Why We Ask You Avoid Beached Dolphins: Marine Mammal Stranding Center

HIGHLANDS, NJ — On Monday afternoon, Sheila Dean, the director of the Marine Mammal Stranding Center, explained why her group does not want the public pushing beached dolphins, baby whales or seals back out to sea.

At 11 a.m. Saturday, three dolphins were found struggling in very shallow water on the bayside of Sandy Hook. The crowd of onlookers that gathered were very upset when national park rangers prevented anyone from going near the animals. People were even running over with wetsuits and offering to swim the animals back into deeper water, and park rangers had to physically stop them from going near the animals, according to Facebook posts.

Volunteers with the Marine Mammal Stranding Center were on the beach at that time, said Dean, and they were directing park rangers to keep the public away.

"This was our decision — my decision — and I stand by it, as I know does the state Dept. of Fish and Wildlife," she said. "We have been doing this for 40 years. I've seen it all. First, there is a risk of injury to humans. Broken legs. I have seen not one, but two legs broken by a dolphin's tail when people tried to help it back out to sea. You do not realize how strong a dolphin's tail is."

"Secondly, these are federally protected animals. Let's say you injure the animal as you are pulling it out into the water. We are trying to protect the public from federal charges," she said. "You have to be highly trained to know how to move and handle whales and dolphins."

"Third, there are very strong odds that that animal is only going to wash up on another beach and now all three dolphins are on different beaches, making it harder to find them," she said. "That animal is beached for a reason. It is most likely dying. Pushing it back out to sea will not save it, although I know everyone wants to be a hero."

"Crowds pushed a baby whale that had washed up in New York a few weeks ago back out to sea and you know what? That baby whale drowned. It was starving and did not have a mother and was too weak to swim on its own," she continued. "When it was found, its lungs were full of water. There are reasons, usually very good reasons, why animals beach themselves. We found a beached whale this past winter and it had brain parasites. Or they have viruses."

"Protocol is that you don’t push stranded animals back in the water. That delays any medical attention they may need," said a spokeswoman for the National Park Service, which operates Sandy Hook.

Dean also said that it does take about two hours for her professional staff to travel from their base in Brigantine to Sandy Hook. The three dolphins were discovered at about 11 a.m. and her crew got there at about 1:30 p.m. Sunday. The Marine Mammal Stranding Center was given a $100,000 federal contract to rescue all marine mammals that wash up in New Jersey, and they are the only group permitted by the state and federal government allowed to do it.

The dolphins are at a state lab and the state will now do a necropsy to determine what caused them to die. Dean also said she "does not know" what is causing the increase in whale deaths this winter on the Jersey Shore.

"There are a lot of whales out there. A lot of food. A lot of boat traffic," she said. It has been documented that the whale population off New York City and New Jersey has significantly grown in recent years.

"And those are major shipping lanes. Those big boats don't even know when they hit a whale."

When asked if she thought sonar or wind turbine construction could be causing the whale deaths, she said:

"I don't know. And I am not going to give an opinion or think something unless it has been scientifically studied and a scientific link has been found," she said. "There is a lot of speculation going on right now as to what's causing the whale deaths, and it's just wrong. It's really, really wrong to do."

3 Dolphins Washed Ashore At Sandy Hook Have Died