Narooma locals and visitors were saddened to find a dead dolphin washed up on the town’s main surf beach on the afternoon of Monday, October 16.
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The dolphin is believed to be one of the bottlenose species and although it had extensive wounds and scarring, these could have been sustained after it had died. The initial call from those who inspected the carcass is that there were no obvious signs of death.
The Eurobodalla Shire Council removed the dolphin with a mini excavator, taking it to the council depot where it could be examined by staff from National Parks.
“Council collected the dolphin from the beach and made it available to (National Parks) staff for their investigations at council’s Narooma Depot,” a council spokesperson said.
“Once they had completed their investigations, council staff transported the corpse to Brou landfill for disposal. This is standard procedure.”
Narooma local Rosy Williams and a walking friend were saddened to find the dolphin and watched the recovery of its remains with interest.
“It looked as if it had washed in with the tide,” Ms Williams said. “My interest is in finding out why it died as it looked a strong animal with good teeth for feeding, and its skin wounds seem to be surface wounds only.”
She questioned whether the dolphin could have caught up in a net and had sustained the wounds while struggling to get free.
The dead dolphin follows a large whaler shark washing up dead at a nearby Dalmeny beach earlier this month and she wondered if the deaths could somehow be related.
Marine mammal expert Pete Garbett from the Cetal Fauna group said the condition of the skin that was peeling suggested it had been dead for days, more so than hours.
He could not speculate on the cause of death from the photographs with nothing obvious but a necropsy might reveal something, he said.
He also identified the dolphin as a bottlenose dolphin based on the photographs supplied to him.
“It's a bottlenose dolphin but from those photos I can't be certain which of the two species from that area,” Mr Garbett said. “The teeth, and the general profile and shape of the dorsal and pectoral fins suggest an offshore or common bottlenose, more so than an inshore or Indo-Pacific bottlenose.”
A spokesperson for the Office of Environment and Heritage said the National Parks and Wildlife Service assessed the carcass and it appeared to be a male, bottle-nosed dolphin.
“The cause of death is unknown however it is not uncommon for this species to strand,” the spokesperson said. “As the land manager, Eurobodalla Shire Council disposed of the carcass from the beach.”