Officers from the Rare and Endangered Marine Animals Group, part of the Upper Andaman Marine and Coastal Resources Research Center (MCRC), were notified by local residents and lifeguards of the find around 7am this morning.
On arriving at the scene, officers discovered the dolphin’s dead body entwined in boulders and a pile of rubbish including concrete blocks, wood and plastic.
Officers stated that it is not yet known whether the dolphin may have washed ashore during the recent bad weather and got trapped in the rubbish pile or whether it washed ashore already dead and became entwined thereafter.
Officers were able to confirm that the dolphin was a Risso’s dolphin, an extremely rare breed that typically lives in deep seas.
Wikipedia states that Risso’s dolphins are “the only species of the genus Grampus. Some of the closest related species to these dolphins include: pilot whales (Globicephala spp.), pygmy killer whales (Feresa attenuata), melon-headed whales (Peponocephala electra), and false killer whales.”
The dead carcass was an adult dolphin approximately four metres long and weighing in excess of 100-kilogrammes, officers added. There were wounds and abrasions on the dolphins body, it was confirmed.
Early estimations suggest the recent bad weather, where strong winds created powerful waves, could have contributed to the wounds and the dolphin’s ultimate demise by damaging coral reefs that could have injured the mammal.
However, photographs released by Karon Police from the scene suggest some of the debris surrounding the dead dolphin’s body was of a man-made variety.
Upon inspecting the dead mammal, officers contacted Karon Police station to request assistance from them and officials from Karon Municipality to lift the carcass onto the back of the MCRC truck so it could be transported back to the facility to undergo an investigative post-mortem to determine the cause of death.