
DATE: Saturday, June 21, 1997               TAG: 9706210326

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY PAUL CLANCY, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                    LENGTH:   89 lines

ALIVE AND WELL DOLPHIN'S EXTENDED VISIT SHOWS THEY CAN SURVIVE YEAR-ROUND IN INLAND WATERS.

Out on Broad Bay as it funnels toward Great Neck Road Bridge, Wendy Walton, a research technician at the Virginia Marine Science Museum, spots a splash of gray in the curl of a wave.

``Look! Is that the dolphin?'' she cries as she throttles down the museum's small research boat.

``Chuff!'' the animal replies as it surfaces nearby, then quickly dives out of sight.

``Yep, that's her,'' says museum curator Mark Swingle, who has come out to see if the animal, called simply the Broad Bay dolphin, is still in the bay after its unusual winter residency.

Friday's sighting was the first official confirmation - although many fishermen and residents have reported seeing it recently, - that the dolphin is alive and well and apparently still happy living and feeding in the bay.

And none the worse for the winter.

Unlike ``Rascal,'' the dolphin that was ``rescued'' from Broad Bay during the winter of 1989, this year's stay-behind creature, probably a female, was left to fend for herself.

It has proved to scientists that a dolphin can survive year-round in Virginia Beach's inland waters.

``Rascal'' inspired national media attention and attracted scores of visitors, including psychics who dangled crystals in the water to give it healing energy. News coverage translated into public concern and then public pressure to do something.

``The desire to rescue `Rascal' was as much the result of the public outcry as it was an objective assessment of thesituation,'' Swingle said.

The museum got Sea World marine park to capture the animal and fly it to Florida, where it was examined and pronounced in good health.

Dolphins normally migrate up and down the Atlantic coast, preferring southern waters in winter. The conventional wisdom was that the Virginia visitors went as far as Florida, but museum studies show that many of them go no further than the warm waters off Cape Hatteras.

But the Broad Bay dolphin apparently decided that food was plentiful enough to stick around, the departure of its brothers and sisters notwithstanding.

And now that they've returned for spring and summer, the dolphin has not yet taken the cue to join them.

Museum officials also assumed that with the increase in boat traffic, especially fast-moving personal watercraft, the dolphin would have even more incentive to leave.

The winter of '89 seemed colder because of heavy snowfalls and cold spells, but Swingle said water temperatures in the bay were about the same as those for last winter.

For warm-blooded animals like dolphins, he said, the critical question is not so much temperature as food supply: If they get enough food calories to stay active, they stay healthy.

The museum monitored the Broad Bay dolphin's progress all winter, sending teams, including occasionally a veterinarian, out to check on its condition. It seemed fat and healthy.

And it still does.

It seems only slightly curious about the museum craft, but keeps its distance.

``That's good,'' Swingle says. ``As long as it remains away from boats, it's got a lot better shot at survival.'' MEMO: The museum wants to keep track of the Broad Bay dolphin this

summer and urges people who spot it to report its whereabouts to the

Stranding Center at 437-6159. ILLUSTRATION: Photo

STEVE EARLEY/The Virginian-Pilot

Wendy Walton and Mark Swingle scan the waters off Cape Henry for

dolphins Friday. Scores of the mammals were there, many of them

babies with vertical skin folds, like those on newborn puppies,

striping their sides.

Color photos<

STEVE EARLEY photos/The Virginian-Pilot

A young dolphin, right, possibly less than two weeks old, gets a

nudge from two adult dolphins in the shallow water off Cape Henry,

also known as ``Dolphin Disneyland.'' Although chilly and turbulent