Stable isotope mixing model estimates of common bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) diets in the northern Gulf of Mexico from 2011 to 2018

This dataset contains the mean and 95% confidence limits for the proportion of dolphin diet made up of a variety of prey sources, including fish, cephalopods, and decapods. Results are presented separately for Barataria Bay, Louisiana, Sarasota Bay, Florida, and Dauphin Island/Mobile Bay, Alabama. The Stable Isotope Mixing Models in R (SIMMR) was used to determine the relative contribution of different prey species to the isotope signatures of northern Gulf of Mexico bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus). Skin samples were collected in 2018 from live dolphins in Barataria Bay, Louisiana, Sarasota Bay, Florida, and Dauphin Island, Alabama. They were also collected from dead, stranded dolphins near Barataria Bay, Louisiana (2011) and skin, muscle, and liver samples from dead, stranded dolphins near Mobile Bay, Alabama (2011, 2013-2015, 2017-2018). Prey samples (fish, crustaceans, cephalopods) were collected at each location and each year at sites from which dolphins were obtained (Barataria Bay: 2011, 2018; Mobile Bay: 2011, 2013-2015, 2017-2018). The isotope data from both the dolphin and prey tissues were used in the mixing models, and those data are available under GRIIDC Unique Dataset Identifier (UDI): R6.x809.000:0020 (DOI: 10.7266/n7-e5ry-ck72).