 FUNDS SET FOR DOLPHINS PROBE Miami Herald -- Thursday, July 12, 2001 By: Phil Long, Herald Staff Writer VERO BEACH -- Federal officials on Wednesday declared the deaths of 27 dolphins over the past two months in a small section of the Indian River Lagoon an "unusual mortality event" -- language that frees up federal money and resources to investigate why the marine mammals died. "That allows researchers to tap into money, more resources and experts"' said Dr. Janet Whaley, national marine mammal stranding coordinator for the National Marine Fisheries Service. The extra effort increases the chances of finding the cause and maybe a cure quickly, she said. Since May, Atlantic bottlenose dolphins have been dying at twice the normal rate in a 25-mile stretch of the Indian River Lagoon, north of Melbourne, mostly in the Merritt Island area. Most have been so badly decomposed that researchers have little physical evidence to help them determine a cause of death. Megan Stolen, a Hubbs-Sea World Marine Institute biologist who has been dispatched to the lagoon to collect tissue from each of the dead animals, issued a plea Wednesday evening that anyone who sees a distressed or dead dolphin should call 1-800-342-5367. "Right now we are not ruling out anything,'' Stolen said. "Until we get some fresher samples it is going to be a while before we can figure it out.'' The deaths are a mystery. All 27 were adults, most eight feet long. Most were males, but four were so badly decomposed that Stolen couldn't tell the sex. All seemed severely emaciated. Stolen and her associate, Wendy Noke, recovered the stomachs of most of the animals to see what, if anything, they may have eaten and whether there are any common links. In pockets of the lagoon in Brevard County there have been fish kills because of low oxygen levels in the water. That may affect the food the air-breathing dolphins eat, but low oxygen isn't high on the list of potential culprits, because dolphins can swim great distances to find food. Red tide, a bacterial agent, is believed to have been responsible for an unusually high number of dolphin deaths in the Keys and the Florida Panhandle two years ago, but there is no evidence that it is present in the lagoon now. There are hundreds of dolphins that make their permanent home in the brackish 156-mile long lagoon that stretches from south of Daytona Beach to north of West Palm Beach. And there are many others that pass through. No one yet knows whether the dead dolphins are part of an identifiable group that inhabits central Brevard County. A team at Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution has been cataloging the dolphin population of the lagoon and will likely increase photo-identification of the mammals as a result of the rush of deaths. Marine mammal health is an ongoing problem, researchers say. With heavy summer rains washing chemicals and other pollution into the Indian River Lagoon every day, environmentalists are worried about marine mammal health. "Dolphins are barometers of the lagoon's health. We're finding all kinds of new diseases in dolphins in the Indian River Lagoon," said Steve McCulloch, director of dolphin research for HBOI, located near Fort Pierce. Researchers are seeing dolphins with hepatitis, cancer and meningitis, McCulloch said. He blames poor water quality. "The primary cause of the degradation of the Indian River Lagoon is poor water quality due to runoff that carries ground contaminants," McCulloch said. Copyright (c) 2001, The Miami Herald |