A dolphin found swimming in a creek near Coney Island Thursday was found dead in the creek Friday morning after numerous efforts to save its life were made by police and environmental officials.
According to NBC, the dolphin was initially spotted by passerby at Cropsey Avenue and Bay 54th Street at around 10:30 a.m. on Thursday. Police believe that the massive mammal swam under a trash boom at the mouth of the Coney Island Creek during the high tide in the morning. The creek is muddy and shallow, but at the time was at its maximum depth.
The Riverhead Foundation for Marine Research and Preservation was called in to help check on the dolphin, which was identified as a common dolphin, and aid in guiding it back to the sea. They reported in a Facebook post that the dolphin was “swimming in circles, but also swimming up and down the canal, surfacing every 2-3 minutes.”
Officers from the New York Police Department moved the trash boom and were directed by the Riverhead Foundation to wait and see if the dolphin would swim back to sea at high tide. A harbor unit and an aviation unit also arrived on site to help the animal in the event of an emergency.
The dolphin was found dead on a nearby beach at 11 a.m. Friday morning. The exact cause of death is not currently known.
The last dolphin to be found in Brooklyn also met an unfortunate end. In January, a bottlenose dolphin was stranded in the Gowanus Canal with an injured dorsal fin. Officials hoped that the dolphin would be able to leave the canal at high tide, but it did not live long enough to find its way out of the contaminated waterway.
[Source: The Riverhead Foundation, New York Post]