Dolphin Deaths a Boon for Sharks?

By Tobey Curtis, Guest Blogger

It's been a tough year to be a dolphin. The Miami NFL football players aren’t the only dolphins making headlines lately. Over the last year there have been hundreds of mysterious dolphin deaths along the US Atlantic coast. By late summer, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) had declared two “Unusual Mortality Events” for bottlenose dolphins, one in the Mid-Atlantic (New York to South Carolina), and one in Florida’s Indian River Lagoon. To date, nearly 800 dolphin deaths have been confirmed in the Mid-Atlantic region, and over 70 in the Indian River Lagoon.

Number of dolphin strandings by state for 2013 (red) and the 2007-2012 average (blue). Source: NOAA Fisheries Service

While investigations are still underway, possible culprits

JAWS Returns: Signs of recovery in well-managed shark populations



Humans have done far more damage to great white
shark populations than they have done to us.
(Credit: Tobey Curtis)



     Sharks and their relatives, the skates and rays, have become poster children for the ‘global overfishing crisis’.  Largely due to increasing demand for high-priced shark fin soup in Asia, shark populations worldwide have suffered from excessive exploitation in recent decades.  Tens of millions of sharks are harvested each year, resulting in population declines in excess of 80% in some cases.  Numerous publications over the last decade have lamented these declines, and attempted to describe the ecological consequences of removing these important apex predators from marine ecosystems.