From 9 August through 2 September, 83 bottlenose dolphin car- 

 casses were recovered from beaches in the area. Gross necrop- 

 sies were performed on most of the animals and tissue samples 

 from the freshest animals were collected and sent to the 

 National Veterinary Services Laboratory in Ames, Iowa, for 

 isolation of bacteria, chlamydia, mycoplasma, fungi, and viruses 

 and assessment of the presence and levels of a wide range of 

 pollutants including heavy metals and organic compounds. 

 Selected tissues were sent to the Diagnostic Virology Laboratory 

 at the Eastern Virginia Medical School and to the National 

 Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, to assist in 

 identification of human viruses that might be present in the 

 dolphins, to the Virginia Beach General Hospital to do basic 

 blood analyses and type Vibrio organisms that might be isolated, 

 and to the Charleston, South Carolina, laboratory of the 

 National Marine Fisheries Service to conduct tests for three 

 classes of biotoxins and several possible environmental 

 contaminants . 



No live animals were found on beaches in the Virginia Beach 

 area. Therefore, to provide an opportunity to examine and 

 obtain blood samples from live animals, the Commission made 

 arrangements with Sea World Inc., Orlando, Florida, for a 

 team of people experienced in the capture of bottlenose dolphins 

 to assist in capturing live dolphins in the Virginia Beach 

 area. The U.S. Navy transported a net and other equipment 

 from Orlando to Norfolk and provided a boat and crew to assist 

 in the capture operation. Four live dolphins were caught, ex- 

 amined, and released on 16 August. All four had skin lesions 

 (see below) similar to those found on dead animals. Blood 

 samples were taken from three of the animals and all had ele- 

 vated white blood cell counts indicative of infection. The 

 sample size was inadequate and an additional 19 animals were 

 captured in the Virginia Beach area from 6-9 October 1987. 

 Blood samples from these animals were analyzed for cell types 

 and characteristics, and serum constituents including electro- 

 lytes, metabolites, enzymes, proteins, thyroid and adreno- 

 cortical hormones, and viral antibodies. 



Data from population studies done in the late 1970s and 

 early 1980s suggest that there could be two more or less dis- 

 crete stocks of bottlenose dolphins along the U.S. east coast 

 — a nearshore stock that moves north to the New Jersey/New 

 York Bight area in the spring and south to the Georgia/Florida 

 area in the fall and an offshore stock that occurs primarily 

 along the 100-fathom depth contour between Georges Bank in 

 the north and Cape Hatteras in the south. These data were 

 insufficient to judge when, where, and how many animals might 

 be affected by the die-off. Therefore, in mid-August the 

 National Marine Fisheries Service initiated a series of coastal 

 and offshore aerial surveys to better determine the distribu- 

 tion, number, sizes, composition, and movements of dolphin pods 



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