Dead dolphin washes up on Queens beach, sparking questions over how it died
ASTORIA, Queens (WABC) -- Just days after a pod of dolphins in the East River dazzled viewers, a dolphin corpse washed ashore on a beach in Queens. Now the question is: how did it die?
Nina Binder and Saian's daily morning walk on Hallett's Cove Beach on Friday took an unexpected turn when the 10-year-old great Pyrenees mix spotted a dead dolphin and a dead bird next to it.
"Saian considers this his speech, and now it's his fish," Binder said. "He found it washed ashore. He was so sad he wouldn't leave it alone. It's sad. It's such a regal creature."
Members of the Atlantic Marine Conservation Society carried the dolphin away from Astoria.
Rob DiGiovanni is the chief scientist for the organization and says it's too early to tell how this dolphin died.
"We don't have a lot of answers because we're collecting all that data and then we have to send them out," said Atlantic Marine Conservation Society Chief Scientist Rob DiGiovanni. "And so, it could take days to weeks or months till we get some of the answers back."
On Thursday, viewers contacted Eyewitness News about a dead dolphin -- this time near the 34th Street ferry landing.
DiGiovanni says this could be the same dolphin.
"I wouldn't be surprised with that scenario, because we do have animals move back and forth a lot greater distance than what we think," he said.
This discovery comes just two weeks after common dolphins were spotted swimming in the East River.
Experts say reporting any sightings of animals is important to their research and helps them in situations like this where they are looking into how the dolphin may have died.
"We often get only reports of the deceased or strandings of these individuals," said Maxine Montello of the New York Marine Rescue Center. "So, it's nice to often see these kinds of healthy behaving animals within our backyards. And, you know, with social media and advanced technology, getting those videos and people to be able to see these animals is very cool and really helps protect them for the long run."
You can report animal sightings to New York Marine Rescue Center, and the Atlantic Marine Conservation Society.
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