On October 7th, 2011, Kat Fourhman of the NC Aquarium at Roanoke Island responded to a stranding of a dead bottlenose dolphin on the shore of Roanoke Sound near Manteo, NC.Paul Doshkov of Cape Hatteras National Seashore assisted with the investigation.It was a 175cm (5’ 9”) male.At that size he would have been around 2 years old, still nursing, growing fast.Monofilament line from 2 different types of gill nets surrounded the rostrum and left pectoral fin.
Adult Length Range: 1.9 – 3.8m Light gray to black, fading to white on the belly. They have a short snout extending forward from the melon.
Grab it! A dolphin tries to catch a jumping fish. Photo by Leigh Torres
Bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) are the most common marine mammal in the coastal and estuarine waters near Cape Lookout and Beaufort, NC.
Bottlenose dolphin are opportunistic feeders and will hunt whatever is most abundant. They are highly adaptable and congregate in groups. Some males bond in groups of 2 or 3 and mother and calf bonds are usually strong.
25 second hydrophone recording sound clip of 17 bottlenose dolphins off Shackleford Banks. Click here for ringtone or here for iPhone m4r.
Bottlenose Dolphin background and research in North Carolina
North Carolinians have related to dolphins in a variety of ways ranging from commercial dolphin net fisheries (late 1700s-1920s, used primarily for oil, leather, and fertilizer) to conservation of this depleted and federally protected population.
Today, threats to dolphins include unintentional entanglement in commercial and recreational fishing gear, ingestion of litter, contamination of food sources, boat strikes, and intentional (but illegal) feeding of dolphin by boaters.
Researchers at the NC Maritime Museum have been using photo-identification since 1985 to study the local bottlenose dolphins.
On June 14, 2003 I (Allen), Tabbie Merrills, Hugh Wilde, and Buddy Nance, were loading Spyhop at the old Coast Guard docks when Tabbie saw a dolphin swimming in the Bight heading toward a shallow area. As we watched the dolphin swam up to the shore. At first we didn’t think much about this because we often see dolphins in shallow water feeding. But when some kids approached the dolphin from the shore and the dolphin appeared to remain in the same place we knew something was wrong. We immediately placed a call to the Marine Mammal Stranding Network to report a live stranding.
After talking with the local stranding coordinator, Gretchen Lovewell, it was decided to seek the advice of a veterinarian with the NCSU veterinarian school, Dr. Craig Harms. As luck would have it the Dr. Harms had kayaked to the Cape earlier that morning to climb the lighthouse and just happened to check his messages. We were all surprised to see him come kayaking up.
As Dr. Harms examined the dolphin we saw that a shark had bitten it and that it was listing to one side. It was a big dolphin and highly unlikely to have been bitten by a shark unless it was already weak. Dr. Harms thought this could be good candidate for rehabilitation so the decision was made to transport the dolphin to the NOAA Lab on Pivers Island.
We loaded the dolphin on to Haywood Holderness’s boat and transported the dolphin to Harkers Island where NOAA personnel Aleta Hohn , Annie Gorgone, Gretchen Lovewell, and Ari Friedlander from Duke met us. We loaded the dolphin into the back of a pickup truck, covered him with wet towels and transported him to the NOAA lab. Four of us rode in the back spraying him with water. At the NOAA Lab we unloaded the dolphin into a temporary pool. Dr. Harms took blood samples for analysis and tube fed him some liquids.
It was necessary for someone to be in the pool with him at all times to help him keep his head above water to breath and to keep him from listing to one side. Tabbie started contacting possible volunteers and making an around the clock schedule. We had volunteers from the local community, NOAA, Duke Marine Lab, NC Maritime Museum, and NCSU School of Veterinarian Medicine.
It was also necessary for us to provide some fish for him to eat. Hugh provided some frozen spots from his freezer. Leslie from William Smith Seafood in Beaufort kindly offered to help provide fish for food. Keith also provided some food, trashing his best cast net in the process. The dolphin would not eat so Dr. Harms made a fish slurry and tube fed him.
When the blood samples came back it was obvious that we had a very sick dolphin on our hands, but nobody gave up. Dr. Harms contacted the NCSU Veterinarian School and 2 veterinarian students came down from Raleigh to assist. Dr. Harms did everything possible to help the dolphin and spent countless hours with him, but he was an old sick dolphin and it was his time. When he died 3 days later, on June 17th, it was a sad time for all the people that had worked so hard to try and save him. The necropsy confirmed that he was a very sick dolphin.
