FISHERY BULLETIN: VOL. 78, NO, 2 



at about lat. 27°12'10" N, long. 82°30'30" W (Fig- 

 ure 1). The animals began coming ashore about 

 2200 h e.d.t. on the evening of 13 July 1976. At 

 that time the wind was westerly at 10-15 mi/h, 

 seas were running about 2 ft, and there was an 

 extreme low tide at 2211 h. Upon discovering the 

 animals, local residents attempted to direct them 

 back to sea or move them to more sheltered areas. 



Most observers concurred that there was a great 

 deal of noise coming from all of the dolphins when 

 they first came ashore, including much "squealing 

 and crying," but that this later subsided. The ani- 

 mals were quite passive on the beach, with the 

 exception of one large animal that reacted vio- 

 lently to handling and died during the short trip to 

 Midnight Pass. Most of the dolphins did not resist 

 handling and were easily walked to the shallow 

 sand bar 10-15 m from shore, where they were 

 pointed seaward, held until they began rhythmic 

 swimming motions, and then given a push 

 offshore. This was believed to be successful with 

 some of the animals, but in many cases they would 

 turn towards the south with the first wave that 

 came over the bar and be washed back onto shore. 



Eight to 10 animals, one of which was marked 

 on the dorsal fin with a cattle ear tag, were moved 

 to the more sheltered waters of Midnight Pass and 

 released in there. A single small animal (possibly 

 504457)^ was released in Little Sarasota Bay. The 

 last live animal to come ashore with the initial 

 stranding was 504449 which was found at 0130 h 

 and died while attempts were being made to direct 

 it back to sea. Estimates of the total number of 

 animals ranged from 50 to 150, with most of the 

 observers agreeing on the lower number. 



Early morning of 14 July, four large animals 

 and a calf stranded just north of Turtle Beach on 

 Siesta Key, about 2 km north of the original 

 stranding. Three of the large animals were di- 

 rected back to sea, one died on the beach and was 

 subsequently lost, and the calf (504459) was 

 moved to Turtle Lagoon where it died. All of the 

 live animals were off of the beach by 0800 h. 



Later that morning, two live animals were 

 picked up, one from the northeast end of Casey 

 Key along the Intracoastal Waterway, and one 

 from the grass beds just east of Bird Keys. The 

 animal which had been tagged the night before 

 (504434) was recovered dead from the latter area. 

 Both of the live animals were probably from the 



GULF 



OF 

 MEXICO 



NICE 



27 30 



27 15 



82 30 



82 15 



®The six digit numbers used to identify the animals are catalog 

 numbers of the United States National Museum, where the 

 skeletal remains have been deposited. 



Figure l. — Central west coast of Florida localities involved in 

 the mass stranding of spinner dolphin. 



group that had been transported and released at 

 Midnight Pass. The live animals were held in an 

 impoundment at the Mote Marine Laboratory on 

 Siesta Key until they were picked up by Sea World 

 and transported to holding facilities at Orlando, 

 Fla., on 15 July. One of these (504456) died the 

 next day; the other (504455) died 4 days later. A 

 dead calf (504458) was recovered from the south- 

 ern tip of Siesta Key, a dead adult (504451) was 

 picked up on the west side of Bird Keys, and the 

 accumulation of dead animals at the original 

 stranding site on Casey Key was recovered and 

 put on ice at the Mote Marine Laboratory on 14 

 July. 



Late afternoon of 15 July, we received notifica- 

 tion that a small dolphin had been seen in the 

 Intracoastal Waterway near marker no. 23 about 

 6 km south of Midnight Pass. This animal 

 (504457) was found just after dark swimming 

 slowly near shore and whistling loudly. It was 

 picked up alive, but died early the next morning 

 while being transported to Orlando. This was 

 probably the calf which had been released in Little 

 Sarasota Bay on 13 July. 



The last animal to be recovered was the decom- 

 posed carcass of an adult male that was picked up 

 on 16 July from Casey Key (504460). 



An aerial survey was flown in a U.S. Coast 

 Guard helicopter from 1800 to 2000 h on 14 July 

 and on the afternoon of 16 July. No animals other 

 than the dead ones on the beach were seen. The 



354 



