I was walking on the beach last week in Cardiff by the Sea and discovered a dead dolphin lying in the sand. It looked like it had been there for some time and had several holes in it where innards were spilling out and bubbling from bacteria generating gas. The strange thing was that the poor cetacean's head was missing (!). The cut was clean and was not jagged in the way it might be if a large animal had bitten it off. I wonder who would cut the head off of a dolphin??
I called Scripps Institute of Oceanography and the local Sheriff's station. Hopefully, one of them hauled it away.
Interestingly enough, one person on my journal commented:
I once found a dolphin in bad condition that I thought was still alive so I called the bay area marine mammal rescue and they took forever to come but eventually they did and I left to return the next day to find the carcass still on the beach with its head sliced like shown in your pictures. I called them back and said what the hell! They said that there was nothing they could do. They call the local marine lab. In Monterey County it's the marine lab at moss landing I believe and they come to slice the head off to get the most scientific info on diet etc from the teeth, brain etc and poke holes in other places of the body to get blubber samples. Sometimes they bury the carcass, sometimes they leave it and sometimes they roll it back into the ocean. I'm surprised scripts [sic] didn't know.
Is it possible its already had the necropsy? The cuts look very straight and in a very particular place.... shame to think if that is the case they just left it on the beach like this.......
Sad but thanks for posting
Yes, it's possible. That's what the guy who wrote a comment said might have happened. It makes sense.
But why leave it on a public beach? That is disgusting.
It's possible that the dolphin was sampled at sea (for example, by an observer on a commercial fishing boat) and then dumped after. Definitely looks like the head was taken off very cleanly with a knife. Any idea what species it was? Northern right whale dolphin, perhaps? They're long and skinny. Looks like the head was taken, a big blubber sample, and maybe the gonads or perhaps a fetus in utero?
Yes, it's possible. That's what the guy who wrote a comment said might have happened. It makes sense.
But why leave it on a public beach? That is disgusting.
I agree. It's strange. You'd think that scientists especially would have the sense/decency to dispose of it properly.
I don't suppose someone would cut it off to dry and keep the skull, would they?
I would have thought that, it was found previous to you Eric and agencies alerted. Agency turns up to take samples, they cant be assed to remove the rest of the body, and hey presto it is left on a public beach for others to see. Not very nice to see I am sure. I know what dead marine life smells like after it has started the decopsing process. I remember a few years ago a container ship enter the Southampton docks with a whale slung on top of the bulbous bow. We could smell it from a long distance.
Stew
In the UK a dead cetacean is classed as a potential public health hazard and the local authorities (councils) have a duty to remove the carcass and dispose of it. Whilst some are taken for autopsy, the budget for this is limited meaning that most are simply removed without any cause of death being established.
Interesting but yes, why then just leave it on a public beach. Road kill is picked up and disposed of, why not this. Might reduce phone calls from concerned people in the future too.
If this animal had washed up in decent shape, a lab like Scripps surely would've brought the whole thing back to the lab for a complete necropsy. After all, it's not so big that it couldn't have been loaded onto a gurney and trucked off. I really think this odontocete was sampled at sea, which would explain the taking of just a few parts/samples. I know an observer who did exactly this kind of at-sea sampling of a dolphin that had been caught by a swordfish gillnetter. He took the head and a few other samples, and the rest was dumped back into the water because it was too large to fit in the body bags were were given, and too messy to put into the hold with the catch. I did the same thing with several sea lions off San Diego and Morro Bay. Once decomposition kicked into high gear, the gases could've kept these animals afloat and they easily could've floated them onto the beach. And anyone who came upon them would've wondered, Who the hell cut the head off this thing and left it to rot on the beach? How rude!
What's more alarming really is that there are no sharks to chow down the carcass. You know that's a problem with there isn't even a bite on the carcass. Sigh.
