NEW YORK, N.Y. - A marine biologist says an aging dolphin that was stranded in a polluted New York canal and died there was ill and might not have survived anywhere.
Kim Durham of the Riverhead Foundation for Marine Research and Preservation on Long Island conducted a post-mortem exam of the wayward mammal. She says the dolphin suffered from a series of chronic conditions: stomach ulcers, kidney stones and parasites.
Durham says the 7-foot (2.1-meter) male weighing about 340 pounds (154 kilograms) struggled before it died on Friday in Brooklyn's Gowanus Canal, splashing around and shaking black gunk from its snout. The canal is a Superfund site, where for years factories and fuel refineries operated.
The dolphin likely entered the canal from the Atlantic Ocean and got pinned at low tide.
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