unusually large number of dead bottlenose dolphins have washed ashore in Galveston, TX

[Ian David]

GLIDE Number: BH-20070319-10411-USA
Date / time: 19/03/2007 15:07:01
Event: Biological Hazard
Area: North-America
Country: USA
State/County: State of Texas
City: Galveston
Number of Deads: None or unknow
Number of Injured: None or unknow
Damage level: Minor

Description:
An unusually large number of dead bottlenose dolphins have washed ashore near this Gulf of Mexico coastal city in the past month, and investigators are looking at laboratory slides, satellite photos and anything else they can think of in their search for clues.

The 47 bodies found recently included many newborns with umbilical cords still attached. The figure represents three times the number found during the same period last year. "Right now we don't know what's going on, but it is definitely significant," said Daniel Cowan, a pathologist at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston.

"Nowhere else in Texas is having this kind of problem. They're coming in in multiples."

Investigators theorize that toxins seeping into the water off the Louisiana coast might have killed the dolphins, which were then carried by currents to the Texas shore. They are also scanning satellite images for algae blooms that might account for the deaths and considering the possibility of morbillivirus, a dolphin virus similar to one that causes canine distemper. In Galveston, scientists are conducting necropsies -- the animal equivalent of an autopsy -- and looking for signs of bacterial infection, wounds, disease or parasites. Blood, tissue and other samples taken from the dolphins will be sent to the National Marine Fisheries Service in Florida for toxicology tests, Cowan said.

The dolphin carcasses have been found from Galveston to Sabine Pass, 120 miles to the northeast. Last week the investigation spread to Louisiana, where the Coast Guard began aerial searches for dolphin bodies or clues to what might be killing them.

More:
http://hisz.rsoe.hu/alertmap/woalert_read.php?lang=eng&id=10411

[Gman]

1. Nothing around the Houston Ship Channel surprises me

Afterall, the Houston Ship Channel was on fire at one time after a flood, it's so polluted. I won't fish, or at least eat the fish I catch anywhere around Galveston Bay, or Galveston itself. Any of those refineries or chemical companies along the channel could have spilled something and chose not to self-report.

Then again, it very well could be stuff left over from Katrina that's just now starting to leak. Never will forget the empty 55 gallon drums on the beach in Corpus Christi that washed up after Katrina. Didn't recognize the name of the chemical that used to to be in the drums but they were likely full before they made their journey across the Gulf.