A dolphin that was stranded in a New Jersey river died Saturday, reported NBC New York. The bottlenose dolphin has been stranded in the South River for the past week.
The dolphin was first spotted on Wednesday in the South River, near Old Matawan Road, in Old Bridge. On Thursday, workers from the Raritan Riverkeeper organization made an attempt to push and guide the stranded dolphin towards the ocean but failed in their attempt.
The dolphin attracted a lot of local attention leading lots of people to flock to the river to watch the mammal.
The volunteers hoped that the dolphin would swim back into the ocean with the high tide. The river was located roughly ten miles from the ocean.
Sentinel Republic reported that on Saturday, the officials tried to rescue the dolphin when they saw the dolphin was having a seizure and struggling. They pulled the dolphin from the river to take it to a veterinarian. However, the dolphin died on the way.
Bob Schoelkopf, the centre's director, said that the dolphin appeared to be quite old. It weighed around 400 pounds. A necropsy will be performed on the dolphin to ascertain the cause of its death.
