PANAMA CITY — More dolphins have washed up dead in the Florida panhandle, although the frequency has gone down.
Pam George, president of the Florida Panhandle Marine Institute, told the News Herald that the total number of dolphins found since the start of the year is up to 47. This is only three more than the News Herald’s last reporting, which was 44 as of March 24, although it is still outside of the norm.
A paper released by the National Marine Fisheries Service showed that there were about eight strandings on average in a year between 2013 and 2017.
Twenty-four of the dead dolphins washed up between March 7 and April 9. Many of the calls received by the Marine Institute came in on March 7.
The institute has been working with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and the NOAA Marine Fisheries Service to figure out what’s happening with the animals. Samples were sent to a lab, however, the results have not come back.
The News Herald previously reported that these occurrences are called unusual mortality events, and that this event has an apparent geographic center between Mexico Beach and Port St. Joe. The die-off also has some similarities with a 2004 event that killed 103 dolphins.
Many strandings during the mortality event occurred within a short time frame. St Joseph Bay was the geographic epicenter, and they occurred in the absence of a Karenia brevis (red tide) bloom.
The causes of death in the 2004 event were found to be brevetoxins, produced by Karenia brevis, and domoic acid, produced by Pseudo-nitzschia.
While the cause of the current mortality event is unknown, the Panhandle Marine Institute is seeking donations to help continue its work. Readers can donate on the institute’s website, floridapanhandlemarineinstitute.com.
This article originally appeared on The News Herald: Florida panhandle’s dolphin death toll rises to 47 since early March
Reporting by Dylan Gentile, Panama City News Herald / The News Herald
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