The Institute for Marine Mammal Studies. Oil spill link suspected as dead dolphins wash ashore - Environment. The discovery of more than 80 dead dolphins in the Gulf of Mexico is raising fresh concerns about the effect on sea life from last year's massive BP oil spill. The dead dolphins began appearing in mid-January along the coasts of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama in the United States. Although none of the carcasses appeared to show outward signs of oil contamination, all were being examined as possible casualties of the petrochemicals that fouled the sea water and sea bed after BP's Deepwater Horizon drilling platform exploded last April, killing 11 men and rupturing a wellhead on the sea floor. The resulting "gusher" produced the largest marine oil spill in the history of the petroleum industry, releasing nearly five billion barrels of crude oil before it was capped in July.
The remains of 77 animals - nearly all bottlenose dolphins - have been discovered on islands, in marshes and on beaches along 200 miles of coastline. More tiny dolphins wash ashore in Mississippi and Alabama - IMMS. Dolphin cold case: Investigators say cause of calve die-off may never be known. That's the question of the day as the number of stillborn or dead young dolphin calves washing up on Gulf of Mexico shores continues to rise. The research team called in to investigate the incident has a disconcerting answer: We might never know. On Friday, five more dead baby bottlenose dolphins were found in Mississippi and Alabama, pushing to 67 the number of dolphin carcasses tallied since Jan. 1 on beaches from Louisiana to the Florida Panhandle. Of those, 35 are so young that they might be spontaneously aborted fetuses, making this "unusual mortality event" even more unusual, though not unprecedented.
But determining the cause of this, or any other, wave of dolphin deaths is a huge challenge. There are no witnesses to interview. The whereabouts of the dolphins before they died is unknown. Any unusual behavior preceding death went unobserved. And, worst of all for the federally coordinated team investigating the incident, all the carcasses are badly decomposed. What's killing the dolphins?