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Mother dolphin dies, baby struggling
By ADRIENNE P. SAMUELS
But Nicholas, so named for the holiday season, doesn't understand that the three human beings trying to corral, hold and feed him milky stuff through a tube want to help. The Clearwater Marine Aquarium says the prognosis is bleak for the year-old dolphin brought to their doorsteps on Christmas Eve. "The important thing is to get him hydrated," said Glenn Harman, head biologist with the rescue team at the Clearwater Marine Aquarium. "He hasn't been nursing. He probably would have had a better chance with his mom." Nicholas' mother, named Noelle by the aquarium staff, died at 1:30 p.m. Friday. Scientists knew she was dying because she no longer could swim to the pool surface for air. The baby fretted and continually prodded his mother to the surface so she could breath, volunteers said. In the end, aquarium staff placed Noelle in an above-water stretcher so she wouldn't drown at the bottom of the pool. The pair required constant care over the Christmas holiday. The baby now needs antibiotics, 24-hour supervision and a heated pool so he can conserve strength for healing, instead of heating, his body. Severe sunburns cover the baby's head, and what used to be sleek gray skin is now a mottled white and yellow at the top. The mother and son dolphins were burned when they beached in 8-inch-deep waters off Bullfrog Creek on the Hillsborough County side of Tampa Bay. The mother dolphin's sunburn may have gotten infected and added to the illness that caused her death, the rescue aquarium said. A necropsy, the animal version of an autopsy, will be done at Eckerd College. Biologists are focusing on Nicholas, whose sunburn is infected. The dolphins were rescued Monday by Tampa firefighter Mark Wood and his brother-in-law Kevin Kirby, of Brooksville. The two were fishing when they saw the keening dolphins. The men walked through ankle-deep water and attempted to dig the mud from underneath the dolphins. That didn't work, so the men took off their shirts, dipped them in water and put the wet T-shirts across the mother dolphin's burned spots. They called for help from other boaters and created a human chain of shadows to protect the baby from the sun's light. State marine officers called the Florida Aquarium. Wet t-shirts were used as slings to haul Noelle into a fishing boat. Others put the young dolphin in the boat. Clearwater Marine Aquarium took the dolphins on Christmas Eve and named them in honor of the holiday. Leaving the dolphins to die in the sunlight might not necessarily have been nature's intent, said Dennis Kellenberger, executive director for the aquarium. "This is what we do," Kellenberger said. "You just can't let them die. Man has impacted the ecology in such a dramatic way that it's up to us to save them." Nicholas screamed, shrieked and frantically flapped around during his attempted feeding. Attendants have to shove a tube down his throat while the dolphin is still in the water, force his mouth closed and then force a milk, herring and vitamin substance into the baby's stomach. It took three men to grab and hold the 120-pound dolphin, which has sharp teeth even though he doesn't yet eat solid foods. It costs thousands of dollars a month to work with a sickly dolphin. Visitors to the aquarium can watch Nicholas swim via closed circuit television. He is too sick to visit in person. For information about the Clearwater Marine Aquarium, check out www.CMAquarium.org on the internet. -- Adrienne Samuels can be reached at 445-4157 or samuels@sptimes.com .
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
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