Baby Dolphin

So I realize that I have been slacking in the blogging area, and I apologize. It has been busy down here for sure - long days on the water, photo-ID, blah blah blah - but in addition to all that, there has been a baby dolphin in distress that has taken up a few days. We got a call sometime last week (I think it was last week) about a baby dolphin about 75 miles north of us that had found its way up a tidal creek alongside a manatee and her baby, but did not find its way out. The poor thing had been swimming in circles for almost 2 weeks, and noone was sure if it had been eating or if it was sick or what. As the local rescue for situations like this, the CKDP got our supplies together and drove over.

When we got there we realized that this was an extremely rural area - conferderate flags a-flyin', no street signs, no stores, practically no people, but more importantly, no Gulf. We were quite a ways inland, and we were going to see a dolphin! Last I checked, dolphins were sea dwellers, not freshwater fish.

When we got to the house, we were greeted with a short rotund woman with a thick southern accent and curlers in her hair, and a man with a long white mustache and grease on his tank top. They led us to the neighbors dock to show us the dolphin. The dolphin was very young and VERY stressed, and the creek was...well a creek! It was tiny - no more than 5ft deep - and definitely not proper dolphin habitat. We took some pictures and some video, got a water sample, jotted down some notes, talked to the locals, and made some calls. We were there a few hours, and decided that it was best not to feed the wild dolphin in hopes that it would return to the gulf on its on. We asked locals to keep tabs on the babe and let us know if anything changes.

A few days later, with news that the dolphins was still there and probably not eating, we went to the creek again. This time an experienced vet flew in from New Orleans to meet us (he and his colleague had been helping the sea turtles in LA for a few weeks). The vet had hit us with some very disturbing news - the dolphin was only 3-5 months old. We were under the impression that it was at least a year, and able to fend for itself, but at only 3 months he hadn't even got his teeth in yet! The poor thing was definitely not eating and needed to be removed immediately! It was clear that this poor guy was worse off than we had seen only a few days prior. His dorsal fin was leaning (a sign of too much exposure to the air), his fat reserves were dwindling (he was suffering from "peanut-head", a term used to describe what happens when the fat that is behind a young dolphins neck has dissipated and the back of the skull is visible), and he was moving much slower.

We conversed with the vet and made a plan to go full force on finding this guy a home. He was too young to be set back into the wild, so he would most likely be placed in captivity with an aquarium or rescue center. After many calls and pleas, an aquarium across the state said they had room for the little guy. We emphasized the importance of moving the baby ASAP (like that day or the next day), but could only get a team sent over for Monday (2 days later). We were disappointed it wasn't sooner, but relieved he had a place to live and a team to move him.

The next day, though, we got a call in the morning that the dolphin was no longer circling the docks. This was either good news or bad news. It either meant that he swam out to the Gulf with the tide, or that he had passed. Dolphins, unlike many other marine mammals sink when they expire, so we would not be able to see directly if he had died. With that news, we packed our stuff (yet again) to check out the area. A member of the clearwater aquarium was able to meet us there and he and Stefanie went up the creek in his jonboat, and Emily and I went up the other way in kayaks to search for a dolphin - dead or alive.
Our efforts were fruitless, however, and we found no sign of the poor baby dolphin. It is possible that the little guy made it out, but more likely that he used all of his reserves and crashed. It may be, though, that it is better this way. Dolphins do die, and baby dolphins more often than adults. Perhaps nature preferred to take the orphan dolphin than have him held in human captivity for the rest of his life. It would have been nice to be part of an effort like that, but I am glad to have been there to bring some attention to him at all. R.I.P peanut head...you were cute.