No explanation yet for stranded dolphins

Houstonist digs dolphins — no, not those — so we were sad to hear about the recent spate of dead dolphins washing up on Galveston County beaches lately. Thirty-five bottlenose dolphins have washed ashore since January, an estimated 26 of them in the last two weeks. "There were a lot of dolphins," a dispatcher for the Galveston County sheriff's office told The Galveston County Daily News. "They were coming in [Friday and Saturday], but the dolphin people took care of them."

Dolphin people? Oh, the dispatcher meant the Texas Marine Mammal Stranding Network, which said it's familiar with the problem: Dolphin strandings are common in the first three months of the year, though the network's Heidi Watts said they usually peak in February. Some of the dolphins that have washed up were newborns or very young and could have been stillborn or separated from their parents early; others that were older might have become ill in the cold winter waters. But overall, Watts told the Chronicle, no one's sure what the reason is for the sudden surge in beached dolphins — the number in the past two weeks is nearly double the number from the same period last year. "We've looked at every possible thing and we're not seeing anything out of the ordinary," she said.

Necropsies on the dolphins have shown that some of them had lung infections and others were affected by parasites; the network will also conduct tooth-aging examinations on the dolphins that could give more information about their deaths. The network has scheduled dolphin rescue training classes every 30 minutes from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. March 24 at 53rd Street and Seawall in Galveston; if you're interested, check one out. And if you see a stranded dolphin, call the network at 409.942.7034.