Mumbai: Dolphin washed ashore at Marine Drive, 15th such case this year

Mumbai: Yet another dolphin carcass was beached at Marine Drive in the wee hours of Thursday. It is the ninth such case since June, when a marine mammal was washed ashore and the 15th such incident this year. The dolphin washed ashore opposite the Air India building near Nariman Point hours after midnight. Residents out on a stroll noticed the carcass stuck between the tetrapods. The forest department was informed and the carcass cremated. A series of marine animals have been washed ashore in the last three months, which led to the decision to conduct post mortems of their carcasses.

These reports revealed that as many as five of the 13 dolphins beached along the Mumbai coastline this year died of respiratory ailments due to ‘extremely poor water quality’.  The post mortem reports of two Indian Ocean humpback dolphins that washed ashore at Bandra Bandstand in a span of 10 days – one on August 8 and the other on August 18 – found  these mammals to have died of cardiopulmonary failure, a lung condition that leads to heart attack in them.