At least 85 dolphins have beached themselves in a shallow inlet of a US nature reserve at Cape Cod, officials said Tuesday, adding that the cause of the mass strandings remained a mystery.
A spokesman for the International Fund for Animal Welfare said the huge number of beached mammals over the last two weeks, with most of them dying, was close to the amount usually recorded in the course of a year.
"We had a total of 85 confirmed strandings since January 12 and that number might be as high 101," AJ Cady said. "There are still about 16 dolphins reported in difficult locations we haven't been able to confirm."
"Of that number 35 were still alive. Fifty of them were dead by the time we reached them," Cady said.
The strandings took place in the area of Wellfleet and Eastham, which is notorious for sandbanks and twisting channels, just south of the famous hook of Cape Cod on the Atlantic coast of Massachusetts.
The area is the location of coastal and marine nature preserves and is famous for its population of endangered North Atlantic right whales and other sea life.
Cady said that the large number was "very unusual. In an average year we might handle a total of 120 dolphins over the course of the entire year and now we are almost at that number in a little over a week."
Cady said there were different theories why dolphins -- like their cousins the whales -- sometimes beach themselves in large numbers.
"One (theory) is that they just get lost. We're wondering if they were following food, a school of fish, and got trapped," he said.
"They are very sociable animals. They stay together as a group if one gets in trouble, you tend to see the whole family group get stranded at the same time because they try to stay together."
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/mass-dolphin-strandings-cape-cod-164031105...
Freed whales turn back to New Zealand beach
CBC News
Posted: Jan 24, 2012 9:10 AM ET
Last Updated: Jan 24, 2012 11:50 AM ET
Rescuers are trying to refloat some 39 pilot whales that have stranded themselves again on a New Zealand beach
A pod of 99 whales was beached on Monday at Farewell Spit, South Island. At least 34 died on the beach, but many of the whales were refloated.
Rangers from the New Zealand Department of Conservation and volunteers from Project Jonah, a whale conservation society, said some of the refloated whales turned back to the shore and became stranded again.
Rescuers are now attempting to lure the whales away from the beach by using one whale — placed in a pontoon — and taking it out to open water, hoping the rest of the whales will follow.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2012/01/24/video-stranded-whales...
Pilot whales strand again on New Zealand beach
This file photo, released by Southland Times, shows pilot whales, stranded on a remote beach in New Zealand, in 2003. Mass strandings are common on the New Zealand coast and more than 50 pilot whales have died in two separate beachings in the same area in the past two months.
A pod of about 40 beached pilot whales re-stranded themselves in New Zealand Tuesday after volunteers worked for hours to get them back into the sea, officials said.
The pod was part of a larger group of about 100 pilot whales which stranded at Golden Bay on the South Island on Monday, the Department of Conservation (DOC) said.
DOC spokesman Nigel Mountford said 34 of the original pod were confirmed dead and 26 were successfully refloated late Monday and had swum offshore.
He said hopes were fading for the remaining pilot whales, which swam back to shore after volunteers manoeuvred them into the water early Tuesday afternoon.
"It's disappointing, they just came back on shore," he said.
"They'll have to take their chances at high tide overnight. It's too dangerous for our volunteers to stay through the night, we're working right at the edge of our capability."
Mass strandings are common on the New Zealand coast and more than 50 pilot whales have died in two separate beachings in the same area in the past two months.
Pilot whales, which are members of the dolphin family and grow up to six metres (20 feet) long, are a common sight in New Zealand waters.
Scientists are unsure why pilot whales beach themselves, although they speculate it may occur when their sonar becomes scrambled in shallow water or when a sick member of the pod heads for shore and others follow.
http://www.physorg.com/news/2012-01-whales-strand-zealand-beach.html
I also posted articles from previous years but only a few.!
2011
Whales die on New Zealand beach
107 pilot whales stranded on Stewart Island die, with almost half put down by conservation staff
- guardian.co.uk, Monday 21 February 2011 09.19 GMT
A pod of 107 pilot whales stranded on a remote New Zealand beach have died, including 48 that were put down, the government's conservation department said.
The stranded whales were discovered by hikers on Sunday near Cavalier Creek on Stewart Island, off the southern tip of New Zealand's South Island.
Conservation department staff flew to the area and found that about half of the group were already dead and the others were dying, the agency said. The whales were well up the beach and the tide was receding, leaving little chance of keeping them alive until more rescuers could arrive.
"Euthanasia is a difficult decision, but is made purely for the welfare of the animal involved to prevent it from prolonged suffering," said Brent Beaven, the official who led the team at the site.
Pilot whales are about 13ft to 20ft (four metres to six metres) long and are the most common species of whale in New Zealand waters.
Whale strandings are common in New Zealand. Last month, 24 pilot whales died after becoming stranded in the North Island. In December 2009, more than 120 whales died in two separate beachings near Golden Bay and on the east coast of the North Island.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/feb/21/stranded-whales-die-new...
13 dolphins beach on Cape Cod, 2 die
Published: Thursday, September 01, 2011, 10:19 AM Updated: Thursday, September 01, 2011, 11:03 AM
EASTHAM— An animal welfare organization says 13 dolphins have been found stranded on a Cape Cod beach but only 11 of them survived.
Kerry Branon of the International Fund for Animal Welfare says the common dolphins were found on First Encounter Beach in Eastham on Wednesday afternoon.
She tells the Cape Cod Times the surviving dolphins were given blood tests and evaluated to determine their health. They were tagged, and released late Wednesday night at Herring Cove in Provincetown.
The dolphins were a mix of ages and sexes and weighed between 175 and 250 pounds.
The cause of the beaching could not be determined.
http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2011/09/13_dolphins_beach_on...
Scientists unsure why dolphins washing up dead
April 08, 2011|By Vivian Kuo, CNN
Dead baby bottlenose dolphins are continuing to wash up in record numbers on the shores of the Gulf of Mexico, and scientists do not know why.
Since February 2010 to April 2011, 406 dolphins were found either stranded or reported dead offshore.
The occurrence has prompted the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to designate these deaths as an "unusual mortality event" or UME. The agency defines a UME as a stranding incident that is unexpected or involves a significant loss of any marine mammal population.
"This is quite a complex event and requires a lot of analysis," said Blair Mase, the agency's marine mammal investigations coordinator.
Mase said NOAA is working closely with a variety of agencies to try to figure out not only why the bottlenose dolphins are turning up in such large quantities but also why the mammals are so young.
"These were mostly very young dolphins, either pre-term, neonatal or very young and less than 115 centimeters," she said.
Marine mammals are particularly susceptible to harmful algal blooms, infectious diseases, temperature and environmental changes, and human impact.
"The Gulf of Mexico is no stranger to unusual mortality events," Mase said.
Sensitivity surrounding marine life in the area is particularly high after the BP oil disaster that sent millions of barrels of crude into the Gulf of Mexico nearly a year ago.
The incident occurred on April 20, 2010, when a Deepwater Horizon rig leased to BP exploded, killing 11 workers and leading to the worst oil spill in U.S. history.
As recently as two weeks ago, scientists documented a dead dolphin with oil on its remains, Mase said.
Since the start of the oil spill, a total of 15 bottlenose dolphins have been found with either confirmed or suspected oil on their carcasses.
Even after the gushing well was capped, the agency said nine oiled dolphins have been found since November 2, 2010.
Of those nine, six were confirmed to contain oil from the incident; one was found with oil that did not match the Deepwater Horizon samples, and two have not yet been tested.
The dolphin deaths may be completely independent from the oil spill, Mase said.
"Even though they have oil on them, it may not be the cause of death," she said. "We want to look at the gamut of all the possibilities."
The agency said bottlenose dolphins are actually the most-frequently found stranding marine mammal.
Scientists say they are equally concerned about the number of sea turtle strandings.
http://articles.cnn.com/2011-04-08/us/dolphin.death.mystery_1_dolph...
2009
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