The Asbury Park Press, quoting a marine mammal expert, says the dolphin found floating in the Shrewsbury River this morning was not from the pod that’s been in the river and the nearby Navesink since early summer.
And a separate report says there’s now a harbor seal in the southern part of the Shrewsbury near Monmouth Beach.
From the article:
The dead mammal was a common dolphin, an offshore species, said Robert C. Schoelkopf, founding director of the Marine Mammal Stranding Center in Brigantine.
It’s “very unusual” for a common dolphin to be in the river because it is a deep-sea species, he said.
“We usually don’t see ’em,” he said. “We get strandings of common (dolphins) along the coast, but not the river like that.”
A necropsy will be done at the University of Pennsylvania’s New Bolton Center in Kennett Square, Pa., to determine “how fresh it is, whether it died in the river or died and floated in,” he said.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration spokeswoman Teri Frady confirms to redbankgreen that the dead animal is “definitely not” one of the 12 Atlantic bottlenose counted last week in the Shrewsbury and Navesink rivers.
The Associated Press adds this tidbit:
Schoelkopf said the remaining dolphins now have company. A harbor seal is in the southern end of the Shrewsbury River near Monmouth Beach. It is acting normally and appears to be in good health, he said.
Schoelkopf said the seal shows there is still food in the river.
“The photo we have of it is with a menhaden in its teeth,” he said.
