Dead dolphin found at Al Dhakira beach

Picture courtesy of MoECC

A team from the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change (MoECC) has made an urgent intervention following a report of the death of a dolphin at Al Dhakira beach, the Ministry said in a series of tweets Friday. The team inspected the body and took the biological measurements of the animal and it found to be of 227cm length and 70cm height, MoECC said.

The animal is identified as a large, old male dolphin, the type of dolphin that is common in the Pacific and Indo-Pacific region. There were no signs on it that indicated it had collided with a ship or stuck in a fishing net. But it was found that the dolphin with a slender body has lost 7 teeth on each side of the jawbone and that indicates that it had died of starvation or old age. After completing the necessary measurements, the body was buried and the location was recorded so that it could be retrieved in the future.

The Ministry  called upon seafarers to report such cases as soon as they were spotted, to take the necessary measures and follow up actions on occurrences related to the marine environment in the State of Qatar.