May 23, 2013
It's being called one of the worst strandings of dolphins ever on the "Treasure Coast." Fifteen dolphins were discovered at first light Monday, stranded on the beach in Onslow County. Jean Beasley from the Topsail Turtle Project says a dozen of the striped dolphins, normally deep-water animals, died. But volunteers and members of the Marine Mammal Stranding Network were able to push three dolphins back to open water. Researchers with the stranding network transported some of those dead animals back to N.C. State's vet school for further examination. And, along with those strandings, Beasley says she is seeing record numbers of sea turtles admitted to the Topsail Turtle Hospital this summer with lesions and infestations, but no word on why those turtles are showing up sick on the beaches there either.
