Dolphins seen near Harborton and Fisherman’s Island

By Linda Cicoira

The Virginia Aquarium’s Stranding Response Team received nearly a dozen phone calls for common dolphin sightings and strandings in the last several days.

The dolphins were seen between Fort Story, the northern tip of Virginia Beach, to the Chesapeake Bay side of the Eastern Shore, as far north as Harborton and as far south as Fisherman’s Island. The dolphins are an offshore species and are not typically found in shallow inshore waters.

Since Sunday, the Aquarium’s stranding team identified four live common dolphins that stranded in shallow creeks, five dead dolphins that were stranded on shore, and a group of about ten dolphins moving freely in a shallow creek. The team hoped the live dolphins would navigate back to deeper water on their own. The dolphins’ activity has been monitored and two dolphins re-stranded Tuesday morning and the team was dispatched to respond.

A dolphin was found with a severe wound to its flank. The other dolphins had no obvious sign of injury or illness.

The team will conduct to collect samples for gain insight on the cause of stranding and for other research studies. Aquarium biologists believe the deaths are from biological causes and not human interactions. There is not an obvious cause. The stranding team is continuing to investigate and additional analyses will be conducted during the next several months.

The public is asked to report stranded marine mammal and sea turtle sightings immediately to the Virginia Aquarium’s Stranding Response hotline at 757-385-7575 with the exact location. Do not approach stranded animals and keep a safe distance of at least 50 yards from the animal.

The response program is largely a volunteer-based group supported by the Virginia Aquarium Foundation through donations from the community and grant-making organizations.

In a video that went viral on ShoreDailyNews.com’s Facebook page, a humpback whale was spotted off Cape Charles on Friday, March 11. The video has garnered more than 35,000 views. A longer YouTube version is available below:

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