Swamp Stomp

Volume 18 Issue 7

From their powerful swimming techniques to their mysteriously intelligent brains, dolphins have enchanted the public for generations. These marine mammals swam their ways into popular culture from Flipper to The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy over the course of the last 100 years. Dolphins have once again captured the public eye, but, unfortunately, in a much more gruesome way.

Off the coast of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, gray dolphins have been washing up dead since November 2017. Scientists in Brazil have concluded that these deaths are a result of a virus known as the “cetacean morbillivirus.” However, the origin of the virus is still unknown. The virus is an immune system pathogen that causes skin lesions and pneumonia in dolphins, as well as in porpoises and whales. Because dolphins are such social animals, living in pods consisting of up to 200 dolphins, this virus is easily spread, having potentially catastrophic results on the gray dolphin population.

But gray dolphins are not the first victims of morbillivirus. Bottlenose dolphins and harbor seals were victims of different strains of morbillivirus in 1988 and 2006, respectively, in the northeastern United States. And in 2014, at least 1,441 bottlenose dolphins were found dead along the East Coast of the United States from New York to Florida, also due to morbillivirus.

So, what is there to do? Leonardo Flach, a biologist and the chief coordinator of the Boto Cinza Institute in Mangaratiba, Brazil told ABC News, “The only solution would be to create a marine refuge to allow the dolphins to survive.” Dolphin conservation has never been a priority in Brazil, but Flach hopes the die-offs will draw more attention to the need to protect the gray dolphin population, which he calls “an endangered species.” Brazilian scientists are working hard to determine the cause of this deadly virus, but without more attention given to this issue, gray dolphin populations could experience growing numbers of fatalities.

Sources:

El Hammar, Aicha. “Over 80 Dolphins Die in Brazil, Confounding Environmentalists.” ABC News. ABC News. 4 January 2018, Web. 13 January 2018.

Fine Maron, Dina. “Massive Dolphin Die-off Eludes Final Explanation.” Scientific American. Scientific American. 6 August 2014, Web. 13 January 2018.

Zachos, Elaina. “Scores of Dolphin Deaths Have Scientists Baffled.” National Geographic. National Geographic. 12 January 2018, Web. 13 January 2018.