AR-News: Officials investigate sudden dolphin deaths

[jim robertson]

http://www.spokesmanreview.com/news-story.asp?date=031304&ID=s1499015&cat=section.Animals


Officials investigate sudden dolphin deaths


Cape San Blas, Fla. _ Scientists stepped up efforts Friday to discover 
what's been killing bottlenose dolphins in and near a bay in the Florida 
Panhandle, as the death toll climbed to at least 22 over three days.

Water samples from St. Josephs Bay will be tested for possible toxins, and 
autopsies were being conducted, but it could be two weeks before biologists 
have an answer, said Blair Mase of the National Marine Fisheries Service.

The carcasses have been found in the bay up to
a mile from shore, and in the Gulf of Mexico near the mouth of the bay, 
about 80 miles southwest of Tallahassee.

Anne Harvey, manager of St. Joseph Peninsula State Park, said redfish and 
horseshoe crabs also have been killed. That has increased suspicion that red 
tide or some other toxin may be responsible, Mase said.

The scattering of dolphin carcasses in open water as well as along the shore 
indicates the mammals did not strand themselves, Harvey said.


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Compassion, in which all ethics must take root, can only attain its full 
breadth and depth if it embraces all living creatures and does not limit 
itself to humankind.
Dr. Albert Schweitzer, Nobel Peace Prize winner

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