Why are dolphins stranding on Cape Cod beaches?

Evolution: fish walking out of the water

When I hear about strandings, my imagination seems to take me to the evolutionary image of sea animals turning into land animals.  I have a cartoon in my mind of fish “walking” out of the water.  Are these dolphins trying to leave the ocean for land?  I guess not… 

Close to 200 dolphins have become stranded along the beaches of Cape Cod Bay this winter in what is turning out to be the largest ever mass standing for the area.

Despite rescue efforts most die.  About 30% are successful released in deeper waters.  Scientists do not know why it’s happening.  Dolphins are extremely social and swim in pods of up to several hundred.  Perhaps they all follow one that is in trouble.

Mud-flats in Brewster

Certainly a contributing factor is the shallow water of Cape Cod Bay.  In fact it is one of the top locations worldwide for marine mammal strandings.  You can walk out for what seems like miles and still be just knee deep in water.  The difference in the shoreline from low tide to high tide is vast.  This makes the water recede quickly and perhaps the dolphins are getting tripped up by this.  Another factor may be that the water is 2 degrees Celsius warmer this winter.  Maybe this is contributing to the dolphins becoming disoriented.

It is so sad to see these beautiful mammals in trouble.  Most beached dolphins die because they can’t regulate their body temperature out of water.  They also have other difficulties on land like pressure on organs and their own weight making it difficult to breathe.

The rescue effort is being carried out by the International Fund for Animal Welfare and you can find more info on their website.

Additional source: Cape Cod Times

Have you seen the movie Dolphin Tale?  It’s based on a true story about a rescued dolphin with an amputated fin who is fitted with a prosthetic one!  It’s a great family movie and very inspirational!

Children’s book about evolution…

Our Family Tree: An Evolution Story by Lisa Westberg Peters and illustrated by Lauren Stringer:  All of us are part of an old, old family. The roots of our family tree reach back millions of years to the beginning of life on earth. Open this family album and embark on an amazing journey. You’ll meet some of our oldest relatives–from both the land and the sea–and discover what we inherited from each of them along the many steps of our wondrous past.
Complete with an illustrated timeline and glossary, here is the story of human evolution as it’s never been told before (Amazon description).