52 Dead dolphins Since August, still a concern on Gulf Coast

By Nikki Buskey
Staff Writer
Monday, October 24, 2011

Dead dolphins have washed ashore in the hundreds along the central Gulf Coast, prompting federal officials to launch an open-ended investigation.

Since February 2010, 567 dead or distressed whales and dolphins have washed ashore in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida. Of those, 274 washed up in Louisiana.

“We’re still getting elevated numbers of dolphin strandings,” said Erin Fougères, a National Marine Fisheries Service official.

The strandings peaked this year in March, with 72 reported from Florida to the Texas-Louisiana border. Sixty-seven of those were bottlenose dolphins. Since August, 52 more strandings have been reported, including nine this month.

More than 45,000 dolphins are estimated to call the Gulf home, according to the National Marine Fisheries Service.

And while many speculate that the deaths may be linked to the Gulf oil spill, scientists say the phenomenon started months before the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded and began pouring oil into the Gulf.

“We were already consulting with the mortality group (to open up an investigation) when the oil spill occurred. And the number has never gone back down,” Fougères said.

It’s a mystery that has caused the Marine Mammal Health and Stranding Response Agency to declare it an “unusual mortality event” and open a federal scientific investigation.

Locally, federal investigators have been working with the Audubon Institute in New Orleans and Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries.

When reports come in, either from the public or oil-spill cleanup crews still working along some Louisiana beaches, teams are dispatched to verify and document the stranding.

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