Around 60 dolphins have been stranded along 25 miles of Cape Cod’s coastline in Massachusetts since last Thursday, raising concern among animal welfare experts.
The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) said in a statement that it was able to rescue 19 of the dolphins, including a pregnant mother and calf. Only 27 of the group were still alive, the organization said.
“No one knows for sure why animals strand, but mass strandings of whales and dolphins have happened on Cape Cod for hundreds of years,” stated Katie Moore, manager of IFAW’s marine mammal rescue and research.
She added that dolphins and other “animals may become disoriented and trapped by the complex inlets” of the Cape, while “dolphins are also very social animals and stick together for better or worse.”
Cape Cod is one of the top three stranding spots in the world, along with sites in New Zealand and Australia, IFAW said.
