MANILA, Philippines - Three of the more than 300 melon-headed dolphins that “invaded” the waters off Pilar town in Bataan early yesterday have drowned. Locals believe they were trapped in fishing nets near the coast.
Dr. Mundita Lim, director of the Protected Areas and Wildlife Bureau (PAWB) of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), said veterinarians from the Ocean Adventure in Subic Freeport and the bureau conducted an initial necropsy on the remains of the three animals.
The doctors determined that the marine mammals might have drowned after failing to extricate themselves from the fishing nets or baklad.
However, Lim also said that further examinations are being undertaken on samples taken from the dolphins’ ears to determine the cause of the disorientation that led them to swim so near the shore.
“Here in our country, there were times when dolphins beach or get stranded, but only one or two dolphins – not like this, more than a hundred. So, this is unusual and we really have to know what caused them to go near the shore,” Lim pointed out.
She said only three dolphins beached in Bataan while the rest lingered several meters from the coastline.
She said many of the marine mammals were eventually driven back out to the open sea by members of the Philippine Coast Guard, fishermen, and other volunteers.
According to Lim, DENR Secretary Lito Atienza’s immediate concern is to prevent the dolphins from being stranded or beached.
Malcolm Sarmiento, director of the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR), said the dolphins were spotted about a mile or 1.6 kilometers off shore, swimming back and forth between Pilar and Orion towns in Bataan.
Fishermen and villagers trooped to the beach and waded into the chest-deep water, clapping their hands and hitting the surface water to drive the dolphins back out to sea, reports said.
More than 20 boats with their engines shut guided the animals to the open sea, according to reports.
Sarmiento declared that such a large pod of dolphins entering Manila Bay is “something unusual,” and that the dolphins were “acting strangely.”
A provincial veterinarian claimed that the two dead adult female dolphins, one of which was pregnant, had damaged eardrums.
The third dead dolphin was an infant male.
The animal doctor said all three dolphins were found beached farther up north in Abucay town.
“This is an unusual phenomenon,” Sarmiento said, adding that the dolphins could be reacting to a “heat wave or disturbance in the sea” such as a possible major underwater earthquake.
“Since the dolphins are mammals, they have ears that are sensitive to large changes in pressure underwater. If their eardrums are damaged they become disoriented and they float to the surface,” he added.
Sarmiento also theorized that the leader of the pod could have been sick and the rest of the dolphins refused to abandon their leader.
He said the authorities’ first concern was to keep the dolphins alive and experts are being summoned to the area to help prevent poaching by unscrupulous individuals.
Bataan Gov. Enrique Garcia conducted aerial inspection after learning of the incident.
Garcia also requested the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) Ocean Adventure marine researchers to proceed to the area.
By late afternoon yesterday, the town folk, together with local authorities, had succeeded in driving the pod back out to sea. – Ric Sapnu, Evelyn Macairan, Marianne Go, AP