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What Caused the UK's Largest Common Dolphin (Delphinus delphis) Mass Stranding Event?

On 9 June 2008, the UK's largest mass stranding event (MSE) of short-beaked common dolphins (Delphinus delphis) occurred in Falmouth Bay, Cornwall. At least 26 dolphins died, and a similar number was refloated/herded back to sea. On necropsy, all dolphins were in good nutritive status with empt...

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Autores principales: Jepson, Paul D., Deaville, Robert, Acevedo-Whitehouse, Karina, Barnett, James, Brownlow, Andrew, Brownell Jr., Robert L., Clare, Frances C., Davison, Nick, Law, Robin J., Loveridge, Jan, Macgregor, Shaheed K., Morris, Steven, Murphy, Sinéad, Penrose, Rod, Perkins, Matthew W., Pinn, Eunice, Seibel, Henrike, Siebert, Ursula, Sierra, Eva, Simpson, Victor, Tasker, Mark L., Tregenza, Nick, Cunningham, Andrew A., Fernández, Antonio
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2013
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3640001/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23646103
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0060953
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author Jepson, Paul D.
Deaville, Robert
Acevedo-Whitehouse, Karina
Barnett, James
Brownlow, Andrew
Brownell Jr., Robert L.
Clare, Frances C.
Davison, Nick
Law, Robin J.
Loveridge, Jan
Macgregor, Shaheed K.
Morris, Steven
Murphy, Sinéad
Penrose, Rod
Perkins, Matthew W.
Pinn, Eunice
Seibel, Henrike
Siebert, Ursula
Sierra, Eva
Simpson, Victor
Tasker, Mark L.
Tregenza, Nick
Cunningham, Andrew A.
Fernández, Antonio
author_facet Jepson, Paul D.
Deaville, Robert
Acevedo-Whitehouse, Karina
Barnett, James
Brownlow, Andrew
Brownell Jr., Robert L.
Clare, Frances C.
Davison, Nick
Law, Robin J.
Loveridge, Jan
Macgregor, Shaheed K.
Morris, Steven
Murphy, Sinéad
Penrose, Rod
Perkins, Matthew W.
Pinn, Eunice
Seibel, Henrike
Siebert, Ursula
Sierra, Eva
Simpson, Victor
Tasker, Mark L.
Tregenza, Nick
Cunningham, Andrew A.
Fernández, Antonio
author_sort Jepson, Paul D.
collection PubMed
description On 9 June 2008, the UK's largest mass stranding event (MSE) of short-beaked common dolphins (Delphinus delphis) occurred in Falmouth Bay, Cornwall. At least 26 dolphins died, and a similar number was refloated/herded back to sea. On necropsy, all dolphins were in good nutritive status with empty stomachs and no evidence of known infectious disease or acute physical injury. Auditory tissues were grossly normal (26/26) but had microscopic haemorrhages (5/5) and mild otitis media (1/5) in the freshest cases. Five lactating adult dolphins, one immature male, and one immature female tested were free of harmful algal toxins and had low chemical pollutant levels. Pathological evidence of mud/seawater inhalation (11/26), local tide cycle, and the relative lack of renal myoglobinuria (26/26) suggested MSE onset on a rising tide between 06∶30 and 08∶21 hrs (9 June). Potential causes excluded or considered highly unlikely included infectious disease, gas/fat embolism, boat strike, by-catch, predator attack, foraging unusually close to shore, chemical or algal toxin exposure, abnormal weather/climatic conditions, and high-intensity acoustic inputs from seismic airgun arrays or natural sources (e.g., earthquakes). International naval exercises did occur in close proximity to the MSE with the most intense part of the exercises (including mid-frequency sonars) occurring four days before the MSE and resuming with helicopter exercises on the morning of the MSE. The MSE may therefore have been a “two-stage process” where a group of normally pelagic dolphins entered Falmouth Bay and, after 3–4 days in/around the Bay, a second acoustic/disturbance event occurred causing them to strand en masse. This spatial and temporal association with the MSE, previous associations between naval activities and cetacean MSEs, and an absence of other identifiable factors known to cause cetacean MSEs, indicates naval activity to be the most probable cause of the Falmouth Bay MSE.
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spelling pubmed-36400012013-05-03 What Caused the UK's Largest Common Dolphin (Delphinus delphis) Mass Stranding Event? Jepson, Paul D. Deaville, Robert Acevedo-Whitehouse, Karina Barnett, James Brownlow, Andrew Brownell Jr., Robert L. Clare, Frances C. Davison, Nick Law, Robin J. Loveridge, Jan Macgregor, Shaheed K. Morris, Steven Murphy, Sinéad Penrose, Rod Perkins, Matthew W. Pinn, Eunice Seibel, Henrike Siebert, Ursula Sierra, Eva Simpson, Victor Tasker, Mark L. Tregenza, Nick Cunningham, Andrew A. Fernández, Antonio PLoS One Research Article On 9 June 2008, the UK's largest mass stranding event (MSE) of short-beaked common dolphins (Delphinus delphis) occurred in Falmouth Bay, Cornwall. At least 26 dolphins died, and a similar number was refloated/herded back to sea. On necropsy, all dolphins were in good nutritive status with empty stomachs and no evidence of known infectious disease or acute physical injury. Auditory tissues were grossly normal (26/26) but had microscopic haemorrhages (5/5) and mild otitis media (1/5) in the freshest cases. Five lactating adult dolphins, one immature male, and one immature female tested were free of harmful algal toxins and had low chemical pollutant levels. Pathological evidence of mud/seawater inhalation (11/26), local tide cycle, and the relative lack of renal myoglobinuria (26/26) suggested MSE onset on a rising tide between 06∶30 and 08∶21 hrs (9 June). Potential causes excluded or considered highly unlikely included infectious disease, gas/fat embolism, boat strike, by-catch, predator attack, foraging unusually close to shore, chemical or algal toxin exposure, abnormal weather/climatic conditions, and high-intensity acoustic inputs from seismic airgun arrays or natural sources (e.g., earthquakes). International naval exercises did occur in close proximity to the MSE with the most intense part of the exercises (including mid-frequency sonars) occurring four days before the MSE and resuming with helicopter exercises on the morning of the MSE. The MSE may therefore have been a “two-stage process” where a group of normally pelagic dolphins entered Falmouth Bay and, after 3–4 days in/around the Bay, a second acoustic/disturbance event occurred causing them to strand en masse. This spatial and temporal association with the MSE, previous associations between naval activities and cetacean MSEs, and an absence of other identifiable factors known to cause cetacean MSEs, indicates naval activity to be the most probable cause of the Falmouth Bay MSE. Public Library of Science 2013-04-30 /pmc/articles/PMC3640001/ /pubmed/23646103 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0060953 Text en © 2013 Jepson et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Jepson, Paul D.
Deaville, Robert
Acevedo-Whitehouse, Karina
Barnett, James
Brownlow, Andrew
Brownell Jr., Robert L.
Clare, Frances C.
Davison, Nick
Law, Robin J.
Loveridge, Jan
Macgregor, Shaheed K.
Morris, Steven
Murphy, Sinéad
Penrose, Rod
Perkins, Matthew W.
Pinn, Eunice
Seibel, Henrike
Siebert, Ursula
Sierra, Eva
Simpson, Victor
Tasker, Mark L.
Tregenza, Nick
Cunningham, Andrew A.
Fernández, Antonio
What Caused the UK's Largest Common Dolphin (Delphinus delphis) Mass Stranding Event?
title What Caused the UK's Largest Common Dolphin (Delphinus delphis) Mass Stranding Event?
title_full What Caused the UK's Largest Common Dolphin (Delphinus delphis) Mass Stranding Event?
title_fullStr What Caused the UK's Largest Common Dolphin (Delphinus delphis) Mass Stranding Event?
title_full_unstemmed What Caused the UK's Largest Common Dolphin (Delphinus delphis) Mass Stranding Event?
title_short What Caused the UK's Largest Common Dolphin (Delphinus delphis) Mass Stranding Event?
title_sort what caused the uk's largest common dolphin (delphinus delphis) mass stranding event?
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3640001/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23646103
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0060953
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