Dolphin that lived in lake dies; biologists suspect health issues

A necropsy failed to reveal a cause of death for the dolphin that had lived in the old borrow pit for about three years.

By AMY WIMMER

© St. Petersburg Times, published August 14, 2000

PINELLAS PARK -- The call came into the Clearwater Marine Aquarium last week. A dolphin -- the dolphin that biologists had been keeping an eye on for more than two years -- was floating at the top of a lake.

With the phone call came a sad opportunity for researchers to finally remove the dolphin from the mostly freshwater lake, where he essentially was trapped for nearly three years. The lake has some saltwater content, but not nearly as much as sea water, so scientists watched the dolphin's health.

A necropsy Saturday failed to reveal a cause of death, and tissue samples have been sent to Sea World for testing.

"Usually we look at their teeth to see how old they are, and his teeth weren't worn down extensively, so I'd have to say that his death was health-related," said Chris Koberna, director of animal care at the aquarium. "But his blubber thickness was still pretty thick, so it didn't appear that he had been sick for a period of time."

Efforts to direct the dolphin back through the small opening to the canal from which he came were unsuccessful in 1998, and aquarium and federal government officials decided that capturing and relocating the dolphin would be too stressful for the animal.

So in the lake -- actually an old borrow pit thought to have junked cars on its bottom- the dolphin stayed. Workers from the aquarium looked in on him once a month or so, checking to see that he was not emaciated and that a bad skin condition, one from which he suffered when he first began living in the borrow pit, did not return.

They never named him, other than to call him the "Wagon Wheel dolphin," named after a flea market near the dolphin's adopted home. Others thought his true dolphin name was Chompwhack Imposter, the name Eckerd College dolphin project students used to identify him, based on the shape of his dorsal fin.

Biologists first tried to lure the dolphin out of the borrow pit in April 1998, when several people saw him and questioned whether he was trapped there. Workers removed some debris in the opening between the Cross Bayou Canal and the borrow pit, though scientists were not optimistic that the dolphin would take the hint and move back toward salt water.

They were initially concerned because his skin was discolored and shedding. Eventually, the skin condition improved, and when other non-obtrusive ploys failed to move the dolphin through the opening, they gave up.

"He made it through the opening once, but he definitely didn't want to go back through it again," Koberna said.

Together with the National Marine Fisheries Service, which would have had to grant permission for the biologists to remove the dolphin from the water, aquarium officials agreed instead to simply monitor his condition.

They last checked on him in July, and he appeared healthy, said Scott Swaim, a spokesman for the aquarium.

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