Another stranding in Swakopmund

Last week, there were reports of a stranded dolphin on the beach in Swakopmund. On Sunday, members of our Swakop Strandings Team were able to find the carcass and collect data from it. It was very decomposed, unfortunately, but it does appear to be a young bottlenose dolphin, approximately 2 m in length. It is difficult to know what might have caused it to strand, given that it was little more than a skeleton by the time the team found it and a detailed examination of the body was therefore not possible. However, it was likely a member of the small Walvis Bay bottlenose dolphin population estimated at around 50 individuals, and the loss of even one animal in such a small population should be of concern. 

Photo by M. Fourie

Many thanks to the team from Ocean Adventures, especially Martinette Fourie, for making the effort to collect data on a Sunday and contributing more important information to our strandings database.