14 DAY TRIAL // A dolphin is the lucky survivor of a mysterious die-off that is currently puzzling biologists. The creature was rescued earlier this week by authorities, after it had been found alive but badly injured on the shores of Gulf of Mexico. The coastal inhabitants from Louisiana to Florida talk about a common, alarming problem. 600 dolphins have died in this area since February 2010.
At this point in time, researchers still can't say for sure what's killing them. They are using the fortunate survivor in their research, to come up with an appropriate response to this issue, the New York Times reports.
“This is the first opportunity we’ve had in two years to get a live animal that is sick,” notes Moby Solangi, the director of the Institute for Marine Mammal Studies in Gulfport, Mississippi. This is the facility taking care of the dolphin while experts perform tests to see what exactly helped it survive.
Local people found the dolphin near Mobile Bay and they tried to throw it back into the water. Surprisingly, they say it kept coming back on the shore.
Experts say the creature is approximately 2 years old and six feet long. It suffered a great deal from dehydration. Its body was covered with wounds and bruises and the team of rescuers said the animal only had a 50% chance of survival.
As we speak, he is safe and sound and on the right way to indicate who or what's behind this deadly mystery. Experts' first guess is that these alarming hundreds of deaths were generated by the poisonous Deepwater Horizon oil spill that took place last year in April. This opinion is shared by local people, who blame the same incident for polluting their waters and killing 11 people and many more marine residents.
Usually, biologists do not face such elevated numbers. Under normal circumstances, only 60 dolphins die every year and end up on shores, according to researchers involved in this project.
Because the bodies collected are often badly decomposed, scientists can't indicate the main cause of death. What they are certain of, so far, is that in the cases of five dead dolphins they detected the presence of Brucella bacterium.
The situation is now quite different, since biologists have a lot of research material, meant to help them draw out pertinent conclusions. Since they currently dedicate most of their time to this project, experts should solve the “unusual mortality event” soon enough.