[MARINE_BIOLOGY_INTERNATIONAL] Early dolphin deaths were stillborn young

(Sun Herald.com)
(This would seem to throw cold water on the "cold water" theory of why these dolphins died.)

Thursday, Mar 17, 2011
Posted on Wed, Mar. 16, 2011
Officials sure early dolphins were stillborn
By KAREN NELSON
GULFPORT -- Federal officials involved in the investigation of the deaths of dozens of baby dolphins along the northern Gulf said Wednesday that they are certain now that a portion of the infants were stillborn -- that their mothers did not carry them to full term.
Blair Mase, the Southeast Regional Stranding Coordinator, said they don't have all the data and they are still collecting bodies.
But she said, "We know for a fact that a portion of the calves that washed ashore, especially the ones in January or early February, were stillborn."
She said, "It's a very important distinction, to know what stage these animals were in when they died, whether they were pre-term and aborted or whether they were born."
She said it's a clue to what was going on with the mothers during the birthing cycle.
However, she said they have no fresh carcasses of female dolphins that had just given birth.
According to NOAA Fisheries statistics as of Tuesday night, 112 dolphins have washed ashore this year from Apalachicola, Fla., to the Louisiana/Texas line. Of those, 50 were premature or newborns.
The percentage of calf deaths is much higher for Mississippi and Alabama.
The Institute for Marine Mammals in Gulfport collects the data for NOAA in those states. It had listed on its website on Wednesday, a total of 62 dolphin deaths this year in those two states; 45 are calves.
NOAA also reported Wednesday that since February 2010, 361 bottlenose dolphins and small whales have died in the northern Gulf. This includes deaths during the BP oil spill throughout the summer.
"Now we're getting into the season where the younger animals are washing ashore as part of the normal life cycle," Mase said. "March is typically when we get them washing ashore, normal casualties in the birthing season."
The deaths in January and February were out of season, she said.
"Some were so small and they still had attached umbilical cords," she said. Some of their lungs didn't pass the float test, an indicator that they never took a breath.
Moby Solangi, director of IMMS, said Wednesday that he concurs that determining whether the infant dolphins were stillborn is important.
"It's quite possible," he said, "it would lead the investigation in a different direction."