betty has moved farther offshore. She is now about 157 km offshore of Tuxpan, Mexico, headed southeast, and has now circled to within a few km of her position on October 13.

10-15-07
Betty has moved back into deeper water offshore this afternoon, but has turned to the south. She is not providing any solid hints about her next significant directional movements, but rather seems to be milling in one area. Her most recent dive data indicate some dives lasting as long as 8-9 min, to 50-100 m.

10-14-07
Betty moved to the 100 m contour in the vicinity of Vera Cruz, Mexico, and then turned back offshore. One of our current interns, a Ph.D. student from Vera Cruz, has notified her colleagues in Vera Cruz to be ready to respond if Betty should come ashore, but thankfully she now seems to be headed in a more appropriate direction.

10-13-07
Betty continues to move into the SW corner of the Gulf.

10-12-07
Betty is in the SW Gulf of Mexico, and appears to have turned to the SE, remaining in waters > 2,000 m deep.

10-11-07
Betty has continued moving to the west, toward Mexico.

10-10-07
Betty has continued southwest, roughly paralleling the 200 m contour, but remaining in more than 3,000 m of water. About 92 percent of her dives are to less than 50 m, and 97 percent are to less than 100 m.

10-9-07
Betty is moving to the west, away from the 200 m contour NW of Yucatan. Preliminary examination of her position data is encouraging. In spite of the generally poor quality of her signals as indicated by CLS/Argos, our filtering algorithm found 88 percent of the positions so far to be reasonable and usable. Over the last few days, she has made a few dives to 150-300 m, for durations up to 8-10 minutes long.

10-8-07
Betty has moved down to the region of the 200 m depth contour NNW of Yucatan. It is unclear what direction she will take at this point. The attached map no longer shows our Venice starting point because the maximum this program allows is the current day plus the 10 previous tracking days.

10-7-07
Betty continues to head toward the Yucatan, as can be seen from the attached map that shows her path since the boat left the dock with her on Sept. 27, 2007.

10-6-07
Betty has continued her movement to the south, toward the Yucatan. She has made a couple of dives to 150-300 m, but most of her dives remain less than 50 m deep. Her maximum dive lenght over the past few days have reached 6-9 min.

10-5-07
Seas are relatively calm in the middle of the Gulf, where Betty is located today, likely contributing to the increased number of positions recorded for her today. Whether her turn toward the south in the attached map is real or an artifact of position quality remains to be seen.

10-4-07
Betty has moved northwest into the deep water of the middle of the Gulf of Mexico (>3,000 m). While she has gone to as deep as 100-150 m, the vast majority of her dives continue to be to less than 50 m. Maximum dive durations have increased over the past week, with several recent dives to 7-9 min. Though location and dive data have been sparse over the past few days, the information that is coming in have provided us with a general idea of where Betty is and what she is doing.

10-3-07
Betty has moved to the shelf edge in the southern Gulf, and turned North Northwest to parallel the edge. Seas are building in the area (10 foot plus), which may explain why we only got two locations from her today.

10-1-07 (afternoon update)
Betty has re-appeared, after providing no location data yesterday, with a signal indicating that as of this afternoon she is heading toward the passage between Yucutan and Cuba. From the NOAA buoy data, it seems that the seas became quite rough yesterday in the region where Betty was (interpolating between locations). High, steep seas can interfere with tag transmissions. She has traveled 216 km since Saturday, and seems to have moved into a calmer area of the southwestern Gulf.

10-1-07 (morning update)
Unfortunately, we have not received any more signals from Betty since Saturday. It is probably safe to assume that we will not be hearing from her again at this point. At her final transmission, she was headed Southwest toward the middle of the Gulf of Mexico, away from the continental shelf edge where she had spent the previous day. Her final location, while out of the region of highest density of Grampus sightings during surveys by the National Marine Fisheries Service, was still within an area that Grampus dolphins have been previously reported. Her travel rate, dive depths and dive durations were all indicative of a Grampus in good condition. Her dive patterns were very similar to those of Clyde. Like Clyde, she made one dive to 400-500 m depth, but 95% of her dives were to 50 m or less (Clyde = 96%). Like Clyde, the vast majority of her dives lasted 3-4 min or less.
There were no indications in status reports of failing tag electronics. The sudden end of transmissions seems likely to have resulted from antenna breakage or shedding of the tag itself. This was considered to be a strong liklihood from the start due to the intense and frequent physical contact between the calf and the mother. We will continue to monitor CLS/Argos for data - it is not unheard of for tags to start up again. Last year, one of our tagged Franciscana dolphins stopped transmitting in June, and came back on for 3 months starting in late August.

9-30-07
No new data have come in today for Betty. Whether this is a CLS/Argos technical issue, or whether we have truly lost contact with her remains to be seen.

9-29-07
Betty has moved to the southwest through the day, away from the shelf edge and over the deeper waters of the Gulf (several thousands of meters deep). She made one dive to 400-500 m, tying the record from Clyde's track, and her dives have lasted up to 5-6 min. Because of the late morning to early evening (local time) transmission window, the next update will be made tomorrow evening, following completion of the the transmission cycle.

9-28-07
Betty is over the shelf edge, has moved a bit to the south (with the current), and has now turned back to the east. The locations shown on the attached map include records of all qualities. As time goes on, locations of poorer quality will be filtered out, but at this early stage of tracking, it is useful to consider all available data. Betty is in typical habitat for this species. A few dive data have begun to come in. She made one dive to 100-150 meters (328-490 feet), but most of her dives have been to less than 10 meters (about 32 feet), with some dives lasting up to 3 to 4 minutes. Most of her time has been in water 24-27 degrees Celsius (75-80F).

9-27-07
The initial straight-line track from shore is the boat track with Betty on board. She was released at 8 a.m. local time (12:00 GMT ‑ the time scale used on the map) in about 143 meters (more than 450 feet) of water. The locations depicted from 11 a.m. on should be considered approximate, as they were not graded as very high-quality signals by CLS/Argos, but they show a general continuation of Betty out to the waters of the shelf break, between 200 and 1,000 meters (650 to 3,200 feet) deep ‑ perfectly good Grampus habitat.