
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, May 11, 1990                   TAG: 9005110112
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A9   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: The Washington Post
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

GULF-STATES DOLPHIN DEATHS SPARK PROBES

The largest cluster of dolphin deaths since the widely reported dolphin "die-off" along the East Coast in 1987 has sparked an investigation by federal scientists and environmentalists.

Since January, more than 300 dead or dying bottlenose dolphins have washed ashore in Texas, Alabama and other Gulf states, more than twice the number that would normally be expected to turn up on Gulf beaches over the same period, according to the National Marine Fisheries Service.

Scientists have yet to identify the cause of the dolphin deaths - most have been too badly decomposed to yield useful tissue samples - and the numbers are still far below the several thousand that are estimated to have died in the Atlantic coast episode.

Still, the unusual number of deaths has prompted inquiries into a range of possible causes, from an outbreak of the poisonous "red tide" algae implicated in the 1987 case to unusually cold weather to possible immune-system damage from toxic waste or other pollution.

by CNB