ASBURY PARK, N.J. — October 23, 2013 — More than 700 bottlenose dolphin deaths have been recorded in the mid-Atlantic since July, including 129 in New Jersey, but strandings have dropped a bit recently, experts said Wednesday.
"Hopefully, we'll continue to see this decrease in strandings, but we are prepared if it picks back up again for any reason," said Mendy Garron, marine mammal stranding coordinator for the Northeast at National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries in Gloucester, Mass.
Officials "really don't know" if dolphin deaths will continue into next spring, although that's what happened during the last large East Coast die-off in 1987-88, she said.
Robert Schoelkopf, longtime director of the Marine Mammal Stranding Center in Brigantine, said, "We're hoping with this cold front coming through and the storm offshore that that might trigger (the dolphins) to move farther south."
More than 800 bottlenose dolphins have been found stranded from New York to North Carolina this year through Monday, and measles-like morbillivirus remains the most likely cause, according to NOAA Fisheries.
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