Brazilian environmentalists are trying to figure out why more than 80 dolphins have been found dead in a bay west of Rio de Janeiro, ABC reports.
Eighty-eight dead dolphins have been retrieved from the Bay of Sepetiba, about 45 miles from Rio de Janeiro, in the last 18 days, Leonardo Flach, a biologist and the chief coordinator of the Boto Cinza Institute in Mangaratiba, Brazil, told ABC News today. That’s about 10 percent of the dolphin population that live in the bay, he said.
The cause may be bacteria or a virus, Flach said.
"We've never experienced this before. It’s a tragedy," Flach said. "Every day we are finding four or five dolphin carcasses."
He added, "One day we will find dolphin corpses that are male and adults, and the next day, female and puppies. But most of them are skinny and with deep skin lesions. I've never seen anything like that."