SOUTH JERSEY (KYW Newsradio) — A pod of dolphins that washed up on the beach in Sea Isle City, New Jersey, on Tuesday morning have all died. Efforts to save the animals were unsuccessful.
It was shortly before 11 a.m. when eight dolphins were discovered washed ashore near 52nd street in what the Marine Mammal Stranding Center calls a “mass stranding.”
Two were pronounced dead when rescue workers arrived on the scene. Six others nearby held on to life for a while longer. Despite rescue efforts, the six had to be humanely euthanized.
Rescuers kept them watered down until a veterinarian from the Marine Mammal Stranding Center in nearby Brigantine could get there to assess their condition.
“Our veterinarian came on scene, and … he looked at them one by one and he said: No, they are not strong enough to survive in the wild,” said Sheila Dean, director at Center. “If we would put them back out, they would more than likely … prolong death and [they] would wash back in somewhere else. But it would be inhumane to put them back out and have them suffer more than they already were.”
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What caused the dolphins to wash ashore has yet to be determined. Necropsies will be performed for each of the dolphins to determine what was threatening their health.
This is the latest incident in a series of unusual mortality events along the Jersey Shore in recent months.