Dolphin’s heart ‘under pressure’

A preliminary examination of the dead dolphin that washed ashore at Grafton Beach, Tobago, on Monday, revealed the mammal may have died of a heart attack.

Angela Ramsey, wildlife biologist at the Division of Food Production, Forestry and Fisheries, told Newsday while an official cause of death is yet to be determined, an examination of the male dolphin showed his heart was under extreme pressure.

“What we found when we went into the body of the mammal is that it was pretty healthy, except that the heart was really stressed. There were signs and evidence of a heart attack.”

She said apart from the stress on its heart, the rough-toothed dolphin, believed to be in its teens, appeared to have been healthy.

“It looked healthy, so it meant that it would have gone through some sort of scare or shock or panic that would have caused that. There was a lot of water in the stomach. There was still air coming out of the lungs, so we know it was not drowning. So it had to be something with respect to shock and the heart.”

Ramsey said further tests still need to be done on the dolphin’s brain to determine an official cause of death.