Carcasses of bottlenose dolphins are washing up on U.S. East Coast beaches from New Jersey to Virginia at a higher than normal pace, with more than 120 dead animals discovered since June, local and federal officials said on Thursday.

 

Since early June, 87 dead dolphins have been found in Virginia, compared to about 50 dolphin deaths in the same state by this time last year. Most were found clustered in the middle to lower Chesapeake Bay region. However, numbers of dolphin deaths have increased all along the American coast as compared to last year’s death tolls.

 

Bottlenose dolphins live in pods that range in size from two to 15 animals along the U.S. eastern seaboard from New Jersey to Florida. The mammals spend most of the year in the temperate southern waters then move to the bays, sounds and open waters of the Mid-Atlantic from May to October.

 

Necropsies are being performed on the animals and it could take several months to determine what has led to the deaths, he said. But Virginia experts said early findings indicated it appears to be "more of a sickness," Barco said.