2005年NPR美国国家公共电台三月-Beached Dolphins May Be Related to Sonar

Marine 1 Biologists and volunteers in Key Largo 2 are working to save the survivors 3 of a group of dolphins that beached themselves last week in the Florida Keys.

Invesigators are trying to determine if sonar from a nuclear-powered submarine played a role. Shannon Novak, of member station WLRM reports.

At the marine mammal conservancy in Key Largo, Florida, in a fenced-off shallow portion of the beach, eight volunteers are in a large cycle around some of the rescued dolphins. The volunteers are necessary because sick or injured dolphins are often unable to hold themselves up. They sink or roll and can drown when their blowhole is submerged. It often takes more than one person to hold the animal upright. Lloyd Brown is vice 4 president of the conservancy.

Since we brought them here, we've been doing diagnostic tests on them to try to determine what the problem is, how we can develop a plan of action to treat whatever this problem might be. The biggest responsibility that we have right now is that we have a bunch of sick animals that need their lives saved.

Many of the dolphins are females or babies. One of the challenges, Brown says, has been three miscarriages 5 since the stranding 6.

That baby died because of the complications.The mother could not deliver the baby. She got it all the way out to the shoulders and couldn't push it out any more. So the baby was half-in-half-out in the cold water, and after a couple of hours the baby died.

Since about eighty dolphins began beaching off Marathon/ Key,on March the 2nd, volunteers were able to help many healthy animals back into deeper water. The rest were loaded into refrigerated trucks and moved to three locations. Since then, twenty-three of the dolphins have died. Half of those were euthanized. Rough-tooth dolphins live in very deep water and experts don't know why this group beach themselves. A US navy submarine was conducting a training exercise in the area and this past weekend the navy began looking into the possibility that the submarine's sonar could be the cause.

Lieutenant 7 Commander Jensin Sommer:"On February 28th, while on the ocean surface and then reduced visibility.US-Philadelphia used its mid-frequency active sonar to provide for the submarine's ability to avoid potential contact with other vessel 8 that be.US-Philadelphia also used its high frequency active sonar, prior to surfacing to avoid potential contact with other ships that be on February 27th,March 1st and 2nd."

But marine biologists also point out that marine mammals beaching themselves is a naturally occuring event.So Lestt Whimer of the Florida wildlife rescue team says they are investigating all possible causes.

We've had people doing necropsies which is the animal autopsy 9 on the animals that have passed and , for sure, look at the ear bones and see if ear bones are ruptured 10 because that's a big sign that there's been some kind of sonar testing and they noticed that and beat, well, sort of stranded 11 before, during navy sonar testing.Maybe there will be weeks ,maybe a couple of months before we might have an answer.

Whimer says Dolphins are like people,some are followers 12 and some are leaders.And if a leader becomes ill and beaches itself,the others will likely follow.Authorities will continue researching what caused this stranding.It is expected that most of the dolphins will be released back into the ocean as soon as they are well enough.For NPR news, I am Shannon Novak .