While friendly close contact is essential to dolphin social bonds, sharing space and air can also quickly spread disease.
Mann and other scientists are trying to understand how a highly contagious and lethal disease called cetacean morbillivirus — related to measles in humans and first detected in Virginia and Maryland waters — can spread rapidly among dolphins along the Atlantic Coast, as it did from 2013 to 2015.from New York to Florida, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Dolphins are extremely playful animals and often swim close together, sometimes even touching fins. "We call it holding hands," said Mann, who alsoAlthough many people casually refer to a "pod" of dolphins, Mann dislikes the term, because it implies a stable group, like a pack of wolves. What she’s observed over 35 years of studying dolphins in the U.S. and Australia is that while dolphins have close buddies, they come and go regularly to check on others.
A trained eye can notice slight splashing on the water a mile away, or catch the glint of sunlight on a fin or tail. Because the Potomac runs through Washington, the researchers have named many dolphins for American historical figures. Outbreaks of the virus emerge here every 25 years or so. And they strike dolphins and their close marine relatives elsewhere, including some endangered whale species.
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