A 4-foot-long dead bottlenose dolphin washed ashore on Kuakata sea beach in Patuakhali last afternoon (1 October).
It was found in the Gangamati Lake area, 6 kilometres east of the Zero Point of the beach.
“Due to the high tide, the Bay of Bengal was somewhat rough, and the dolphin washed ashore with the waves. Its entire skin has peeled off. Some parts of its body have decomposed, and the stench makes it difficult to approach,” said Raju, who spotted the dolphin.
“It seems to have died three-four days ago,” he added.
Abul Kalam Azad, the Mohipur range officer of the Forest Department, said, “As soon as we received the news, we dispatched our team and took immediate steps to bury the dolphin.”
Bakhtiar Uddin, an associate researcher from the Ecofish-2 Bangladesh project under WorldFish, said, “Ecofish has been investigating the causes of dolphin deaths for a long time. No traces of poisoning have been found in the stomachs of these dead dolphins.”
He added, “It is initially believed that the deaths are due to fishing trawlers, the negligence of fishermen, and the increasing amount of plastic pollution in the sea, which is deteriorating the environment.”
