AMWRRO’s Scientific Board members Prof. Roger Byard, Dr. Lucy Woolford and Aaron Machado with AMWRRO supervisor Brodie Philp conducted a postmortem examination on the bottlenose dolphin  neonate that was collected from Semaphore Beach on February the 26^th 2012.

Unfortunately the preliminary diagnosis was confirmed – this healthy young bottlenose dolphin had been  killed by multiple propeller strikes to the dorsal and flank regions. The propeller injuries to her body had shattered her spine so that she would have been paralysed; the fifth chop wound had completely severed her tail (see image).

This young female dolphin was only a few weeks old, a tragic end to an otherwise perfectly healthy animal that could have potentially birthed 10 to 15 calves throughout a normal life span.

About the Author

aaron

Comments are closed.