Baby dolphin dies

A baby dolphin found July 4 on the banks of a New Castle park has died.

“Unfortunately, it didn’t make it,” said Suzanne Thurman, executive director of the Marine Education, Research and Rehabilitation Institute. “Its poor skin was so degraded, probably from being out of the water.”

Thurman thanked all the volunteers who worked to save the baby. Members with the Good Will Fire Co. and New Castle City Police responded to Battery Park after a citizen reported a dolphin stranded along the rocky shoreline of the riverfront park. A tent was set up to shield the baby from the sun, and volunteers kept the dolphin’s skin wet before it was transported to the MERR Institute in Lewes. “It was not suffering,” Thurman said.

The dolphin was 2 to 3 months old, and had somehow become separated from its mother. 

Thurman said it is unusual for dolphins to travel that far up the Delaware River; she speculated that the baby swam north along the coast after it was separated. “It was way out of its element,” she said.

The Delaware River narrows at the City of New Castle with a steady flow of container ships and other commercial vessels passing through daily. The water quality is also poor with low salinity and contamination from runoff from development and industry along the river.

At its young age, the dolphin was still nursing its mother, and would have relied on its mother as its main food source for a year. The bond between baby and mother even continues for a few years after that, Thurman said.

“Dependent calves cannot survive without their mothers, so the prospects for this dolphin were dim,” Thurman said. “MERR assessed the animal and provided life support, but despite the valiant rescue efforts and hopes for survival, the dolphin was too debilitated to recover and survive.”