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Title: Young dolphin discovered in contaminated Virginia waterway

By SCOTT HARPER The Virginian-Pilot March 22, 2000

CHESAPEAKE, Va. --It seems almost too bizarre, the stuff of black comedy -- a bottlenose dolphin living near a power plant in the Southern Branch of the Elizabeth River, one of the most contaminated waterways on the East Coast.

Remarkably, though, scientists and river-watchers believe that a lone, juvenile dolphin has been doing just that for months now, defying conventional wisdom about how the popular marine mammals behave in Virginia waters and contradicting simple logic.

Based on observations and photographs, experts speculate that the young dolphin survived the winter by feeding on fish that bask in the hot-water outfall of Virginia Power's energy plant in Chesapeake, near the Interstate 64 high-rise bridge.

The friendly juvenile -- which reportedly often approaches slow-moving pleasure boats, even flipping fish at them -- has been seen regularly since late last summer, mostly in an area between the I-64 bridge and the steel bridge on Dominion Boulevard, officials said.

Chasing or harassing dolphins is a federal violation of animal-protection laws, and officials urge restraint by boaters on the Southern Branch.

Dolphins are known to occasionally wander from the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay into the Elizabeth River, swimming past shipyards and heavy industries that line the Southern Branch shoreline. Over the years, they have been spotted as far south as the Great Bridge Locks in Chesapeake.

But rarely, if ever, has a dolphin hung around so long in these brackish, tea-colored waters, which are notoriously high in heavy metals and chemical residues. The Southern Branch is considered a toxic "hot spot" by government experts trying to clean up the Chesapeake Bay.

"The real unusual thing is that the animal seems to have stayed there over the winter," said Mark Swingle, curator of the Virginia Marine Science Museum's Stranding Center in Virginia Beach.

Swingle has seen the dolphin, but could not determine its gender. Stranding team members last viewed the dolphin on March 8; it had a fish in its mouth and appeared relatively content and healthy, a museum spokeswoman said.

Most bottlenose dolphins visit coastal Virginia during the spring and summer. They then migrate south to warmer waters in October or November, Swingle said.

He noted, however, that a small pod of dolphins is thought to reside year-round in Broad Bay and Linkhorn Bay in Virginia Beach.

Given the contamination in the Southern Branch, and how those conditions likely affect food fish, the dolphin probably faces health risks if it stays there a long time, Swingle said.

Environmentalists with the Elizabeth River Project, a grass-roots group that is attempting to revive the urban waterway, are delighted with the new visitor.

They could not recall ever hearing about a dolphin taking up residence in the Southern Branch, or anywhere on the river.

"It's another wonderful sign of hope," said Marjorie Mayfield, the group's executive director.

The last time a dolphin made news in the Elizabeth River was in 1998, when a juvenile died after becoming entangled in fishing nets set off Portsmouth City Park.

One of the first people to report the Southern Branch dolphin was the director of the Chesapeake Bay Youth Conservation Corps, Donald E. Marx Jr., who stumbled onto the mammal while scouting waterfront wetlands sites.

"It was weird to see him in the river," said Marx, a former stranding team member who immediately contacted his old colleagues at the Marine Science Museum. "We could hardly believe he was so far south."

Since then, Marx has taken teen-agers involved in his environmental program out on the river to view and photograph the dolphin. They turn over their findings and photos to the museum.

At first, Swingle said he was worried that the dolphin might have strayed from its habitat, was confused and would not survive the winter. But now, as waters begin to warm up with the coming of spring, Swingle is more confident.

The dolphin "pretty much survived the season," he said. "We'll see what happens from here on out," when other dolphins begin arriving off the Virginia coast later this spring.

http://www.thestate.com/headlines/alldocs/22dolphinse.htm

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-- (Dee360Degree@aol.com), March 23, 2000