Rescuers Respond To Historic Dolphin Stranding

BREWSTER – While beachgoers sunbathed nearby, a drama unfolded on the shore of Cape Cod Bay earlier this week as rescuers responded to a historic mass stranding of bottlenose dolphins.

Between 28 and 30 dolphins were first discovered ashore at low tide at 5:30 Monday morning between Ellis Landing Beach in Brewster and First Encounter Beach in Eastham. The majority of the animals refloated with the incoming tide, and the marine mammal rescue team from the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) responded and herded the dolphins away from shore. Around five or six dolphins died before rescuers arrived. 

Volunteers monitored the beach during Monday’s afternoon low tide, keeping watch for new strandings; they did the same thing during Tuesday’s morning low tide.

On Tuesday morning, four bottlenose dolphins were first spotted in the Herring River Gut in Wellfleet, and a short time later 19 live dolphins were observed stranded in the nine miles between Brewster and Wellfleet. 

“These animals are in decent condition. Two have been fitted with satellite tags so we can now monitor their movements and even see if the separated groups come back together,” said Brian Sharp, marine mammal rescue program director at IFAW. On the incoming tide late Tuesday morning, all 19 animals had been refloated and were being coaxed to deeper water.

Dolphin strandings happen occasionally on the Lower Cape, particularly in the area between Brewster and Wellfleet, the “crook” of the Cape’s bended arm, where the curve of the land and the extensive tidal flats seem to form a natural trap. But what made this week’s mass stranding unusual was the species involved.

“This is the largest known stranding of bottlenose dolphins off Massachusetts,” IFAW spokesperson Stacey Hedman wrote in a news release. Unlike Atlantic white-sided dolphins, which are frequently spotted from shore or from whale watch boats, bottlenose dolphins are generally only seen in offshore waters.

Additional strandings are possible in the next few days, and people are reminded to keep their distance from dolphins in distress.

“Similar to a person involved in a car accident, dolphins can become injured and exhausted during a stranding event and should never be pushed or dragged back into the water,” she said. “Members of the public who encounter a stranded or distressed marine mammal should keep a safe distance and contact trained rescue experts through our IFAW Stranding Hotline.” The hotline number is 508-743-9548, and reports can also be made online at www.ifaw.org/campaigns/strandings.

IFAW volunteer Dennis Kloepping of Harwich kept watch over the flats at Ellis Landing Beach Monday afternoon, measuring the length of each dead dolphin, marking its GPS location and using a grease marker to write an identifying number on the animal’s side. A steady stream of beachgoers watched with interest. Kloepping had to warn away some curious visitors who got too close.

The Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972 makes it illegal to harass marine mammals, which also includes disturbing a marine mammal carcass. Carcasses can also carry diseases that can jump from animals to humans.

While visitor after visitor expressed sadness at seeing the dead dolphins, marine mammal strandings present a unique opportunity for public education, Kloepping said. He answered all kinds of questions, but in the end couldn’t answer the one that was most frequently asked.

Researchers often don’t know definitively why mass strandings occur. It is believed that the large tidal range over the flats, where the fine sand gently slopes upward, interrupts the echolocation that dolphins use to find deep water. It is also possible that climate change plays a role, with warmer water temperatures drawing dolphins’ food supply — bait fish — closer to the shoreline. And researchers often perform necropsies on dead marine mammals to rule out illness.