Mass strandings of dolphins in Massachusetts have kept rescue workers busy, according to an Associated Press report. As of February 15, the total number of dolphins that had stranded themselves in Cape Cod had reached 177 in just the last month, leaving researchers baffled as to the reason.
AP reported that of the 177 dolphins that have stranded in recent weeks, 124 have died. This rash of strandings in Cape Cod has been of short-beaked common dolphins.
Theories about the reason behind the dolphin strandings in this case are just that — theories. They include weather changes, water temperature and behavioral changes in the dolphins’ prey that lead the marine animals astray.
A 2008 incident of common dolphins stranding occurred in Cornwall, resulting in all 26 dolphins dying. Seven dolphins that stranded live during this incident were successfully re-floated. According to Wildlife Extra, this was an unprecedented event in Cornwall and wildlife officials did not have an answer as to why the dolphins beached themselves.
In what was termed an “Unusual Mortality Event” (UME) by the National Marine Fisheries Service, 107 bottlenose dolphins were found dead in a month’s time during March and April 2004 in Florida. This mass dolphin death occurred along the Florida panhandle but dolphins weren’t the only marine creatures that were found dead. The NMFS website report on the incident stated that hundreds of marine invertebrates and dead fish were also found in the area and toxicology reports found that the animals had neurotoxins from Florida red tide were to blame in this case.
In the aftermath of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, a number of whale and dolphin deaths spurred a large-scale UME issued by the NMFS. In total, the NMFS statistics showed unusual numbers of bottlenose dolphin deaths in the month before and the months following the April 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
The UME covers a time period from February 2010 and continues through now and includes preliminary data showing that at least in March, April and May of 2010, the number of dolphin deaths in the Gulf were far above the averages set between 2002 and 2009. In April and May 2010, the month of and following the oil spill, the number of dead dolphins numbered 38 and 37 — far from the previous seven-year averages for those months of 10.4 and 4.8. The dolphin and whale mortality in the Gulf continues to be monitored in the aftermath of the oil spill.