Dead dolphin washes ashore far north of normal range
LONG BEACH, Wash. - A dead 7-foot male striped dolphin washed ashore Monday night a few miles north of Long Beach, the Seaside Aquarium said.
Keith Chandler and Jason Hussa from the aquarium retrieved the dead dolphin from the surf for Dr. Debbie Duffield with the Oregon/Washington Marine Mammal Stranding Network.
Duffield planned to perform a necropsy on the dolphin in an attempt to determine the cause of death.
This is at least the third striped dolphin to wash ashore along the Northwest coast in the last decade. In January 2006, a striped dolphin washed ashore at Fort Stevens State Park.
The dolphins are uncommon in the area. Striped dolphins prefer warmer waters and are typically found in the offshore waters off of California and Baja, the aquarium said.
In June, a semi-comatosesea turtle - also a creature that prefers warm water - washed up on the Oregon coast.
The dolphin's death provides an opportunity to learn more about the animals.
The animal's sharp teeth are used for snatching up small fish such as herring or cod. Squid make up a large part of their diet.
Striped dolphins live alone or in small schools.
Why is this front page news and why has it not been removed as it's getting very little attention. Yes I'll admit it seems a bit hypocritical to comment BUT but it's so odd that it has stayed on the front page for so long.
Probably the navy sonar testing. Â That's got to stop
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These are some beautiful animals - sorry to see this happening!
What's the difference between a necropsy & an autopsy? Aren't they both basically dissecting dead bodies?
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And my sympathies to the family of the deceased.
Saw a dead one in Florida once. Just laid there. Nobody cared. Certainly didn't make the news.Â
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It's not hurting anyone, so just leave it be.Â
@paperboy Its making the news because it is unusual for a dolphin to be found this far north.
up for grabs is a big barge headed for the coast but hurry the state will just want to destroy it when it hits the beach.
A couple of sticks of dynamite should take care of it. Ah yes, lessons learned from the Oregon coast.
Better take a flame thrower to it and make sure that it doesn't bring any alien or evasive species from CA or Mexico. We're doing that with everything from Japan for some reason.
 @Magic 8 Ball Even all those giant cruise ships don't have to be decontaminated either. oh well i'm sure someone will bring something home on their airplane ride anyway.
this could be the result of swallowing  tsunami debris in the ocean. it is possible the fish life are eating rotting food, animals and people and stuff that was washed out to sea.
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Hate this system when you make a mistake you have to copy then delete then paste then correct then paste.
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last word should be post not paste darn it!
@32jim2 Really missing that edit option myself!!!
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@Magic 8 Ball @32jim2 I miss the thumbs down option. :(
@SchönLicht @32jim2 Gotta wonder what in the world KOMO was thinking with this new system. No edit. No thumbs down. You only get scored on the number of likes so it emboldens you to say some radical things. The most like's i've seen are about 8 on a post. I used to get 20 to 40 regularly.
such a beautiful creature. We are killing our wild life and this world needs to see that before it is too late
 @2dogsbarking Sadly, animals die just like humans do. This is only the 3rd one in 10 years. That's a pretty good statistic. We don't know if humans did this or if mother nature did this.
 @2dogsbarking Did you see some damage from a boats prop in the photos that I did not see?  What makes you assume that (we humans) killed this dolphin?   Are Dolphins immune from dying of say, old age or a lack of food?  Perhaps he / she got lost.   Conversely, the Dolphin may have died as a result of human pollution or some other unknown reason at this time.  Â
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 @Vertically Inclined In this instance who knows--but, in general, you'd have to be braindead(and human) to not realize how much man has messed up this planet(let alone the ocean). Not dolphins, or raccoons, or crows.Â
@2dogsbarking This just in... its too late. Sad but true, too many people don't care and thats why I say it's already too late. :-(