Two Chilmark Police officers pulled on waders near Abel’s Hill, a private neighborhood in Chilmark, Monday and went across the pond to reach the South Shore where a dolphin was beached.
Bret Stearns, a full-time Chilmark Police officer and member of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Greater Atlantic Region Marine Mammal Stranding Network that responds to local calls of stranded, entangled, or injured marine mammals and sea turtles, said he received a text message in a group chat of Island responders at 1:36 pm. The text said that a short-beaked common dolphin was stranded and seen by beachgoers.
Short-beaked common dolphins have a “distinctive ‘hourglass’ color pattern” of dark gray, light gray, and tan or yellow and tend to grow to be between six to eight feet long, according to a NOAA spokesperson. The one found in Chilmark was estimated at six feet.
“While the cause of this stranding is unknown, investigations into previous dolphin strandings have identified causes such as infection, biotoxins, human interactions, and malnutrition,” a spokesperson for NOAA said in an email to The Times.
The beachgoers had tried to put the dolphin back in the water with a towel, but the dolphin only beached itself again, Stearns said. The same thing happened when Stearns and Michael Duella, another Chilmark officer, arrived at the beach around 2:35 pm.
Stearns said that they found the dolphin alive high on the shore and away from the water; the dolphin had no visible injuries and had “plenty of vitality.” They used a large wool blanket to cradle the dolphin out to the ocean. But, in attempts to refloat the dolphin, it came back to the shore several times. The last time Stearns and Duella carried the dolphin out, they walked out as far as they could and watched the dolphin head past the “second surf.”
It’s not natural or instinctive for dolphins to repeatedly beach themselves, Stearns said. “There’s usually something wrong” if that’s their tendency, he said. He said he hopes for the best and NOAA has pictures and details of the event for the future. The network hasn’t received any additional reports of this dolphin as of Thursday, Oct. 15, the NOAA spokesperson said.
Stearns said the town gives officers the flexibility to break free of primary duties and “work on things important at the time.” Up-Island officers are involved in these strandings more often than people would think, Stearns said.
If you see a stranded, distressed, or dead marine mammal, contact a local stranding network partner, or call NOAA’s stranding hotline at 866-755-6622.
