Dolphin washes up, dies on Old Bridge beach

OLD BRIDGE — A dolphin was beached off the shore of Raritan Bay in the Laurence Harbor section of town and died shortly after being discovered.

A pedestrian found the dolphin on the beach around 7:30 a.m. Dec. 23. The dolphin died on the beach before responders arrived from the Marine Mammal Stranding Center, a nonprofit organization based in Brigantine.

Old Bridge Police Capt. Robert Weiss said police were dispatched to the scene, along with the Laurence Harbor Volunteer Fire Co. A tent was constructed around the dolphin to keep the wind off the animal and blankets were put over the dolphin and kept moist. Weiss said a crowd gathered at the scene, despite the bitter cold weather that day.

"We made a significant effort to try to save the dolphin," Weiss said. "I think a significant effort was made by the Old Bridge community to save this dolphin. People always have a special connect to dolphins."

Robert Schoelkopf, director of the Marine Mammal Stranding Center, said the center has not yet received lab reports on chemical or other testing samples from the dolphin's body that were sent to the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, Washington, D.C.

"The animal was dehydrated, emaciated," Schoelkopf said. "It hadn't eaten for some time."

Schoelkopf founded the organization 27 years ago in order to help marine mammals and sea turtles. In this case, it was a striped dolphin that died one day after it had been pushed back into the ocean after being beached in Sandy Hook.

Volunteers from the center were called out to Sandy Hook on Dec. 22 when three striped dolphins were found stranded on the ocean side of the beach there. Two of those striped dolphins were pushed back into the ocean before the volunteers arrived from Brigantine and one of the dolphins at the scene died.

Schoelkopf confirmed that one of the dolphins from that incident was the same dolphin that died on the beach in Laurence Harbor on Dec. 23.

Schoelkopf said he had expected the dolphins that were pushed back into the water would be found on the beach again, but he noted that the other dolphin that was pushed back into the ocean on Dec. 22 has not yet been accounted for.

The Marine Mammal Stranding Center usually handles several striped dolphins throughout the state every year, Schoelkopf said, noting that the dolphin that died in Laurence Harbor is one of 163 the center has handled this year alone. The striped dolphins that were beached in this case likely got separated from a larger group of deep-ocean dolphins, became weak and got swept up in the currents, which carried them to shore.

If residents find beached animals, they should contact the Marine Mammal Stranding Center as soon as possible, since Schoelkopf said it is the only agency in the state that is authorized to handle marine mammals or sea turtles. He also recommended that residents take digital photographs of the animals and e-mail them to the center, so that they can bring the necessary equipment and know the species, size and condition of the animal.

"The faster you call, the more time we have to mobilize volunteers," Schoelkopf said. "… People have to realize we're in Brigantine, N.J., and that's a long haul. We handle the whole state of New Jersey and there's only four people on staff to do that."