Issue #29, October 13, 2006

RESCUED MOTHER DOLPHIN DIES, BABY DOLPHIN LIVES

By Sabrina C. Mashburn

Last Thursday, a baby Atlantic Bottlenose dolphin and her mother were rescued from the Sag Harbor Yacht Club’s marina by a group of experts from the Riverhead Foundation for Marine Research and Preservation and a local animal-lover who happened to have a crane on the back of his truck. The dolphins had been stranded in the marina for two days prior to the rescue, and although it is common to see Bottlenose dolphins in shallow waters in warm climates, such as in the Florida Keys, healthy Bottlenose dolphins are only found near the Continental shelf edge and slope in the Northeast. The presence of these dolphins near Sag Harbor was a telltale sign that they were in distress. Riverhead Foundation Rescue Director Kim Durham explained that when “they were first seen on Tuesday, no one called us. We’re trying to encourage people to call us as soon as they see these animals so we can assess their condition.”

Once the Foundation was contacted on Wednesday, Durham and her staff began making the necessary phone calls to the NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service in order to obtain permission to enter the water and save the mother dolphin and her calf. The Riverhead Foundation is the only facility in New York State licensed to rescue marine mammals; however, their rescue license is only valid when dealing with beached or stranded animals, and does not permit interaction with free-swimming wildlife.

Once permission had been granted to the rescuers, there was still a question as to whether or not the situation warranted immediate attention. The animals appeared to be healthy, and the resulting stress from being caught and removed from the water could have resulted in the death both animals. Durham also had to keep the safety of her team in mind, as dealing with a 600-pound mother dolphin protecting a calf in the water is a potentially life-threatening situation. Durham credits the village of Sag Harbor for allowing herself and nine other staff members to rescue the dolphins in the safest possible circumstances; “we received really great support from the village,” she said. “If we didn’t have an ambulance standing by and the support of the police, our people would not have gotten in to the water.”

By Thursday morning there was no question that the two dolphins were in great distress and needed to be saved immediately. Ariel and her mother were “inside the yacht club, swimming in tight little circles in the marina.” An autopsy later revealed that the body of Ariel’s mother was riddled with worms and parasites, and her brain was full of lesions. These ailments must have impaired the mother’s ability to use sonar to navigate, which resulted in her swimming in circles, with little Ariel tirelessly following her mother’s every stroke.

Ariel’s mother died en route to the Riverhead Foundation’s Marine Hospital, but Ariel appeared to be in good health. Durham assured us on Friday that despite the stress of losing her mother at such a young age, Ariel is “eating squid, swimming well, (and) interacting with the staff and with objects.” All of her medical tests have come back “very positive” and “Ariel has shown no signs of having the parasites her mother had.” Although she is physically able to swim in open waters, Ariel “has been assessed as being an animal in need of permanent care” due to her young age. Bottlenose dolphin calves generally stay by their mothers’ sides for three to six years, and do not reach full maturity until they are eleven or twelve years old. At one-and-a-half, Ariel is much too young to fend for herself in the wild.

The process of finding a permanent home for Ariel has already begun, and the NOAA is currently taking an inventory of every approved facility in the country in order to find a suitable place for Ariel to live. There are strict guidelines for re-homing such a young dolphin, and Ariel’s new home will have to meet NOAA health and safety standards, andmust also have an established population of Bottlenose dolphins to serve as Ariel’s new family. Because a baby dolphin should stay close to her pod until she is at least six years old, it is imperative that Ariel’s new home have a group of healthy Bottlenose dolphins to care for and socialize with little Ariel.

Until Ariel is moved to her new home, videos of Ariel’s recovery process and updates on her status can be found on her webpage at the Riverhead Foundation for Marine Research and Preservation’s website, www.riverheadfoundation.org.