A friend of mine just bought a backpackers’ hostel in Zanzibar. It looks like just about one of the most gorgeous places on earth and I can’t wait to visit. Hopefully this mass dolphin stranding won’t have too much impact on their growing tourism industry.
And what a bummer about all the dead dolphins – mass strandings are a sad mystery. Does one dolphin flip out (hehe – pun not originally intended, but is now…) and the others follow in solidarity? Bizarre.
The bodies of more than 200 dolphins have washed up on the beaches of the Indian Ocean island of Zanzibar, in what experts say are mystery deaths.
Hotel owner Ahlaam Mehle told the BBC she found countless carcasses on the shore of the Tanzanian island.
The fisheries department has warned local inhabitants, who have begun to cut up the meat, not to eat it.
Dolphins are populous in the waters around Zanzibar and attract thousands of tourists each year.
“It is a very sad sight,” Zanzibar-based marine life expert Nariman Jidawi told the BBC’s Focus on Africa programme.
Hi
I am helping to make a film about whales and dolphins for international markets (and NGOs) and focusing a lot on strandings and why they occur.
I don’t suppose your friend has any images or footage of this particular huge stranding? It would be incredibly valuable for us to copy it.
Thanks
Jo Hastie