A dorsal fin is grabbing people’s attention in an unusual spot: a back-bay lagoon in Ocean City, N.J., just feet from homes.
A common dolphin began surfacing in the waterway on Wednesday. It was still there late Friday.
“It’s a very unusual occurrence to have a dolphin in our lagoon. We’ve never seen it in the ten years we’ve been here,” homeowner Fred Hoffman told NBC10 News.
Experts from the Marine Mammal Stranding Center in Brigantine have been keeping track of the animal. Why it came to the lagoon is a mystery, but it could be sick, according to MMSC director Bob Schoelkopf.
Unlike bottlenose dolphins typically seen along the Jersey shore in the summer, common dolphins are normally found in large groups in deeper ocean water, 20 to 30 miles off the coast.
Researchers want to know if there’s a connection between the dolphin in Ocean City and close to 150 common dolphins that have become stranded on Cape Cod, MA in recent weeks. Scientists don’t know why the mammals have been beaching themselves. Rescuers were able save dozens of the dolphins and return them to the ocean.
“That’s one of the things we’re looking at with [the Ocean City] animal, if it has any tags or identifying marks that might be part of that Cape Cod group,” Schoelkopf said.
MMSC staffers have alerted federal wildlife authorities about the dolphin and are urging people to keep their distance. Schoelkopf said anyone caught trying to feed or approach the animal could face steep fines.
"People think that it’s something to see like a tourist attraction when in fact, the more people go down there, the more it’s going to irritate the animal,” he said.
If the dolphin is injured or ill, trying to net it could cause further harm, according to Schoelkopf. He said since it’s free swimming and not considered a stranded animal, there’s nothing currently that can be done to remove it from the lagoon, except for hoping it leaves on its own.
Fred Hoffman and others who have come to see the dolphin also hoped the dolphin would make a natural return to the wild.
“We hope it finds its way and is okay,” he said.
