dolphins in the shrewsbury and other rivers

[fishlipper]

Took my girl down to see if we could get a glimpse before we went fishin. We saw, lots of people there as well. Tim McCloone should charge admission.;) Pics to come later soon as I d/l them.

[fishlipper]

dolphins

[fishlipper]

the tourist ferry that gets to make some $$, hopefully:D

[fishlipper]

the idiot $$million dollar yacht owner that was told once by the state police to move, but decided his precious views were more important than us poor people on the bulkhead, so he blocked our view. May be related to Leona Helmsley.:ROFLMAO:

[fishlipper]

more dolphins

[fishlipper]

final shots

[stormchaser]

All this fanfare over a few dolphins. Don't people know dolphins eat bunker? When they run out of food, they will leave. :)

[fishlipper]

Right you are stormchaser. Reporters were talking about if they were getting enough to eat? Enough bunker in those rivers to feed all the dolphins in Fla. ;) They'll leave when they are bored, or run out of food.

[wish4fish]

dolphin chowder, mmm mmm ;)

[fishlipper]

more pics

[fishlipper]

few more

[basshunter]

u shoulda zoomed a little closer on the *** o that chick in white pants.:drool: reporter chick?

[fishinmission78]

Tim McCloone should charge admission.;) .

Right on, its good for the businesses up there, "Oh look at the pretty little dolphins they lost there way!":laugh:

This from another site: ROFLMFAO! :ROFLMAO:

We avoided the dolphin pod on the way out. We also avoided the news crew which was stationed at McLoon's Restaurant parking lot. We also avoided a fleet of flukers near the mouth of the Shrewsbury Chanel and headed out to the ocean. Our fishing spot was just off the Nude Beach in 24-28 feet of water. The fluke were biting very well at the end of the outgoing and plain squid did just fine. After several pesky smooth dogfish attacked our baits, I decided to use one of them for bait. The grey side, cut in strips, held on all day practically and caught quite a few fluke. It was an amazing bait! Our heaviest fish was 4lbs. with two others just under that. The total keepers was eight, the total caught was well over 50 for the three of us. There were no head boats in the ocean but the drift was very good and the action was too. On the way back in, we saw the pod of "Flippers" closer to the mouth of the Navesink near Rocky Point. They had moved closer to the ocean. They didn't seem to be bothered by the boats or the T.V. crews. I didn't see anyone in any "official" boats keeping track of them or of the boats that kept trying to spot them. One man in a kyaak was paddling very close to them and no one said "boo" to him. All of this hoopla for a bunch of mammals the people see all of the time in other parts of the world. What's up with all of this attention? I expect Greenpeace to show up with their Zodiacs next! These are not stupid animals. They can avoid boats or choose to swim next to and around and under them if they want to. Seals show up in the rivers and oceans quite often in the winter and no one sets up cameras or sends reporters to do stories on them. Ospreys are making a comeback and you can watch them "talon" some bunkers from the schools along the shore. Who cares! There are naked men and women parading around the beaches of a National Park and no one does a story about them. Send a camera crew there! One day, the dolphin will be gone! Who will even know? I hope Tim McLoon is raking in the money from the people who fill his restaurant and deck, just to see the "fishies". I think Tim threw some fish sticks in the river just to attract the mammals. Maybe he even "stocked" them or maybe it was one of BonJovi's rich friends who live on the Fair Haven side who brought them in from Florida! Now that would be a story! I can't wait until this is over! Oh, did I mention the Piping Plovers? Maybe a crew should go do a report about them and the foxes that are eating their eggs. They are nesting right near the nude beach. The film crew could do two stories. Flipper! Go home already!

[katiefishes]

Went down there yesterday did not see them. Maybe they did finally go home.

[cowherder]

Not sure, think I read they may now be in the Navesink.

[williehookem]

NJ dolphins switch to different river

7/16/2008, 3:28 p.m. EDT
The Associated Press


RED BANK, N.J. (AP) — A family of dolphins that has wowed spectators in a river at the New Jersey shore appears to have moved to a different, nearby river.
A federal environmental official said Wednesday that wildlife officials last saw the bottlenose dolphins over the weekend. Teri Frady said the sea mammals were spotted in the Navesink River.
That's a waterway that connects with the Shrewsbury River, where the dolphins had drawn large crowds over the past few weeks.

Frady said the dolphins are now in a more remote location, so fewer people are seeing -- and bothering -- them.

So far, authorities have issued 11 citations for harassing the dolphins, which could carry hefty fines.

When they were in the Shrewsbury River, officials estimated their number at 15 or so. Over the weekend, estimates ranged from 8 to 12.

It was unclear whether some of the animals were making their way back out toward the ocean.

[hookedonbass]

It was unclear whether some of the animals were making their way back out toward the ocean.


Um, maybe they'll go back out when they're HUNGRY????? :laugh:

[ledhead36]

Dolphins now enjoying life in Navesink River

by Brian T. Murray/The Star-Ledger Friday August 08, 2008

A pod of bottlenose dolphins that ventured into the Shrewsbury River two months ago haven't lost their taste for Monmouth County.


Still feeding on a bounty of menhaden--a herring-like, large-headed fish averaging a foot in length--about a dozen of the dolphins have stayed behind, moving to the nearby Navesink River while a few returned to the Atlantic Ocean.

Dolphins still in Navesink
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Thursday they believe 16 of the marine mammals initially wriggled into the Shrewsbury in mid-June, about the same time summertime boat traffic increased and tourist flocked to the area. They arrived at the Navesink weeks ago.
The possibility that one or more of the remaining dolphins could be hit or injured by the boat traffic has been a constant concern.

"We're still worried about it. Traffic is increasing," said Sheila Dean of the Marine Mammal Stranding Center in Brigantine. "We don't like seeing them stay in there."

That concern prompted state and federal authorities to issue warnings, and eventually tickets, to boaters who they claim harassed the dolphins by moving too close to them during and just after the July 4 weekend. Boats of observers continue to surround the animals.
Authorities are hoping humans and dolphins can keep a safe distance until the marine visitors decide to return to the open sea--which they hope will happen by fall.
"For now, we're monitoring their condition," said Teri Frady of the NOAA. "By fall, their prey should move and hopefully they will move. We're trying to plan for all contingencies. By fall, if they are still there, we'll be thinking about whether there is anything we need to do."

Trying to push or move the dolphins out of the river is a difficult task that can do as much harm as good, according to NOAA authorities. The animals become stressed when humans attempt to move them or even guide them out of a river.

Relying on volunteers to report on dolphin sightings and any problems, the non-profit Marine Mammal Stranding Center plans to inspect the pod in a few days to determine whether any dolphin is having difficulty.

"Just by looking at their backs, as they come up to the top, we can see of they are round--which is healthy--or concave. Concave would indicate they are losing weight," said Dean.
But the dolphins appear to be finding a lot of menhaden, also known as mossbunker, pogy or fat back, to munch on. Scientists contend it is not unusual for coastal bottlenose dolphins to enter high-saline rivers, like the Shrewsbury, to pursue prey--or for the animals to remain behind as long as the food is plentiful.

[captnemo]

They just found one that died. Another one died, but that one disappeared. Raccoons?;)






Wayward dolphin found dead in N.J. river

15 were in area since June, but officials were wary of trying to move them








http://msnbcmedia1.msn.com/i/msnbc/Components/Sources/Art/APTRANS.gifupdated 4:30 p.m. ET, Wed., Sept. 24, 2008

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. - A young dolphin was found dead in the Navesink River on Wednesday morning, probably from a group of wayward dolphins that made a wrong turn out of Sandy Hook Bay in June, officials said.
It was found by a marina worker in Fair Haven near where a group of 15 dolphins has been staying since early summer, drawing crowds of sightseers but worrying rescue groups that say the approaching winter puts them in grave danger.
The cause of death was not immediately clear; tests were planned.
We got a lot of enjoyment watching them," said Jim Ceruti, owner of the Fair Haven Yacht Works, near where the dead dolphin was found. "For as good as that made you feel, it hurts even worse when you see one of them die."

The plight of the dolphins has become a point of contention between rescue groups and national wildlife officials, who have been reluctant to approve a plan to coax or scare the dolphins out of the Navesink and Shrewsbury rivers back out to sea.
"Hopefully this animal did not die in vain," said Bob Schoelkopf, co-director of the Marine Mammal Stranding Center in Brigantine. "Hopefully this is a wake-up call to let people know these animals are not going to make it through the winter."
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has said it would not act to move the dolphins back out to sea unless it appeared they were in danger or becoming ill, partly because a rescue could stress the animals and do more harm than good.
State Sen. Joseph Kyrillos said Wednesday that an agency official told him a rescue plan would be launched, though, if the animals have not left the river by the third week in October.
In 1993, four dolphins who lingered too long in the Shrewsbury River drowned when ice closed in on them and they were unable to get to the surface to breathe.
"The water's getting colder; there's not as much salt in the river now," Ceruti said Wednesday. "Is their food source dwindling? These dolphins are probably stressed now.

[jigfreak]

Action sought, taken for marine mammals
Experts look for a way to bring dolphins home
By Todd B. Bates (tbates@app.com) • ENVIRONMENTAL WRITER • October 10, 2008

Marine mammal experts today will discuss potential options for trying to move the bottlenose dolphins in the Navesink River back to the ocean, according to officials.

Two dolphins in the river have died since Sept. 24. Action is needed as soon as possible, according to Rep. Frank J. Pallone Jr., D-N.J.

"Every day that goes by puts the remaining dolphins in danger," he said in a prepared statement. "They need to be evacuated to their natural habitat in the Atlantic Ocean."

A conference call today "presumably" will consider the current situation and "when, where and how an intervention could occur," said Teri Frady, a spokeswoman for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Fisheries Service.
Participants will discuss "basically the contingency plan that we've had all along — either some form of herding and capture — and discuss those options and what would be required and what's best, that sort of thing," she said.

NOAA officials think that attempting to herd or capture the dolphins is very risky and could lead to deaths, Frady has said.
The Marine Mammal Stranding Center in Brigantine removed the latest dead dolphin from the Middletown shoreline on Thursday morning.

A necropsy was being done at the University of Pennsylvania's New Bolton Center in Kennett Square, Pa., according to Robert C. Schoelkopf, stranding center founding director.
The New Bolton Center treats large animals.
The dead juvenile dolphin weighed 170 pounds and was in poor condition, Schoelkopf said. It was bloated and has been dead for several days.

It was discovered on private property in Middletown, almost directly across the Navesink River from where a dead juvenile dolphin was found in Fair Haven on Sept. 24, according to officials.
The final results of a necropsy on the first dead dolphin, which had pneumonia, were not yet available.
About 15 to 20 bottlenose dolphins arrived in the Shrewsbury River in mid-June and attracted many sightseers, who attempted to view them by land and water.
The mammals then headed to the Navesink River and have remained generally near the Oceanic Bridge between Rumson and Middletown, eating mainly menhaden.

As of Sunday, six to eight dolphins were seen in the river, Schoelkopf said.

"Half of 'em have gone somewhere and we don't know where," he said. "We don't know if they split up, went further south in the river, further west — we don't know for sure."

In his statement, Pallone said he talked with federal officials on Thursday and was "encouraged that multiple agencies are developing a comprehensive plan to evacuate these dolphins. However, action needs to be taken as soon as possible."
"The plan seems to be to take less invasive steps, like using noise to herd the dolphins initially, with physical removal as a last resort if all else fails," Pallone said in the statement.
A total of five dolphins in the Shrewsbury River died following rescue efforts in 1993 and 2000.
Pallone is concerned that as the water gets colder and food becomes scarce, the dolphins will be endangered, his statement says.

Representatives of NOAA's National Marine Mammal Health and Stranding Response network, the Marine Mammal Stranding Center and state Department of Environmental Protection are among those who will participate in the conference call today, according to officials.

"We are working with the National Marine Fisheries Service and we stand ready to provide whatever assistance they might require," said DEP spokeswoman Darlene Yuhas.

[plugcrazy]

What's the latest word on the Dolphins?

[bababooey]

Here you go, plug:









Can dolphins survive the winter in NJ rivers?


Posted on Thu, Dec. 25, 2008



WAYNE PARRY
The Associated Press
SEA BRIGHT, N.J. - Six months after a group of dolphins took up residence in two rivers near the Jersey shore, temperatures have plummeted and winter has arrived.

Animal advocates worry that the bottlenose dolphins will meet the same fate as four who died in the Shrewsbury River in 1993 when ice closed in on them and they drowned.

Three of the original group of 15 that spent this summer and fall in the Shrewsbury and Navesink rivers, waterways just north of Asbury Park, have died.

Federal wildlife experts say the remaining 11 or so dolphins are healthy, and should be able to make it through the winter if they choose to stay. They cite the cases of dolphins who successfully spent winters in Massachusetts, Virginia and even northern Scotland.

On the other hand, more than two dozen froze to death in a Texas bay when it froze over.

So can New Jersey's wayward dolphins survive until spring?
The answer is an emphatic "yes," according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which has jurisdiction over the dolphins. That agency doesn't plan to intervene unless the dolphins appear to be in imminent danger.

"This is a normal sort of way of life for these critters," said David Gouveia, marine mammal program coordinator for the agency's fisheries service. "We're optimistic that things are going to work out just fine."

Others are not as confident.
"It would seem to me that the natural habitat for dolphins in the winter when it gets cold is much farther south in warmer waters," said U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone Jr., D-Long Branch. "Isn't it stressful for them to be in this colder environment? Since they are mammals, what happens if the ice freezes over and they can't breathe?"

Looming over this debate is the dismal history of dolphins who have wound up in the Shrewsbury in years gone by. In at least two previous instances, dolphins lingered too long in the river and died when rescue attempts went awry.

"We have seen the disastrous consequences when dolphins remain in the area during the winter months," said state Sen. Sean Kean, R-Wall. "Now it's up to NOAA to determine a course of action to try to get the dolphins back to the ocean before it's too late."
Not so, according to Randall Wells, dolphin research program manager for Chicago Zoological Society.

"There are examples of the Navy using dolphins in very cold situations with ice around, and a naturally occurring population of dolphins off the coast of northern Scotland, where ice reaches into the water and snow is in the mountains nearby, and these animals get by fine," he said. "Blubber is a pretty amazing substance in these animals; it's able to maintain body temperatures quite well."
Virginia's coastal waters are usually home to bottlenose dolphins from April through November, when they leave for warmer climes south of Cape Hatteras, N.C. But during the winter of 1996-97, one bottlenose dolphin stayed in a Broad Bay off Virginia Beach, making it through 43-degree water in February. It was seen the following June with a healthy calf.

Five others joined the pair that October, and stayed through the winter of 1997-98. In March 1998, they were all examined and found to be healthy.

In 1990, two bottlenose dolphins spent the winter in Cape Cod Bay, off Plymouth, Mass., where the water was 30-35 degrees.
And in 1940, when the temperature in St. Charles Bay on the Texas coast fell from 64 degrees to 25 degrees in four hours, two porpoises stuck there in low tide did not die, and made it out when the tide returned sufficiently.

Those are the success stories. The outcome was different in Matagorda Bay, Texas, where a sudden freeze killed 26 dolphins in January 1990.

A helicopter pilot there flew overhead in late December 1989 and saw 12 dolphins swimming and breaking ice, trying to keep surfacing and breathing. By Jan. 20, authorities had collected the carcasses of 26 dead dolphins.

Scientists determined that four days of freezing temperatures devastated the dolphins' main food source, striped mullet, 2.6 million of which died when the temperatures plummeted.
That is a concern for the New Jersey dolphins. Scientists had hoped that when the animals' summer food source, menhaden, left the area in late October or early November, the dolphins would follow them out to sea.

But that didn't happen. Instead, the dolphins have switched to other, smaller fish such as alewife, a species of herring that they continue to consume.

"The food may be plentiful now, but it won't be plentiful in February," said Andrew Mencinsky, executive director of the Surfers' Environmental Alliance who lives in Sea Bright and watches the dolphins almost every day.

In four of the last five years, he said, the Shrewsbury River has frozen solid.

Teri Rowles, lead veterinarian for the Fisheries Service and leader of the National Marine Mammal Health and Stranding Response Program, predicted the Shrewsbury dolphins will be able to keep part of the river open by their constant surfacing to breathe.
She said there is no reason to undertake a risky intervention like netting the dolphins or trying to coax or scare them out, especially while they are acting normally and appear to be healthy.

"We are letting these dolphins be wild dolphins," Rowles said. "If they follow the path of the Massachusetts or the Virginia dolphins, we could expect that they would be there for another year. They may become frequent residents in this area.

Gouveia is also optimistic about the New Jersey dolphins' chances.
"If they're there, they're feeding, they're happy, they're in good, healthy condition, they're within their habitat , that's the best we can ask for," he said.

[ledhead36]

Did they finally ever do anything with the dolphins?

[bababooey]

I heard one of the commercial guys picked them up frozen and ground them up for chum. :eek: Seriously, I have no idea. I think they were transported to another universe.

[bababooey]

http://wcbstv.com/local/bon.jovi.dolphin.2.988573.html


Apr 19, 2009 7:46 am US/Eastern
AP: Dead Dolphin Found Near Bon Jovi's House


MIDDLETOWN, N.J. (AP) ―
http://llnw.image.cbslocal.com/31/2008/06/29/175x131/dolpins.jpg Click to enlarge Wayward dolphins in New Jersey river. CBS
1 of 1

Close (http://wcbstv.com/ContentModules/Story/#) http://llnw.static.cbslocal.com/Themes/CBS/_resources/img/ico016x014close_modal.gif












Another Wayward Dolphin Found Dead In NJ River (http://wcbstv.com/local/wayward.dolphin.nj.2.983267.html) (4/13/2009)

Feds: More Wayward Dolphins Will Die In NJ River (http://wcbstv.com/topstories/wayward.dolphin.dead.2.902248.html) (1/7/2009)
Can Dolphins Survive The Winter In NJ Rivers? (http://wcbstv.com/topstories/wayward.dolphin.dead.2.895576.html) (12/27/2008)
Another Wayward Dolphin Found Dead At Jersey Shore (http://wcbstv.com/local/wayward.dolphin.dead.2.895094.html) (12/26/2008)
One Of NJ's Wayward Dolphins Found Dead On Beach (http://wcbstv.com/local/marine.mammal.new.2.893529.html) (12/23/2008)


Since winter closed in on a family of dolphins that had been living in two rivers, many observers felt the animals were living on a prayer.

On Saturday, the body of another dead dolphin was spotted in the Navesink River just outside the Middletown home of rocker Jon Bon Jovi. If it's confirmed to be part of the group of 16 dolphins that had spent half of last year in the Shrewsbury and Navesink rivers, it would be the sixth to have died.

''We're closing in now on half the population that was there last year now being dead, and I fully expect we'll be seeing even more,'' said Bob Schoelkopf, co-director of the Marine Mammal Stranding Center, a nonprofit organization based in Brigantine that tries to rescue and rehabilitate stranded animals.

Schoelkopf had been the strongest proponent of an intervention to remove, coax or scare the dolphins from the rivers, citing two previous instances when groups of dolphins wandered into them, were left to their own devices and died. He said the Shrewsbury runs from north to south and feels like the ocean to the animals, which don't know its a dead end.

On Friday, the stranding center said the Shrewsbury and Navesink rivers, which meet near the mouth of Sandy Hook Bay, were the deadliest spots in New Jersey for large marine animals, with 17 having been found dead or dying there since April 2008. The rivers accounted for nearly 10 percent of the 175 stranding or death calls the center responded to over that period.

Saturday's dead dolphin is the third to surface in the past two weeks. DNA test results are pending on the previous two to determine whether they were part of the pod that created such a stir last year.

The dolphin was spotted in the river behind Bon Jovi's home in an exclusive area where multimillion-dollar homes predominate and where the rock star has hosted political fundraisers for Democratic presidential candidates Al Gore, John Kerry and Barack Obama.

Police Lt. John Maguire said the dolphin appeared to have been dead in the water for quite a while.

Schoelkopf added the dolphin's dorsal and pectoral fins had worn down to a pulpy mush, making it difficult to immediately verify whether it was part of the river pod. A bottlenose dolphin's dorsal fin is a unique identifier, almost like a human's fingerprints.

The dolphins were at the center of a tug of war between rescue groups, who wanted them removed from the rivers, and federal wildlife officials, who said that would be too dangerous and decided to let nature take its course.

Teri Frady, a spokeswoman for the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, which has jurisdiction over the animals, did not immediately return a message seeking comment Saturday night. She had said Friday that her agency was committed to acting when it believes an animal is in imminent danger but did not consider the river dolphins to be sick, endangered or out of a typical habitat.

A NOAA scientist said Friday ''it would be a stretch'' to say there is something about the Shrewsbury that is killing marine animals, adding it is likely that some of the offshore, deep-water dolphins that were found dead there probably died in the ocean and floated into the river with the tides.

The fate of the remaining 10 dolphins is unknown. But the owner and several workers at a restaurant on the banks of the Shrewsbury reported seeing between three and five of the bottlenose dolphins leave the river and head out to the open waters of the bay on Jan. 15, just before the river froze over.

[bababooey]

Posted: 11:43 am
June 8, 2009
SEA BRIGHT, N.J. -- Dolphins are calling a New Jersey river home.
Six were spotted Sunday, almost a year to the day after 16 bottlenose dolphins appeared in the Shrewsbury River last year,
Wildlife authorities and marine mammal volunteers are trying to get better photos of the dolphins' dorsal fins to determine if these six are part of the pod that created such a stir last year.
Federal authorities decided the pod should be left alone, even if some died. At least six did, and a seventh dead dolphin is suspected to have come from the group as well.
Dolphin volunteers wanted the animals removed from the river back out to sea, arguing that past forays into the river often ended in death.

[storminsteve]

Hey fellas they're back again. I saw them the other morning on the way home from SH. I saw a pod of about 5 of them. They were moving up and down up to the Highlands Bridge, and back. I watched them for 15 minutes and I had to get back home.
It should be interesting to see how long they stick around this year.

[bababooey]

Back once more, in the news this week. Anyone see them yet?
PETA is about to organize some groups to come down to protect them. Don't those tree huggers know they can fend for themselves.:kooky:

[bababooey]

What's the latest word on the Dolphins?

The latest word is that some of the surf guys here are imitating dolphins.
Just for you, Monty.:HappyWave:




sometimes you are!
Here is a play by play of a Monty trip -
drank 5 energy drinks from my cooler (only saying this because Rip said so)
fished the white water
beautiful white water
jumped around in it, pretended I was a dolphin
sometime around sunrise I lost a big fish on a hogy.
then around sunrise I got a small bluefish/bass/dirty sock/white snake/condom/small fluke/stargazer/cownose ray (i left some options here for the reader to pick one, because those are the things you usually catch!:HappyWave:
and then I went home, beautiful white water!

by the way please keep posting those white water pics. Hopefully you get some bass this fall as well top go with them

[Monty]

The latest word is that some of the surf guys here are imitating dolphins.
Just for you, Monty.:HappyWave:

Hey, Stormin Steve's post in one thread is enough!!:HappyWave: :ROFLMAO
He writes some funny stuff :kooky: :thumbsup:

[DarkSkies]

^ Just curious if you have caught any bass in July and August, Bababooey..?

Monty has..:thumbsup: .and a few of us have as well....:moon: :HappyWave: all throughout the summer doldrums when no one thought they were around.....

[storminsteve]

Yeah babaooey why don't you get your lazy butt out and try for a bass? Take the long walk with us one night and see how you hold up.:p

[cowherder]

Anyone seen dolphins in the river this year?

[jigfreak]

This one came into the raritan river. About 2-3 miles from the bay.
http://www.nj.com/middlesex/index.ssf/2015/08/dolphin_in_south_river_awes_dozens_of_spectators.h tml#incart_most-read_ocean_article




(http://www.nj.com/middlesex/index.ssf/2015/08/dolphin_in_south_river_awes_dozens_of_spectators.h tml#incart_most-read_ocean_article)

[buckethead]

I remember when they were in the shrewsbury. They became a daily tourist attraction with scores of people at the bulkheads watching and taking pics. Seeing them that far up the raritan seems kind of unusual. There must be a lot of bunker in that river at this time.

[seamonkey]

Dolphins came into Hereford inlet and were crusing around the back a few years ago. I think it was in the fall.

[basshunter]

One in waack creek. This is the earliest I have ever heard of them in the spring. Anyone else remember earlier?
http://patch.com/new-jersey/holmdel-hazlet/dolphin-keansburg-creek-police-confirm-0