October 29, 2013 — Everyone who has been following this year's stranding epidemic knows that New Jersey's dolphins had a tough summer. This week, NOAA Fisheries Regional Marine Mammal Response Coordinator Mendy Garron confirmed that dolphin deaths in the New Jersey region have continued into the fall.
Morbillivirus outbreak continues
Researchers agree that the primary cause of this year's Unusual Mortality Event (UME) among bottlenose dolphins, as defined by the 1972 federal Marine Mammal Protection Act, is an illness known as morbillivirus. Many of the dead and dying animals that have washed up on New York, New Jersey, Delaware and Virginia beaches this year have lesions of the skin, mouth, or lungs.
Garron, who oversees stranding response programs among many non-government partners from Maine to Virginia, said that while New York strandings seem to have tapered off, dolphins testing positive for morbillivirus are now starting to appear on North and South Carolina beaches. So far this year, from New York to North Carolina, over 800 stranded dolphins were counted between January 1 and October 21. That's many times the typical average.
Dolphins still stranding in New Jersey
"We're still seeing a large number of animals in Virginia and up through New Jersey," Garron said, speaking with NewsWorks by phone last week.
According to updated numbers released by NOAA on October 21st, the total number of bottlenose dolphin strandings in Virginia since July has topped 300, while in New Jersey, the second-most active site for the strandings, that number approaches 150. In October alone, as of the 21st, New Jersey saw over 20 stranded dolphins.
In 1987-88, scientists attributed a similar UME to morbillivirus, but the number of strandings this time around has been a bit higher. Garron said that a total of 700 animals were recorded in that UME between New York and Florida, but the current outbreak passed that number in July.
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