by Dinah Voyles Pulver / The Daytona Beach News-Journal
A beached dolphin in the Jacksonville area tested positive for a deadly virus that has killed more than 750 dolphins on the U.S. Atlantic coast.
Photo/Florida FWCC
A virus that has killed 753 bottlenose dolphins along the U.S. Atlantic Coast north of Florida since July 1 has been confirmed in a dead dolphin found on a Jacksonville Beach earlier this month, leading federal officials to test a dolphin that stranded on a local beach this week.
A bottlenose dolphin stranded in Ormond Beach on Thursday afternoon and showed visible signs of the virus killing the other dolphins, federal officials said Friday.
Detection of the virus in the Jacksonville dolphin confirmed officials fears that the disease might move south with the population of migratory bottlenose dolphins that leave the Northeast each winter for the warmer waters of the country’s southeastern region.
For months, marine mammal rescue teams along the coast from New York to South Carolina have been overwhelmed as they responded to 10 times more dolphin strandings than normal, said Teri Rowles with the marine mammal health and stranding response program for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Fisheries Service.
Despite a rescue attempt by SeaWorld Orlando and others, the dolphin found in Ormond Beach had to be euthanized, said Blair Mase, NOAA’s regional stranding coordinator. “It was in very poor condition, extremely emaciated and exhibiting some signs of distress.” [The Earth First! Journal Collective is relieved to hear that the dolphin wasn't subject to further pain and torture by SeaWorld Orlando.]
Extensive tests are under way on that dolphin and another found in Jacksonville. Mase said the Ormond Beach dolphin had characteristics similar to what they’ve seen in other animals that stranded live. Many of the infected dolphins have lesions on their skin, mouths, joints or lungs.
It will be two weeks before test results will be available, she said.
About 95 percent of the animals included in the mass mortality [sic] have died, Rowles said.
The outbreak is already larger than a similar outbreak among bottlenose dolphins that lasted about a year between 1987-88 and affected 740 animals, Rowles said. That outbreak affected animals as far south as Daytona Beach.
The strandings have increased in the Carolinas in recent weeks as the animals migrate down the coast, Rowles said.
Scientists do not yet know what, if any, impact the virus might have on the resident population of bottlenose dolphins that live in Florida waters year round.
NOAA is trying to discourage well-meaning people from pushing ailing dolphins back into the water, both from a humane perspective and because pushing the animal back into the ocean increases the chances of further spreading the virus, she said. Most of the animals that do strand alive are critically ill and in need of medical attention, Rowles said.
In dolphins, the virus affects the immune system and can leave the animal susceptible to other infections and diseases. Rowles pointed out the number of dolphins affected could be even larger because scientists don’t know how many dolphin deaths might be going uncounted when the animals die offshore.
NOAA also is looking at whether the morbillivirus is present in and causing strandings in at least two other species of marine mammals, including pygmy sperm whales and humpback whales. Three of four humpback whales that stranded this year have tested positive for the dolphin morbillivirus but tests have not confirmed whether the virus was the cause of death. And two of three stranded pygmy sperm whales also tested positive.
To report a stranded dolphin, call 877-942-5343.
