Beached dolphin dies from bullet wounds

DAGUPAN CITY — Two bottle-nosed dolphins, both bearing old bullet wounds, got beached here last Saturday, although one died hours after it was found and the other released back into the sea after being treated.

The dead dolphin was later buried in a 500-square meter "cemetery" which the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources had purposely put up for whales and dolphins inside its compound here.

Dr. Westly Rosario, chief of the BFAR center here, said the two dolphins were part a pack of five, which a beachgoer claimed he saw in the city’s coastal waters.

The bottle-nosed dolphin (Stenella longinostris) released back into the sea was described as about four feet long.

Dolphins and whale sharks have been sighted off this city and the towns of Binmaley, Lingayen and San Fabian.