the dolphin mystery continues…

Two stranded common dolphins wait to be transported to a waiting vehicle by a team from the International Fund for Animal Welfare at Herring River in Wellfleet, MA on Thursday, January 19th, 2012. The dolphins are two of 7 in the latest batch of dolphins found today bringing a total of over 80 stranded on Cape Cod shores in the last week.

Since I last blogged, over 50 more dolphins have stranded on Cape Cod, bringing the total to over 80. Yesterday I photographed the latest stranding in Wellfleet’s Herring River. While the setting was exquisite, the dolphins struggling and vulnerable on the flats, clearly expressing their distress, was yet another painful image I’ll never forget in this strange story.

No one knows why the strandings are happening on this massive scale. At the very least, the story is finally getting coverage in the mainstream media, with CNN running a lengthy piece on it this morning and most major papers reporting on it. I cannot help but wonder whether this is a natural phenomenon or whether, like many of the other cries of help nature seems to be sending us, this is indicative of an imbalance created by us humans. Here are some more images from yesterday’s stranding.

International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) volunteer, Patty Walsh, monitors the breathing of a stranded common dolphin while behind her a team prepares to move anther dolphin to a waiting vehicle at Herring River in Wellfleet, MA.

An International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) team carries a stranded common dolphin to a waiting vehicle while another waits to be rescued.

A dead common dolphin is marked as such at Herring River in Wellfleet, MA. In the background, an International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) volunteer monitors the breathing of a live stranded common dolphin while an IFAW team moves another dolphin to a waiting vehicle to potentially be released.