Photo by Rudi Riet.

A Smithsonian scientist has joined the probe into why a higher than usual number of dolphins are dying in Virginia. Charles Potter of the National Museum of Natural History was part of the team that investigated a similar spike in dolphins deaths in 1987.

The Virginian-Pilot reports:

The stranding response team of the Virginia Aquarium & Marine Science Center believes it caught the developing epidemic early, largely because of measures put in place after more than 750 dolphins washed up dead on the East Coast in 1987. After three years of research, morbillivirus, similar to the agent that causes measles, was deemed the culprit.

“We think we’re getting the very beginning of this event,” said Charley Potter, marine mammal collection manager at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. “I think we’d all like to see it be a minor hiccup and go away, but I’m afraid it’s going to continue on until the animals migrate south.”

Staffers at the aquarium have not pinpointed a cause of these deaths, but the epidemic a little more than a quarter-century ago left them with a slew of data and, more important, stranding response teams along the East Coast. “Back then, we were wandering lost in the wilderness,” Potter said. “We’re still in the wilderness, but we have an idea of where we’re going.”

This year, 103 dolphins have washed ashore in Virginia, while 15 dolphin corpses have done the same in Maryland.

The team is currently studying the bodies of the dolphins, who are mainly juvenile males. Potter told the Virginian-Pilot the necropsy results will not be in for a few months.