NEWPORT BEACH Investigation begins in dolphin death...

NEWPORT BEACH

Investigation begins in dolphin death

Three marine mammal experts and nine Orange Coast College Marine

Biology students performed a necropsy on a dolphin that was found

washed up on Lido Island Dec. 3. Researchers will freeze muscle and

skin samples until they can raise enough money to send them away for

analysis and determine a cause of death.

The dolphin was the younger of two dolphins that spent more than

three months feeding inside the Back Bay. An adult dolphin was found

in September, but researchers said its body was too deteriorated for

any post-mortem analysis.

The younger dolphin was buried Friday next to the other one, near

the Upper Newport Bay Science Center in Newport Beach.