BALANGA—Scores of fishermen and volunteers managed to guide more than 200 melon-headed dolphins into deep water after they beached themselves in Manila Bay, officials said yesterday.
Residents in the seaside towns of Orion, Pilar and Abucay on the Bataan peninsula raised the alarm early yesterday when they saw a large school of dolphins in shallow water.
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Three of the dolphins were found dead and authorities feared others would die unless they could guide them into deeper water.
“This is an unusual phenomenon,†Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Director Malcolm Sarmiento said, estimating the number of dolphins at “more than 200.â€
He said they could be reacting to a “heat wave or disturbance at sea,†such as a major underwater earthquake.
Dolphins, which are mammals, have ears that are sensitive to large changes in pressure underwater, he said.
“If their eardrums are damaged, they become disoriented and they float up to the surface,†he added.
He said smaller schools of dolphins numbering “in the 10s and 20s†had beached themselves elsewhere in the Philippines previously, but this was the first time so many had done so at the same time and place.
Authorities said they had managed to guide most of the dolphins back into deeper water.
Bataan Provincial Veterinarian Alberto Ventu-rina said samples had been taken from two of the dead dolphins, which had
shown they were both female and that one of them was pregnant.
He said he could not say why they beached them-selves although he noted that they both had water in their lungs, indicating that they had drowned. The pregnant dolphin had been found with its tail tangled in a fishing net, Venturina added.
“It’s possible that they got lost. They came from the north and were headed towards the South China Sea,†he said.
The two animals were identified as melon-headed dolphins, weighing about 250 to 300 kilograms, said Venturina.
The third dolphin was only a month old and measured barely a meter long. Its gender had not yet been determined. (AFP)
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