Have dolphins found a playground in Dagupan City’s coastal waters?

This raised some speculations after two dolphins with bullet wounds were found beached, last May 27, even as three more were sighted swimming from a distance.

One later died while the other managed to return to the sea after being treated.

According to Dr. Westly Rosario, Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) center chief here, Emma Molina, the city agriculturist reported to him about one wounded dolphin which was kept inside an empty fish cage in Bonuan Sabangan here.

Rosario quickly instructed aquaculturist Rocky Ferrer, who was trained and knowledgeable about caetaceans (whales and dolphins), to look into the dolphin’s condition and to provide the necessary medical aid.

After treating the bottle-nosed dolphin (Stenella longinostris), grayish in color, with whitish belly and about four feet long, it was brought back to the sea and swam away.

But based on the account of a certain Charlie Dacanay, a beachgoer, he had seen a total of five dolphins early in the day.

Later in the day, another wounded dolphin bearing bullet wounds was brought in to the BFAR center in Bonuan Binloc by the maritime police. It was believed to be part of the group of five dolphins sighted along Bonuan area that day.

But the second dolphin died even before the wounds could be treated. It was later buried inside the 500 square-meter “whales and dolphins cemetery” inside the BFAR compound.- EVA

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