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Saturday, Mar. 20, 1999

Rescued bottlenose dolphin dies at aquarium

2-week effort by scientists, volunteers fails to save stranded animal

By JENNY STRASBURG
Staff Writer

   The bottlenose dolphin scientists tried for two weeks to rehabilitate in a pool at Texas State Aquarium SeaLab has died.
   The 162-pound female, which visitors to Padre Island National Seashore found beached March 4, began refusing food and became lethargic this week, according to officials with the aquarium and the Texas Marine Mammal Stranding Network.
   The dolphin died about 6 p.m. Thursday and was taken to Galveston for tests to determine the cause of death. Early results showed that she suffered from a prolonged infection, although the cause of the infection was not known Friday.
   Local scientists also are waiting to find out what killed an adult male melon-headed whale that died Tuesday morning while in rehabilitation at the aquarium. It had been found March 11 stranded near San Jose Island.
   No evidence exists that the dolphin's illness and the whale's illness were related, said Lance Clark, a marine biologist and TMMSN state operations coordinator in Galveston. The dolphins are natural to this area; in contrast, shallow waters along the coast are several hundred miles off the normal course for melon-headed whales, Clark said.
   Last week, the dolphin seemed to be stabilized and showing signs of improvement in its tank at the aquarium SeaLab, said Linda May, Corpus Christi coordinator for TMMSN.
   "She did really well, and then Monday we noticed that she wasn't eating quite as much as she normally did," May said.
   On Wednesday, scientists changed the dolphin's antibiotics and were giving her salmon oil, hoping to relieve her extreme constipation, May said.
   "She seemed to perk up a little bit but never really bounced back," May said. "And then she started having the same symptoms as that little melon-headed whale had in November, which indicated to us that she was really starting to go downhill rapidly."
   It isn't certain what caused the dolphin to beach, aquarium officials said. Nor do scientists know what has led to four confirmed strandings and one unconfirmed stranding of melon-headed whales on Texas beaches in five months.
   On Tuesday, the latest of those melon-headed whales -- a male adult -- died at the aquarium. But first, more than 200 volunteers answered an appeal to wear wetsuits and help the whale swim in its rehabilitation pool, because it was unable to support itself in the water and required several humans for support.
   That whale stranding followed the November death of a baby melon-headed whale found Nov. 5 on Padre Island National Seashore; the baby whale also died while under around-the-clock care at the aquarium.
   The whale deaths are especially puzzling because melon-headed whales do not naturally swim these waters, Clark said.
   He helped perform the necropsy on the melon-headed whales and on the dolphin that died Thursday.
   Full explanations for the whale deaths aren't likely to be available for months, if at all, Clark said. Several of the whales seem to have died of brain parasites. Such parasites are not uncommon, but they should not lead to death in a healthy whale, Clark said.
   "The brain was swollen. There were no other problems internally that would have caused the animal to strand," Clark said.
   As marine mammalogists in Texas and across the nation seek answers, only hazy explanations are surfacing, Clark said. "It's all speculation and hypothesis," he said.
   It is unknown how many melon-headed whales exist or how broadly their territories spread, Clark said.
   Clark said it is important to know why the melon-headed whales are leaving their natural environments -- the more tropical waters of the Caribbean and the deepest parts of the Gulf of Mexico -- and apparently swimming off course after they get sick.
   "If the top of the food chain is dying off, we need to know what's going on in the rest of food chain," Clark said.
   Staff writer Jenny Strasburg can be reached at 886-3779 or by e-mail at strasburgj@caller.com
   

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