Dead dolphins still a mystery Australia

2nd June 2011

THE Department of Environment & Resource Management has defended its decision not to conduct necropsies on the bodies of two dead dolphins that washed up in Gladstone Harbour.

                                    The dead dolphin found on Turtle Island Contributed

One dolphin was found dead on Boyne Island on May 9, while the other was found on Turtle Island on May 15. Neither showed any obvious cause of death.

Necropsy is the term generally used for an autopsy on a marine animal.

DERM yesterday said there were valid reasons why necropsies were not performed on the two dolphins.

“If an animal is too decomposed, an accurate necropsy result cannot be achieved and therefore is not carried out,” a DERM spokesman said. “This was the case with one of the animals in question. The other animal was unable to be recovered.”

Clive Last, caretaker at Turtle Island, discovered the second dolphin. On May 26 he told The Observer he was disappointed DERM had not taken the body away for a necropsy. He feared pollution have caused the two deaths and called for a scientific examination.

Also on May 26, World Wildlife Fund Queensland manager Nick Heath and Fitzroy Basin Association CEO Suzie Christensen both said they hoped a necropsy could be conducted on the dolphin found at Boyne Island.

Mr Heath yesterday told The Observer they had since been briefed by DERM and understood why a necropsy had not been carried out.

gladstoneobserver.com.au

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