A dead dolphin floated in the water along Chesapeake Avenue in Hampton Wednesday afternoon, a sight residents said is rare.
The dolphin, which floated about 100 yards from the shoreline, looked bloated as is typical for dead animals, an Animal Control official speculated.
Several cars stopped as drivers looked at the scene near the intersection of Chesapeake and Pear Avenue.
Virginia Kanoy lives across the street from where the dolphin floated. As she peered into binoculars to look out at the scene, she said she’s never seen a dead one before in her 21 years living there.
Barbara Boone lives in the neighborhood and said two years ago she spotted two dead dolphins on the rocks in Newport News while walking her dog.
She said she was recently thinking about how “soon” she’d see another dead one.
“Something is killing those dolphins,” Boone said. “It’s either the fishermen throwing the dead fish away, or the ships with the stuff they let out. It’s oil or something.”
While the sight may be unusual for residents, in 2013, over 170 bottlenose dolphins were stranded or found dead in Virginia due to a virus that spread through the population. The average number of strandings a year is 70.
