Local environmentalist John Buchanan was surprised Sunday afternoon when he came across a dead five-foot-four-inch Pacific white-sided dolphin in Howe Sound.
The dolphin carcass was in the water near the old Woodfibre pulp mill site.
“There doesn’t seem to be anything obvious why it died,” Buchanan told The Squamish Chief.
He went ashore and hauled the dolphin into his boat. He said he is perplexed as to what could have caused the dolphin’s death.
“I don’t think it is normal to find a Pacific white-sided dolphin in such good shape. They are typically torn to bits after an orca attack, so something else [caused it]. Again those strange markings, which I don’t believe barnacles on the shore did, because I dragged the body over the rocks and barnacles to get nest to the boat and not a scratch,” said Buchanan.
Buchanan later packed the dolphin in ice and contacted Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO). Buchanan delivered the dolphin to a provincial animal health lab in Abbotsford Monday afternoon (Jan. 12) for a necropsy, he said.
Buchanan was conducting his first herring spawn survey of the year in Howe Sound Sunday, Jan. 11 at about 4 p.m. when he made the discovery.
See the video slide show below, provided to The Chief by John Buchanan.
