Officials with the Marine Mammal Center Wednesday morning found a Risso’s dolphin that died after being reported stranded Tuesday in San Francisco Bay.
Just before noon, Marine Mammal Center officials confirmed they found the dolphin where it was reported stranded in San Francisco Bay just south of San Francisco International Airport.
Scientists are working to recover the carcass and tow it to a safe location so they can perform a necropsy.
“We are working closely with our partners to move the animal to firmer ground so that we can learn more about why this dolphin stranded in San Francisco Bay,” the center’s director of veterinary science Shawn Johnson said in a statement.
Risso’s dolphins usually swim in open water rather than areas like San Francisco Bay, Marine Mammal Center officials said. That means the dolphin may have been lost or sick. A rescue team Tuesday failed to find the dolphin during a daylong search. Marine Mammal Center officials had believed the dolphin died because it is not designed to be on land.
Researcher Bill Keener with Golden Gate Cetacean Research, a nonprofit devoted to the study of Bay Area dolphins, porpoises and whales, saw the dolphin several times between Saturday and Tuesday circling in shallow water before it got stranded about 400 meters from shore.
Risso’s dolphins are seen so infrequently inshore that rescuers with the Marin County-based Marine Mammal Center have responded to only 10 sightings of them in the center’s 41-year history.
Residents and visitors can identify Risso’s dolphins by their rounded heads, curved dorsal fins near the middle of their backs and dark gray coloring with white scarring that can be so extensive the mammals appear white.
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