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"This is still very, very early to be sure, but this could definitely reflect some degree of a health crisis in the lagoon," said lead scientist Gregory Bossart, a veterinarian and pathologist at Harbor Branch.
It will take several months for final test results on the urine, blood and blubber the researchers collected from dolphins over the past two weeks near the St. Lucie Inlet, Titusville and Cocoa Beach, NOAA scientist Pat Fair said.
Dolphins captured in the northern reaches of the Indian River Lagoon also showed signs of sickness, she said.
Using a 330-foot-wide net, the scientists brought about 40 dolphins aboard floating clinics, where they underwent what Bossart called a "mini-Mayo Clinic workup" before being tagged and released. Scientists removed a tooth from each dolphin to gauge its age, then took blood and urine samples and packed them in nitrogen to ship to about 20 laboratories around the country.
This is the second year in the researchers' five-year look at the lagoon's dolphins, which have shown unexplained patterns of skin disorders and tumours in seven years' worth of Harbor Branch research photos.
In August, the scientists will do a comparative study of dolphins off Charleston, S.C.
"Dolphins are really like the proverbial canary in the coal mine," said Steve McCulloch, executive director of marine mammal research and conservation at Harbor Branch. "What affects them in the environment can potentially affect humans, so we really want to use dolphins as a research tool for development managers."
Development, the scientists suspect, could be the cause of the growing number of sick dolphins.
Whatever the cause, Bossart said human health could also be in danger: "We eat the same food and we share the same water supply as dolphins. Theoretically, what's impacting the dolphins could impact us."
rachel_harris@pbpost.com
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