Dolphin Deaths Traced to Toxin in Fish They Ate

Up to half the population of East Coast bottlenose dolphins died from eating fish tainted by a toxin that occurs naturally in “red tide” algae, federal scientists reported Wednesday.

Dolphins numbering perhaps in the thousands died during 1987 and 1988 after eating menhaden and Spanish mackerel that were contaminated with a powerful poison, called brevertoxin, from a rare bloom of red tide algae, said Joseph Geraci, a wildlife specialist who headed a team of researchers.

“We have never found this before in history,” Geraci said.

Officials from Greenpeace, the environmental activist group, questioned the government findings, saying the investigative agencies presented no real evidence at their news conference.

“In our minds the press conference raised more questions than it answered,” Greenpeace spokesman Bruce McKay said.

Brian Gorman, a spokesman for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said the studies were “unequivocal” about the role played by brevertoxin.

Geraci estimated the number of dolphins killed as “at least 750 and perhaps in numbers close to thousands.” Another expert said the coastal herd of migratory dolphins may have been cut in half and could require up to a century to recover in numbers.