Risso's dolphin stranded on East Hampton beach likely died of natural causes
A dolphin stranded on an East Hampton beach Friday died, likely of natural causes, shortly after rescuers arrived that morning, marine officials said.
A necropsy report released Monday found signs of a possible viral infection in the adult male, as well as parasitic infection in his lungs and liver. Worn teeth and the amount of scarring on the 9½-foot-long dolphin indicates he was likely older, and he was "very emaciated ... with no presence of food in his digestive tract," said the report from Atlantic Marine Conservation Society, a Westhampton Beach-based nonprofit.
Even if the male Risso’s dolphin had survived rescue attempts, it's unlikely he could have been rehabilitated, said Maxine Montello, executive director of New York Marine Rescue Center, a Riverhead-based nonprofit that led the recovery team.
“It definitely was a very compromised animal,” she said. “The fact that it passed on its own when we removed it from the water means that it was on its way out.”
The center responds to sea turtles, seals, dolphins, porpoises and small-toothed whales. While Risso’s dolphins are less common, the center responded to two last year, Montello said. Friday's stranding marks the first Risso's dolphin the center has encountered this year.
It's also the first Risso's dolphin that Atlantic Marine Conservation Society responded to this year, according to Allison DePerte, a research associate and field biologist with the group. The nonprofit has also documented two common dolphins, one harbor porpoise, one bottlenose dolphin, one harp seal, one gray seal, three Kemp's ridley sea turtles and three Atlantic green sea turtles, she said.
“I don’t think this says anything about what’s happening in our waters,” Montello said of the Risso's dolphin recovered Friday. “I think this animal was an older individual and was probably coming to the end of its life. ... It wasn’t a young animal by any means. Animals, marine animals specifically, come to the shoreline often to pass away.”
Two rescuers from New York Marine Rescue Center led Friday’s response with help from the Department of Environmental Conservation and East Hampton Marine Control.
Beachgoers who come across strandings of sick, injured or deceased seals, sea turtles, dolphins and whales should call the NYS Marine Mammal and Sea Turtle Stranding Hotline at 631-369-9829, DePerte said.
Brianne Ledda covers the Town of Islip for Newsday. She previously covered Southold and Greenport for The Suffolk Times and is a graduate of Stony Brook University.
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