Several stranded dolphins and an IFAW staffer on the Cape Cod Coast Friday, Nov. 15, 2024.
Forty-one dolphins were rescued and 13 died in a recent week on Cape Cod, according to a local animal rescue group, which said the intense workload highlights an extraordinary year of strandings.
So far this year, the International Fund for Animal Welfare has dealt with 342 strandings of live dolphins, which is more than five times more than the average for a year, 67, the organization said Wednesday. Included in that total is the largest mass dolphin stranding in American history, in which 102 were rescued on cape Cod and another 44 died this July.
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Dolphin strandings are so common on Cape Cod that IFAW last year built a dedicated facility there, the Dolphin Rescue Center.
"Though Cape Cod has always seen more live dolphin strandings than anywhere else in the world, the numbers this year have reached historic highs," the organization said in a statement.
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It's not immediately clear why the 54 strandings reported the week of Nov. 9 to 16 took place, according to IFAW, though all the dolphins may have been part of one pod.
Reports of dolphin strandings rolled in throughout the week, and a minke whale became beached as well — it died of natural causes, IFAW said. Wednesday brought the organization's 500th animal in distress of the year so far.
