http://www.newsday.com/news/local/newyork/ny-nydolp245976289dec24,0,6967635.storyStranded dolphin dies in New Jersey
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
December 24, 2008
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NEWARK - A striped dolphin found stranded on a Raritan Bay beach early yesterday has died.
Bob Schoelkopf of the Marine Mammal Stranding Center in Brigantine said the dolphin was believed to be one of three found stranded at Sandy Hook on Monday. One of those dolphins died, and rescuers helped the other two back out to sea.
Schoelkopf said the dead dolphins will be taken to a veterinary clinic at the University of Pennsylvania to try to determine what caused the deaths and why they might have become stranded.
Rescuers erected a tent around the stranded dolphin yesterday morning to shelter it from the bitter temperatures, but it died on the beach, Schoelkopf said. TV footage on News 12 New Jersey showed the dolphin shaking.
The three found at Sandy Hook are not part of a group of bottlenose dolphins that have been in the Shrewsbury and Navesink rivers since June.
Those dolphins are at the center of a struggle between federal wildlife officials - who plan to leave them alone unless they appear to be in imminent danger - and animal rescuers who want them either removed or coaxed out of the river and back out to sea. Some fear the dolphins will be trapped in ice or die from the cold if they remain in the rivers.
Two of the original group of 15 died earlier this year.
The striped dolphin that was stranded yesterday is an offshore species that often travels in pods as large as 100 or more.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has recorded six strandings of striped dolphins this year - including the three in New Jersey.
NOAA scientists are studying whether changing ocean surface temperatures have any correlation with the strandings, which can also be caused when animals become sick or injured or follow prey too far inland.
"It's not so much a cause for alarm, but it underscores how important the stranding program's research is," said Trevor Spradlin, a marine mammal biologist with the NOAA. "Marine mammals are basically sentinels of the ocean's health, so we can look at trends over time and how they are changing their patterns." The Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences at Rutgers University is also researching why animals become stranded as part of a wider look at ocean health.
Josh Kohut, an assistant professor at the institute, said a state-of-the-art ocean observation network has been set up off the New Jersey coast. It monitors ocean life through radar networks, satellites in space, and even underwater vehicles that record data on the ocean floor.
"We're looking at how we can take the measures of temperature and salinity of the ocean and link it to the distribution of animals," he said. "Is the ocean environment changing, or is it that the ocean is changing their food supply - which is changing their habits? We're starting to be able to answer those questions."
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