DOLPHIN MORTALITY - INDIA

An 8-foot dolphin was found washed ashore at Juhu beach on Thursday[26 Mar 2009]. According to experts, the dead marine mammal was a long-snouted dolphin (Delphinus longirostris), commonly found in the Indian Ocean and the Arabian Sea. The dolphin, which was found lying on the sand near the Centaur Hotel building, did not have any visible injury except a few red rashes on parts of the skin."The rashes could have been caused by sunburn. Though dolphins are very intelligent creatures, sometimes they do get disoriented due to physical weakness or disease that makes them lose their way and come to the shore," Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute marine scientist Vinay Deshmukh said. He added that last week, another dead dolphin was found at Vasai; in January [2009], a dolphin was washed up Dadar beach."The fishermen here do not catch dolphins, as they worship them as seagods. However, in Goa and some parts of south India, dolphins are hunted for their meat," Deshmukh said.4 of the dolphin species seen in Indian waters are the Indo-Pacific humpback dolphin, the common dolphin, the spinner dolphin and the bottle-nosed dolphin. Freshwater dolphins have also been seen in the Ganges in northern and eastern India.