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Dolphin strandings remain a mystery

Creatures are dying on the Cape in huge numbers

By Brian MacQuarrie

 |  Globe Staff  

  February 17, 2012

Over the past five weeks, 178 dolphins have stranded on Cape Cod. Most have been dead, but the painstaking process of tending, hauling, and releasing the live ones is exacting a physical and emotional toll that grows greater every day. It is a toll made all the heavier because the reasons for the strandings remain a mystery. Despite all the blood samples, and the necropsies on the animals, known as common dolphins, researchers have no answers for the strandings.

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