Mobile UPI  |   About UPI  |   UPI en Español  |   UPI Arabic  |   UPIU  |   My Account
Search:
Go

81 dolphins have died along Cape Cod shore

|
|
 
  
Published: Feb. 2, 2012 at 2:43 PM
Advertisement

CAPE COD, Mass., Feb. 2 (UPI) -- At least 81 dolphins have died along the Cape Cod shore since early January in a series of unexplained incidents, U.S. officials and wildlife rescuers said.

More than 100 dolphins have been found stranded along the rocky Massachusetts shoreline, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration spokeswoman Teri Rowles told CNN. The International Fund for Animal Welfare said the dolphins are sometimes washing ashore in groups of as many as 10.

Rescuers have been transporting live dolphins to the outer Cape to be returned to the ocean.

IFAW program director A.J. Cady said the number of recent incidents is disturbing. "Cape Cod sees an average of 120 dolphin strandings per year," Cady told CNN.

Recent changes in water temperature could be a contributing factor, Wellfleet, Mass., harbormaster Michael Flanagan said.

"Usually in the winter, the harbor ices over and inhibits the animals from coming close to the shore," Flanagan said. "But now that the water is warmer, we're seeing lots more dolphins washing up than ever before."

Topics: Teri Rowles
Recommended Stories
© 2012 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI's prior written consent.

Order reprints
  
Join the conversation
Most Popular Collections
Notable deaths of 2012 Scripps National Spelling Bee AmfAR Cinema Against AIDS gala
Indianapolis 500 Presidential Medal of Freedom Memorial Day around the nation
Additional Science News Stories
1 of 27
Snigdha Nandipati of San Diego wins Finals of the Scripps National Spelling Bee
View Caption
Snigdha Nandipati of San Diego, California watches confetti rain down as she wins the two-day Scripps National Spelling Bee championship, May 31, 2012, in National Harbor, Maryland. Nandipati successfully spelled the word .* guetapens *, meaning to lure or ambush. UPI/Mike Theiler
fark
Photoshop this huge manatee
Clear your desks, get out your pencils, and have your hot teacher smooth her skirt back down: it's...
Turns out judges don't like it so much when you lie to them: George Zimmerman bond revoked for lying...
Indiana church where congregation cheered as toddler sang "Ain't no homos going to make it to heaven,"...
"Chivalry isn't dead, you stupid biatch" and 50 other funniest tweets of all time
Happy 38th birthday, Alanis Morissette