Jul 1, 2008 4:04 pm US/Eastern
No Immediate Plans To Move Dolphins From NJ River
SEA BRIGHT, N.J. (AP) ―
A group of 15 dolphins who have taken up residence in a river near the Jersey Shore will be allowed to stay there through the July 4th weekend, even though a nearby fireworks display draws heavy boat traffic.
Federal environmental officials say the danger of trying to move or scare the dolphins back out into the ocean outweighs the risk of letting them stay in the Shrewsbury River.
"They're evidently in good condition," said Teri Frady, a spokeswoman for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. "We have no reason to think they're incapable of getting away from things that disturb them."
Authorities had expressed concern about heavy boat traffic on the narrow river for a giant fireworks display in neighboring Red Bank that typically draws 150,000 people on land, and hundreds more on the Shrewsbury and Navesink rivers.
Environmental officials and volunteers had been considering various plans to try to either lure or scare the dolphins out of the river into Sandy Hook Bay and out into the ocean. But each poses potential problems, including stressing the animals, Frady said.
Instead, authorities will try to keep boaters away from the animals.
"That is a far better situation than doing something that could kill some of them," Frady said.
State Police Sgt. Stephen Jones said additional patrols will be on the river throughout the holiday weekend.
"They'll be out there because it's a holiday weekend, not only because of the dolphins," he said. "They'll be focused on protecting the dolphins, and also protecting people from each other."
State marine police will enforce a perimeter around the dolphins throughout the holiday weekend, Jones said.
"We're using commonsense, and we'll ask people to do likewise," he said. "We're not going to be out there with a tape measure, but we want to make sure people don't harass the dolphins or put them in danger."
The bottlenose dolphins have been in the river for about 2 1/2 weeks, possibly after making a wrong turn chasing after schools of bait fish on their journey along the coast.
Lone dolphins and smaller groups have periodically entered the river and gotten out on their own, but this is by far the largest group that has been seen in the Shrewsbury in recent memory.
In 1993, authorities tried to remove dolphins that had spent the summer and fall in the river. When the river froze, attempts to shoo the animals out to sea only chased them under the ice, where several drowned.
(© 2008 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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