Rescuers tend to pregnant dolphin during Wellfleet strandings

By Jason Savio

Posted Jan 22, 2020 

WELLFLEET — The International Fund for Animal Welfare’s marine mammal rescue team was in for a surprise when it responded to its first Cape stranding of the year.

The Wellfeet harbormaster notified IFAW at 9 a.m. Jan. 13 that three to four animals were stranded in water behind the Wellfleet Town Pier.

“Because that’s kind of a tricky area and at low tide there isn’t much water in that area, we geared up and headed out there to assess,” said Nicole Hunter, assistant necropsy coordinator at IFAW. “Unfortunately this happens pretty often. Cape Cod is a global hot spot for dolphin strandings.”

When the rescue team arrived, it found two dolphins swimming behind the pier and used an inflatable boat to herd them out to deeper water outside of Wellfleet Harbor.

Shortly after they got out of the water, team members were notified to report back because someone spotted another animal swimming even farther behind the pier in the outgoing tide up a creek, Hunter said.

That dolphin ended up stranding in reeds in a shallow area on the side of the creek. “At that point we decided to extract her from that area to do a good health assessment,” Hunter said.

The dolphin was taken to a nearby IFAW trailer that is outfitted to run a full examination on animals.

Because being stranded is a stressful event for animals, the IFAW team likes to give health assessments. “Also, if we were to turn around and release her right at that spot, she likely would’ve stranded again,” Hunter said.

An ultrasound was performed on the dolphin, revealing that the team had rescued not just one dolphin out of the reeds, but two. The dolphin was pregnant. VVV

“When we were doing our exam we speculated that she might be pregnant,” said Hunter, referring to the dolphin’s plump belly.

The team was unable to determine the calf’s gender, and the dolphin was brought to Herring Cove in Provincetown for release, a location IFAW often uses because of its easy access to deep water.

“We do see it occasionally,” Hunter said of the pregnant dolphin, “but it’s definitely pretty neat.”

Hunter urges anyone who sees a stranded dolphin to keep a distance and call the IFAW hotline at 1-800-932-4329.

Minke whale studied, then buried on Truro beach

By Mary Ann Bragg
Posted Jul 22, 2019

NORTH TRURO — Following an on-site necropsy, the minke whale carcass found Friday at Beach Point was buried Monday afternoon in a large hole just above the high tide line.

Scientists took samples from each organ hoping to determine a cause of death, after the necropsy provided few clues.

“It was a pretty decomposed whale, so we were pretty limited in the exam that we could do but it went without incident,” said Kristy Volker, assistant necropsy coordinator for the International Fund for Animal Welfare, which has a federal permit to respond to marine mammal strandings on Cape Cod.

Minke whales along the Atlantic coast from Maine to South Carolina are undergoing an unusual mortality event (UME) that began in 2017. Since then 59 deaths have been documented, including 19 along the Massachusetts shores, the most in one state. The designation of a UME by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration releases more money for research into the causes of the deaths. So far, NOAA funding has allowed scientists to determine through full or partial necropsy results that some of the minke whales have died due to human interactions or infectious diseases.

Minke whales are protected under the federal Marine Mammal Protection Act but are not considered endangered or threatened.

Within about three hours on Monday, the IFAW staff and volunteers had collected 30 to 40 samples from the female carcass, and what remained were large, indistinguishable lumps of flesh and bone, and a strong smell of decay. The fresh organ samples are sent to a histopathologist to analyze for signs of disease or trauma, with answers expected back within two to three months. Some samples are frozen for future use such as to study life history or look at possible viruses, parasites, contaminants or biotoxins, Volker said.

The animal was a “sub-adult” at 23 feet long, according to an IFAW spokeswoman. Generally, minke whales can grow up to 35 feet, live for up to 50 years and weigh up to 20,000 pounds.

By around 1 p.m. Monday, a town public works staff member used a backhoe to dig a hole on the beach near 674 Route 6A, where the carcass had beached. The backhoe then transferred the remains of the carcass into the hole, layered with sand. As the full spine of the whale was lifted into the air, the characteristic tail fluke remained the one visual reminder of what creature had died.

“Poor thing,” said Roberta Robillard, of East Bridgewater, as the burial was underway. Robillard’s family vacations in North Truro every summer and she has walked down to the beach to see the carcass.

“I love nature,” she said. “I love whales, and it would probably never happen again in my lifetime, that I would get to see something like this. I’ve seen them out in the ocean but not passed away.”

The floating carcass was first reported to the Center for Coastal Studies staff in Provincetown by a recreational boater. The center’s staff then alerted IFAW. The whale likely died within the last week, Volker said.

Earlier on Monday, as the IFAW team of about 15 people were roping off the area around the carcass and setting up equipment in preparation to cut into the carcass, Connecticut resident Lori Salazar stood on the beach looking at photos she’d taken of the carcass on Saturday.

“It was in much better shape, that’s for sure,” Salazar said of the whale remains in front of her.

She and her friends had arrived Saturday for a four-day vacation, and they were walking on the tidal flats when they heard there was a dead whale on the beach. “I’d never seen one up close,” she said.

Humpback whales and the critically endangered North Atlantic right whales are also dying at higher rates than normal along the Atlantic, and are being studied as unusual mortality events as well. In early May, a 40-ton adult female humpback carcass beached in Sandwich and a necropsy was performed at Sandy Neck Beach. The results of the necropsy were inconclusive, an IFAW spokeswoman said Monday.

Minke whale washes ashore in North Truro

By Wheeler Cowperwaite
Posted Jul 20, 2019

A minke whale washed ashore late Friday night on Beach Point in North Truro.

“It was reported to the Center for Coastal Studies as floating off the shore yesterday morning,” said Melanie Mahoney, rescue communications officer with the International Fund for Animal Welfare.

Mahoney said her group will be performing a necropsy on the animal to determine the cause of death.

“My guess is they’ll try to get it out as soon as possible,” she said.

Plans on where the necropsy will be performed have not yet been determined, Mahoney said, although there were plans to take samples from the animal later Saturday afternoon.

“Usually they try to do (the necropsy) in place, to not damage any findings they might have,” Mahoney said.

Provincetown resident James Weigle said he was walking along the beach Saturday morning and first thought it was some kind of inflatable beach toy.

“I got closer and it looked kind of like plastic,” Weigle said. “Some people have these giant balloons, then I realized they have the tape around it.”

According to Scott Landry, director of the marine animal entanglement response program at the Center for Coastal Studies, there was nothing obvious that would determine the cause of the whale’s death. The center warned the U.S. Coast Guard and local harbormasters about the carcass after it was reported by a recreational boater in the bay, and alerted IFAW, Landry said.

Landry said the whale was floating belly-up and he took underwater footage, which he has yet to study.

The whale that washed ashore measured 23 feet long, which Mahoney described as a “sub-adult.”

“It’s not a calf and it’s not full grown,” she said.

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration data, minke whales grow up to 35 feet, live up to 50 years and weigh up to 20,000 pounds.

The threats to their welfare include whaling, entanglement in fishing gear, ocean noise, habitat disturbance and vessel strikes.

Sochi poisoning stray dogs ahead of Olympics

IFAW excoriates Olympics for killing stray dogs

"Culling dogs in Sochi is quite simply the wrong thing to do. It is ineffective and inhumane and makes a mockery of the Sochi claim to be an Olympic event 'In Harmony with Nature'."

Article | News | February 5, 2014 - 12:00pm | By Walter Brooks

IFAW decries killing of stray dogs in Sochi.

2014 Sochi Winter Olympic Stray Dog Cull Shame

Russians rounding up, poisoning stray dogs before the games begin

The Sochi Olympic committee is carrying out a mass extermination of stray animals leading up to the 2014 Winter Games according to a release from the International Fund for Animal Welfare based in Yarmouth Port.

Russia has had a problem with stray dogs for years. There are reportedly no animal shelters to be found in the city where the 2014 Winter Olympics will begin in two days, so a pest control company has usually taken care of the problem when the numbers of strays get out of hand.

Alexei Sorokin, the director general of Basya Services, a local pest control company in Sochi, told the Associated Press on Monday that his company has been getting rid of stray dogs in Sochi for years, and that he now has a contract to exterminate the dogs throughout the Olympic games.

To view a CNN video of the scene, click here.

The International Fund for Animal Welfare issued the following news release:

YARMOUTH PORT: FAW (the International Fund for Animal Welfare - www.ifaw.org) is horrified that culling of dogs in Sochi is back on the agenda in preparation for the 2014 winter Olympics.
 

IFAW has repeatedly offered to help the Environment Department of the Sochi 2014 Olympics Organizing Committee develop and implement a humane and sustainable plan for managing the community's roaming dog population.

 

"We knew that Sochi officials were feeling time pressure in the lead up to the Games, so we explicitly offered assistance almost a year ago--yet our offers have been met with resounding silence," said Kate Atema, Director of IFAW's Companion Animal Program.

 

"Culling dogs in Sochi is quite simply the wrong thing to do. It is ineffective and inhumane and makes a mockery of the Sochi claim to be an Olympic event 'In Harmony with Nature'."

 

Visitors to Sochi would be appalled to know that the city officials attempted to 'clean-up' a perceived dog problem by a mass killing.

IFAW calls on officials to immediately halt plans to cull dogs and to accept the offer of assistance to find humane alternatives that will benefit the people and animals of Sochi for the long term.

IFAW-Russia has been working on stray dog issues in Russia for more than 15 years, including working closely with the Moscow's Mayor's Office to end the practice of killing stray dogs in Moscow.

Read the previous stories about IFAW here.

http://www.capecodtoday.com/article/2014/02/05/23926-ifaw-excoriates-olympics-killing-stray-dogs