Sep 25, 2008 2:58 pm US/Eastern
Official: Dead Wayward Dolphin Had Pneumonia
BRIGANTINE, N.J. (AP) ―
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About 15 dolphins took a wrong turn from Sandy Hook Bay and wound up in two narrow rivers near the coast in July.
CBS
Back in July, Bob Schoelkopf knew there was something wrong with this particular dolphin.
One of a pod of about 15 that had taken a wrong turn from Sandy Hook Bay and wound up in two narrow rivers near the coast, the animal was observed coughing. Schoelkopf, co-director of the Marine Mammal Stranding Center, reported his concern about the animal's condition to federal wildlife officials, who have jurisdiction over them.
On Thursday, Schoelkopf said the dolphin with the summertime cough was the same one found dead in the Navesink River this week; he verified that after comparing photos of the dorsal fin of the sick dolphin to the fin on the one found dead Wednesday.
It died from pneumonia.
It was his latest frustration in a long-simmering disagreement over what to do with the dolphins, who ventured into the Shrewsbury and Navesink rivers in June, and have stayed there ever since.
"They're giving the impression these animals are splashing around wearing party hats, happy as can be," he said. "They're not."
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has thus far resisted calls to either scare the dolphins out of the rivers and back out to sea, or physically remove them by netting them, a much riskier option.
The agency said it is considering intervening if the dolphins have not left the river on their own by the end of October, when water temperatures will plunge and the dolphin's main source of food -- bait fish -- will dwindle.
But pressure is mounting on the agency following Wednesday's death of a young dolphin that was found near a marina in Fair Haven.
"Do something now," Schoelkopf said. "We can't wait until the end of October."
He has been getting support from elected officials in New Jersey, who are turning up the heat on NOAA to do just that.
"I'm very upset with NOAA," said Rep. Frank Pallone Jr., a Democrat from Long Branch who was one of several legislators to call and write the agency urging immediate action. "I don't think they'll survive the winter. This is unacceptable. You've got to do something now and either move or entice them out to sea."
Rescuers are worried that waiting too long could invite an even worse replay of a disastrous scenario that resulted in the deaths of four dolphins who lingered too long in the Shrewsbury River in 1993. Ice eventually closed in on them and they drowned.
Schoelkopf also said the dolphin found dead on Wednesday wasn't the first to perish in the area this year.
On Aug. 20, a boater reported finding a dolphin estimated at about 250 pounds floating dead on its back in the bay, not far from the mouth of the Shrewsbury River. The boater snapped a photo of the dolphin and sent it to the stranding center, but by the time Schoelkopf and his staff could get there, the animal's body had vanished.
It was impossible to tell if the dead dolphin had been one of the ones that had frequented the river, he said.
(© 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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