Dead dolphins wash ashore on Gran Canaria

Rough-toothed Dolphin

The number of dead cetacean dead in the archipelago is now approaching forty this year. Eleven of these were rough-toothed dolphins (Steno bredanensis)

Tests are being carried out to establish the cause of death.
Preliminary analysis of the stomach contents of each animal showed they had all been eating normally within hours of their death. All had had been eating the same kind of fish.

Various theories being considered include a virus, bacteria, poison or some other form of pollution affecting vital organs or some other connecting factor to explain what occurred in the southern waters of Gran Canaria over the ten days previous to their discovery.

Antonio Fernándiz, as expert at the Cetacean Investigation Unit at Las Palmas University, said that the evidence points to the animals having “died suddenly, together and within the same group” in relatively shallow water.

“Whatever caused their deaths has been something very fast as these were all healthy specimens which had been feeding up until they died. I have never witnessed anything like it before,” he said. The dolphins washed ashore are more than likely the mere tip of an iceberg and many others will have been carried away on currents.