Volunteers from the Marine Education, Research and Rehabilitation Institute (MERR) rushed out to the shore south of Dewey Beach on Wednesday morning, to aid a stranded dolphin.
Coastal Point • M. PATRICIA TITUS:
Carolin Whalen-Strollo, a volunteer for the Marine Education, Research and Rehabilitation Institute, works on the Risso’s dolphin that was stranded just south of Dewey Beach on Wednesday, June 20.
Initial reports of the stranding labeled the marine mammal as possibly being a pygmy sperm whale, but MERR Executive Director Suzanne Thurman quickly identified it as a juvenile Risso’s dolphin (Grampus griseus).
The dark gray Risso’s dolphin — unlike the more familiar bottlenose dolphin — does not have a pronounced beak and has a squared forehead, or melon, somewhat akin to that of a beluga whale.
Thurman said the juvenile stranded on the stretch of Delaware state-controlled beach south of Tower Road measured about 9 feet, 7 inches in length.
She was unable to immediately identify its gender, seeking to avoid additional stress of an extensive examination on the sick mammal while she and MERR volunteers completed a series of tests to determine whether it was well enough to even attempt a rescue. But the animal was later identified as a young female.
Risso’s dolphins, according to information from MERR, grow to between 10 and 12.5 feet in adulthood, with males being larger than females. They reach about 600 kilograms (about 1,300 pounds) at maturity.
The dolphins — which have a range including the deep waters off the Gulf Coast, Florida and north to Canada’s Atlantic coast — are known to travel singly or in pods numbering into the hundreds. They primarily feed on squid, and while little is known about their life cycle, they are commonly known to interact with humans on the rare occasion they do come near the shore – just as their more familiar bottlenose cousins do.
The dolphin stranded on Wednesday morning was first reported to MERR just before 11 a.m. Thurman said she believed the juvenile had some kind of respiratory condition that had caused it to strand itself at the high tide line that morning.
While MERR volunteers kept the animal wet by wrapping it in damp towels and pouring seawater over it, Thurman attempted to bring in a veterinarian who could make a call on whether the animal was too ill to rescue and should therefore be euthanized, or whether it had enough of a chance of making it that transport and care should be arranged.
Local holding, rehab facilities needed
By 1 p.m. on Wednesday, the answer to that question was still unclear.
Thurman had been unable to find an aquarium facility in the nearby region that had a tank available to nurse an ailing dolphin, and the closest facility that had a tank available was in Florida. That would have been an acceptable option, but Thurman said the facility in Florida had first wanted tests done on the dolphin to ensure it did not have one particular type of infection.
With the lab work to clear the animal taking two to three days to complete, Thurman scrambled mid-day on Wednesday to find any suitable temporary location to monitor the dolphin. A private swimming pool of about 30 feet in length was ideally needed, but such pools are few and far between on the Delaware shore.
Additionally, anyone with such a pool would have to be willing to have it drained and refilled with saltwater, and inhabited by a dolphin and rescuers for a couple days. Despite the challenge of finding a suitable location, Thurman continued to make phone calls to local contacts and media, hoping to spread the word to someone who could help.
Coastal Point • M. PATRICIA TITUS:
Suzanne Thurman, executive director of MERR, works to save the dolphin.
Of course, that option was itself only available if the dolphin was determined to be well enough to live through the initial transport and testing.
The dolphin struggled on the sand mid-day on Wednesday, appearing at times to be on the verge of death and at others full of energy. Thurman said the animal did not appear to have been starving but was likely weakened by its time out of the water, as well as whatever illness it carried.
Beachgoers curious about the stranding were kept back from the immediate vicinity of the dolphin, asked to stay away for both the animal’s health and their own, with possible risk of airborne illness being spread from the dolphin to those who came too close.
MERR volunteer Carolin Whalen-Strollo offered information about the rescue efforts and the dolphin’s species to the curious and concerned. She even managed to garner a $20 donation to the organization, which will go toward funding animal rescue efforts such as that undertaken on Wednesday. Donations, fundraising and volunteers are key to MERR’s ability to respond as they did this week.
Volunteers attempted to keep the animal comfortable while also taking initial medical samples. They also buried its tail fluke in the sand, to discourage it from slapping its tail on the hard surface and injuring itself.
Numerous white scrapes appeared across the dolphin’s head and back — known as a distinctive feature of the species, as minor injuries occur from other dolphins’ teeth or from their prey — but there were no obvious injuries to it other than a small, bleeding cut behind one eye.
However, Thurman confirmed Wednesday evening that the dolphin had been too sick to survive the day. “She was a fighter,” Thurman noted. “I hope we can learn something about her, to do her justice as an individual and to see if there are any threats indicated to her species or the overall health of the oceans.”
A full necropsy was planned for Thursday, with additional test results due to come in over the following weeks.
Previous Risso’s stranding ended successfully
Another juvenile Risso’s dolphin, later named Rocky, washed ashore off Cape Henlopen on July 31, 2004. MERR also responded to that stranding and arranged for him to be transported to the Riverhead Foundation’s hospital tank at Atlantis Marine World Aquarium on Long Island, N.Y.
According to the Riverhead Foundation, having initially weighed in at just 480 pounds, starving and suffering from a life-threatening respiratory infection, Rocky was rehabilitated over three months and given a clean bill of health before his release back into the wild in April of 2005, making him the first Risso’s dolphin in the nation to be rescued and rehabilitated.
Rocky was fitted with a satellite tag and radio transmitter before his release, and his subsequent travels had him roaming far offshore of the Virginia, Maryland, Delaware and New Jersey coasts, in the deep waters Risso’s dolphins — and their squid prey — are known to prefer.