What do you guys make of this? Elevated strandings of bottlenose dolphins have occurred in New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland and Virginia. Current bottlenose dolphin strandings are over seven times the historical average for the month of July for the Mid-Atlantic Region. All age classes of bottlenose dolphins are involved and strandings range from a few live animals to mostly dead animals with many very decomposed. http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/health/mmume/midatldolphins2013.html
One washed up where I guard in North Bethany. It's not good of course. I guess most of them are found near the mouth of the Chesapeake...makes you wonder
I saw one swimming listlessly around the other day. A friend paddled over to it and it went down only to pop back up 10 yards away.
Speaking of the dead dolphins: if you look at the map of the locations it sure seems like one could figure it out – clustered around Norfolk, Hampton Roads, the southern tip of the eastern shore of Maryland and the outlet of the James River. Seems like one would focus the investigation on Navy ships and the heavy fertilizer use on the eastern shore. http://media2.wavy.com/html/PDFs/Aug5_map.pdf
I posted this article a week or so ago; but it talks about the use of mid range sonar from the Navy and then discusses a virus called morbillvirus that they discovered a few years ago. Basically could be a few things killing or hurting the dolphins - sonar, increased bacteria in the water (think how many beach closings and sickness has been reported in the area amongst humans), or a random dolphin disease. Use of fertilizer in and around the water (look up Chesapeake Bay watershed) has huge affects on marine life as Yankee hinted about. http://hamptonroads.com/2013/08/virus-suspect-dolphin-strandings-along-bay
Fertilizers leading to eutrophication... maybe the water becomes so murky they can't see to get around and get lost/stranded.
The navy has been testing sonar blasts all over the world with increased sea mammal destruction. Tons of porpoise, orcas and whales washing up bleeding from the eyes and ears.
I volunteer for the Marine Education Research and Rehabilitation (MERR) Institute based in Lewes, DE and assisted with an autopsy on the offshore species of bottlenose dolphin that washed up on Keybox Road in Dewey. After taking tissue samples and cultures to be tested, we had come to a fairly decisive conclusion that they're all dying of an extremely contagious viral pathogen called the morbillivirus. It causes lesions in the lungs, brain and spinal cord. Similar unusual mortality events have also occurred in other species in places such as the Mediterranean Sea and Gulf of Mexico but unfortunately has now hit us here in the Mid-Atlantic.
No, it is strictly a marine mammal virus. Although there are diseases that can spread from dolphins to humans, this isn't one of them.
Any possible relation to the 2010 oil spill? Gulf stream may have brought enough toxins into the Atlantic waters over the past couple of years to harm dolphins and whales
Why does this morbilivirus just attack dolphins? I feel like if it was manmade, either pollution or sonar it would affect more than one species right? Is IT possible that the sand replenishment could be stirring up decomposing parts of ocean organisims that could be affecting the dolphins swimming by the shoreline? Idk, it really sucks. Dolphins are like smart doggies to me, and I love 'em. If they keep dropping I'd bet that shark attacks in the mid Atlantic will be more likely.
A little more info on this virus: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9807724 (dated Oct 1998) Measles is a morbillivirus.
