Deceased Dolphin Washes Up at Mecox Cut

Editor's Note: This article was updated at 11:05 p.m. April 13 with additional details.

A juvenile dolphin was discovered washed up in Bridgehampton near the Mecox Cut on Saturday morning, in between Flying Point Beach and W. Scott Cameron Beach.

Southampton Town Trustee Bill Pell came across the deceased dolphin, and he called the Southampton Town Bay Constables.

Bay Constable Albert Tuzzolo responded. He said Saturday morning that the dolphin was about 50 feet from the water's edge.

There was damage to the dolphin's eye, which is apparent in photos provided by Pell and Tuzzolo. Tuzzolo said, “I couldn’t determine whether that was an injury that would cause death." The damage to the dolphin's eye could have been caused by birds after it washed up, he said.

In the course of his job over the years, he has seen a few washed up dolphins, but this one was the smallest, he said, between 3 and 4 feet long.

Tuzzolo said Pell reported the dolphin at 8:05 a.m. and he was on scene within 10 minutes. He contacted the Riverhead Foundation for Marine Research and Preservation, which performs necropsies on deceased sea mammals to determine cause of death.

He said he moved the dolphin about another 20 feet away from the water so, in case the tide came in, it would not be washed away before the foundation arrived to pick up the animal.

Barbara Bornstein commented on Southampton Patch's Facebook page that it appears to be a saddleback dolphin, and that identification is corroborated by the website nhptv.org. According to marinebio.org, saddlebacks are also known as short-beaked common dolphins.