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By Chloe Mayer
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A sad mystery is unfolding in Japan as marine experts try to determine why dozens of dolphins, several of them dead, keep washing ashore in the same spot.
So far this week, almost 40 dolphins have washed up in an area spanning two beaches in the Chiba prefecture, which is about 25 miles east of Tokyo.
The incident began on Monday morning, when 33 dolphins appeared stranded along a 500-meter stretch of coastline between Taito Beach, in the city of Isumi, and the popular surfing spot of Tsurigasaki Beach, in the neighboring town of Ichinomiya.
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Three of the creatures were already dead when they floated inland, but local surfers worked together to help the rest of the pod return home by guiding them to deeper waters, the Japanese press agency Kyodo News reported.
However, a local surf shop employee who had helped with the rescue efforts told The Japan Times newspaper that the surviving dolphins appeared to be unwell. Many floated back toward land, and they seemed to be struggling to breathe as they lay stranded at the beach, the worker said.
The distressing sight was repeated at around 8 a.m. Tuesday, when eight more dolphins washed up on Taito Beach. Four of the mammals were dead, but the remaining ones were returned to the sea.
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Tokyo's National Museum of Nature and Science said it has launched an investigation into what is causing the phenomenon. It plans to collect specimens from the dead dolphins for analysis.
Newsweek has emailed the museum's marine mammalogy and veterinary pathology expert for further information and comment.
All of the dolphins were a species called melon-headed whales, also known as electra dolphins, and they were all adults measuring about 2 meters. They normally live in tropical or subtropical waters, although they head north for food in the spring.
"They may have weakened from swimming too close to the coast where the water is cold," Yukio Miyauchi, head of the Choshi Ocean Institute in Chiba prefecture, told The Japan Times.
This is not the first time melon-headed whales have washed up in Japan. In April 2015, around 150 of the dolphins were beached, resulting in a huge rescue operation to save them. They could not be pushed back to sea because the tide kept returning the creatures to shore, so locals and government officials kept them covered with wet towels and poured buckets of water over them for several days. But the rescue efforts ultimately failed and the pod all died.
The incident comes as New Jersey and New York are seeing a similar situation on their own shores. Since this past December, a number of dolphins and nearly a dozen whales have washed up dead along the coastline. The strange occurrence has been deemed an "unusual mortality event" by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries, a U.S. government agency, which is investigating.
Less mystery surrounded the cause of death of a baby dolphin found stranded on a Florida beach, when a necroposy (an animal autopsy) revealed that the mammal's stomach was full of trash, including piles of plastic. In April 2019, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation said the rough-toothed dolphin had washed up alive but emaciated in the town of Fort Myers Beach. It could not be saved and had to be euthanized to put it out of its misery.
In November 2018, a dolphin found dead on Manhattan Beach near Los Angeles was shot in an attack described by a local animal rescue organization as a "vicious act of brutality."
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