"Dolphin strandings remain a mystery; Creatures are dying on the Cape in huge numbers" by Brian MacQuarrie | Globe Staff, February 17, 2012
WELLFLEET - Over the past five weeks, 178 dolphins have stranded on Cape Cod. Most have been found dead, but the painstaking process of tending, hauling, and releasing the live ones is exacting a physical and emotional toll that grows greater every day. It is a toll made all the heavier because the reasons for the strandings remain a mystery.
Despite all the blood samples, the necropsies, and what will be a mountain of new data on the animals, known as common dolphins, researchers have no answers for the strandings, the largest involving a single species in the Northeast in at least two decades.
They are prepared to wait, possibly for years, to conclude whether these strandings are a freakish disaster - or the beginning of an ominous trend.
“We’re all shaking our heads,’’ said Katie Moore, manager of marine mammal rescue and research for the International Fund for Animal Welfare. “We’ve all been saying, ‘Seriously? Again?’ ’’
So far, researchers are left only with questions and theories as their exhausting work continues.
Ultrasounds are taken, bacterial and viral screenings are performed, blubber thickness is measured, and the sex and weight of each animal is meticulously logged.
Tissue samples are being analyzed for disease, biotoxins, and problems caused by humans, such as pollution and boat collisions. Six survivors have been tagged with transmitters to record their movement by satellite. So far, they have ventured as far as Maryland to mid-coast Maine.
“We’ve also been compiling some other environmental data, such as wind, currents, and sea-surface temperature,’’ said Mendy Garron, regional marine mammal stranding coordinator for the National Marine Fisheries Service.
But as far as answers?
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Familiar theories from past strandings can be heard in speculation about this one: Cape Cod’s hooked shape makes exiting the bay difficult; rapidly falling tides can trap dolphins on the sand; and shallow creeks and inlets can interfere with sonar-like capabilities and leave dolphins confused and off course.
Has the Navy been conducting training exercises in the area, like in preparation for wars in Syria and Iran?
Also see: Sunday Globe Special: U.S. Navy Blows Holes in Dolphins
Of course, that can't be the cause because my war paper would have told me if it were.
And because of their highly social nature, researchers said, one or two sick dolphins might lead many more astray.
Yes, the cause must be anything but what I suggest.
But scientists are hampered by a lack of knowledge about this species, which roams in deep water from the mid-Atlantic coast to Canada. And, further deepening the mystery, most of the stranded dolphins have been healthy....
Dolphins usually survive only several hours out of water, eventually succumbing to stress, injuries, organ failure, and the burden of carrying their own weight....
Rising water itself did not guarantee success. With creeks, sandbars, and inlets, the passage to Cape Cod Bay was a meandering maze for which the dolphins would need guidance.
So, in a maneuver more suited to herding cattle, the animal-welfare group and the Wellfleet harbormaster used two boats to coax the dolphins toward freedom. Progress was slow, hampered as the dolphins played an error-filled game of follow-the-leader.
“You’re going the wrong way, buddy!’’ Moore said at one point, sloshing through thigh-deep water as she lunged for a dorsal fin.
By evening, all 10 dolphins were heading toward the bay. Although one other dolphin had died, this day had been a resounding success. At daybreak, the tiring and confounding work would begin again.
I know that feeling every day when I come back from getting a coffee and start reading the Globe.
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