Bittersweet End For Dolphins At Northwest
Many die, but an unprecedented eight were freed

By Carissa Katz

Doug Kuntz Allison Chailett, a biologist with the Riverhead Foundation for Marine Research and Preservation, and Chuck Hamilton of the State Department of Environmental Conservation dragged a dead dolphin to shore in Northwest Creek on Sunday.

(01/25/2007)    After a week of rescue efforts, biologists and marine officials carried the last two of the stranded common dolphins from Northwest Creek in East Hampton on Sunday.

    Of the 20 or so animals that were trapped in the creek, 12 died and 8 were herded into open water. “We were very fortunate to get those animals out,” said Chuck Hamilton, the regional supervisor for the State Department of Environmental Conservation. “In most mass strandings, it’s usually a 100 percent mortality rate.”

    Mr. Hamilton was the commander of a coordinated rescue operation that ultimately grew to include 11 federal, state, and local agencies and organizations. Among them were the National Marine Fisheries Service, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the United States Coast Guard, two divisions of the D.E.C., the East Hampton Town Police, Marine Patrol, and Department of Natural Resources, the Riverhead Foundation for Marine Research and Preservation, the New England Aquarium, and the Suffolk County Police.

    As far as he knows, last week’s rescue effort was the largest of its type in New York State history. “We saved eight of the animals’ lives. We have never done this before,” he said.

    Chuck Bowman of the Riverhead Foundation agreed. “We did better than anyone ever has on the East Coast in a similar situation,” he said Tuesday.

    The coordination between the different agencies was “flawless,” Ed Michels, the town’s chief harbormaster, told the East Hampton Town Board on Tuesday. “It couldn’t have been any better if we had trained for this.”

    The first, unsuccessful, rescue attempt was made on Jan. 14, after four of the dolphins in the creek were found dead over two days. On Jan. 16, a fifth was found dead, but rescuers succeeded in herding eight of the animals into Northwest Harbor. A third rescue attempt last Thursday proved futile. That morning, a Suffolk County Police helicopter flew over the far reaches of the creek searching for dolphins in shallower water or washed up on the shore.

    Nine dolphins from the group had died by Friday and the final three died over the weekend.

    Since the dolphins first found their way into the creek, thousands of people had visited Northwest Landing to see  them up close. Their visit and the subsequent rescue attempts made national and international news. Reports were carried on the BBC, a Japanese television crew filmed there, and stories appeared in newspapers as far away as Dubai, South Africa, and Malaysia. A camera crew from the television network Animal Planet filmed the rescue operation from one of the eight boats involved in it for a program it plans to air this summer.

    As people watched the rescue efforts unfold, many had suggestions of their own about how to save the dolphins or lure them out of the creek. If the animals were starving, they wondered why someone did not try to feed them. They asked why rescuers did not use nets to corral them through the mouth of the creek.

    Mr. Hamilton and Mr. Bowman heard many of those suggestions, however most proved not to be helpful in this incident. “We have to work under a nationwide set of rules and guidelines administered by the National Marine Fisheries Service, which enforces the Marine Mammal Protection Act,” Mr. Bowman explained Tuesday. “Whatever we decide to do, we have to get approval from them.”
 
    Feeding marine mammals in the wild is against the law, but even if it were to be allowed, “animals have to be trained to eat dead food,” Mr. Hamilton said, and the availability of live fish is limited.

    “It was all of our collective opinions that they would be better served to get them out than to go through a two-week training program to get them to eat dead fish,” Mr. Bowman said.

    Using nets to corral them also seemed like a bad idea, he said. “When they are healthier and we put a net in the water, dolphins react very badly. . . . They end up tangled in the net.” The stress of that situation might have killed the dolphins, he said. And if they had gotten tangled, people would have had to go in the water to untangle them. “We just couldn’t take those chances with people’s safety,” Mr. Bowman said.

    Nevertheless, Mr. Hamilton said that the concern and suggestions were appreciated. “For the next incident, should any occur, we want to have as much as we can in our bag of tricks.”

    All of the dead dolphins were transported to the Riverhead Foundation, which is assisting in necropsies to determine the cause of the deaths. The National Marine Fisheries Service has sent a marine mammal pathologist from the University of Tennessee to Riverhead, as well.

    Early examinations showed that the dead dolphins had not been eating, Mr. Bowman said last week. The results of tissue and blood samples, which will not be known for several weeks, will help determine whether the dolphins were also suffering from illness or disease.

    There were some reports last week of dolphins in Plum Gut and on the back side of Gardiner’s Island, but since the weather has turned dramatically colder, Mr. Bowman said he expects the dolphins will follow the bait fish farther offshore.
With Reporting by Joanne Pilgrim