Over 400 Dead Dolphins Found in Peru

Peruvian officials say more than 400 dead dolphins were found last month on the Pacific Ocean beaches on the northern coast.


Jaime de la Cruz, a technician from Peru's IMARPE marine life agency, said Monday that the dead dolphins were found at various times in January.

The latest discovery took place in the last week of January, when some 220 dead dolphins were found in the Lambayeque region on the northern coast.
Officials have begun performing autopsies on the latest dolphin deaths, focusing on lungs, kidneys and livers. De la Cruz said the results were expected in two weeks.


The latest dolphin deaths were discovered in the same area where more than 870 dolphins were encountered in 2012.
Peruvian authorities never established the cause of the 2012 deaths, as results of autopsies were inconclusive.

Speculations have ranged from biotoxins in the sea to seismic testing to an unknown ailment.

Yuri Hooker, director of the marine biology unit at Cayetano Heredia University, said determining the cause is "complicated" in Peru since government laboratories lack a wide range of chemical reagents used to determine the dolphin's death.
According to Hooker, the Peruvian government laboratories only have three or four of the world's 100 or so chemical reagents.


Hooker also said dolphin deaths in other parts of the world are usually caused by environmental contamination, when they eat fish or other smaller species filled with toxins.
Another cause for dolphins to die is ingestion of discarded plastic floating the s