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Updated: June 5, 2008, 4:34 pm	Share    Print    Email

An adult male common dolphin was found washed ashore on the ocean beach between Little Plains and South Main Street in Southampton Village early Thursday morning. Speculation as to the cause of death includes possible hypothermia or illness. Photos by Christine Bellini

The dolphin was sited washed up on the shoreline by a woman walking the beach Thursday morning. Pictured here, walkers-by take a gander at the rare beaching.

Southampton - A 245-pound common dolphin, not uncommon to area waters though rarely beached, was found dead near Little Plains Beach in Southampton Village on Thursday morning. Biologists and workers from The Riverhead Foundation for Marine Research and Preservation in Riverhead were on scene to collect the seven-and-a-half-foot long dolphin, which will be taken to the Foundation's headquarters for a necropsy, an autopsy for an animal, scheduled to be conducted tomorrow.

The dolphin was discovered by a woman walking on the beach, according to Michael Steward, who works for Southampton Village's highway and beach department.

Common dolphins can grow up to eight-and-a-half feet in length, and are readily identifiable by the crisscross pattern of yellow tan on both sides, a light belly and chest, and a black stripe that runs from the center of the lower jaw to the flipper. They are found in tropical and warm-temperate waters up and down the Atlantic Coast, as well as in the Indian and Pacific Oceans.

Biologist Gretchen Kowalik takes documenting photographs of the beached specimen prior to its transport to the Riverhead marine research facility.

There have been a number of water-bound visitors to the East End of late, including a recent report of three pilot whales beaching on the south shore in early spring. Last September, Atlantic White-Sided dolphins were spotted in Northwest Creek in East Hampton, while a group of common dolphins were seen off Cedar Point. According to the Riverhead Foundation's website, research has indicated that there are 25 cetacean (whale and dolphin) species who pass through or inhabit waters off Long Island.

Village beach crews helped to relocate the 245-pound dolphin into the research truck.

According to Rob DiGiovanni, the director and senior biologist for the Foundation, the group relies on calls from the general public to reporting spottings and strandings in local waters. "It's critical; we couldn't do this without the public's support. We want to know as much about these animals as possible," he explained. The Foundation has a 24-hour rescue hot-line, 631-369-9829, to field reports of stranded or injured animals.

The Riverhead Foundation runs The Marine Mammal and Sea Turtle Rescue Program, started in 1980 to respond to whale, dolphin, seals, and strandings in the New York area. Researchers with the program, the only one of its kind in the state, have handled nearly 4,000 animals since its inception.

Live animals taken in by the program often undergo an extensive rehabilitation before being released in the wild. Two of the more recent releases include Cindy, a female gray seal found in Hampton Bays in February and let go in East Hampton on May 2, and AJ, a male gray seal who was set free in Hampton Bays on May 17 after recovering from wounds to its right hind flipper.

Both AJ and Cindy were released with satellite tags attached to their body, part of an on-going program meant to provide The Riverhead Foundation with a better understanding of the habits and movements of the seals, and to help assess the program's treatment protocols.

When conducting postmortems on dead animals, like the common dolphin at Little Plains, researchers from The Riverhead Foundation sometimes safeguard tissue samples for further analysis by national and international scientists. At times, skeletal remains are preserved for use at educational institutions. According to DiGiovanni, the dolphin was in "good condition for taking samples."

Tom Sherry, a life-long resident who works as a groundskeeper on a nearby estate, said this is the first dolphin he has seen washed up on the beach.