UNCW Associate Professor Dr. Michael Tift, who is also the director of the marine mammal stranding program, said the 2026 bottlenose dolphin stranding total through only six months already exceeds the annual totals observed in most years following the 2013–2015 unusual mortality event of that species. This species accounts for a large majority of marine mammal strandings.
Dr. Tiffany Keenan is UNCW’s marine mammal stranding coordinator. She said scientists don’t yet know the causes of some of the more recent strandings of these young dolphins.
“But we do think it's partially environmental with this really cold year, the die off of the different fish that are prey for those guys, and being they're young, they can't move out of the area,” she said. “We've also seen a number of different illnesses come back on our pathology reports for these animals; we've seen bacterial, viral, parasitic, fungal, so it's the full gamut of diseases that we're looking at.”
Just last week, one of Keenan’s colleagues, assistant stranding coordinator Alison Loftis, responded to a bottlenose dolphin stranding out at Oak Island.
“It's on an oyster bed that can only be reached by vessel, and they are fighting the tide, so they had to run out at a moment's notice. And they'll collect some samples to test for these very things,” she said. “They'll collect skin and teeth for aging and genetics, and then they'll collect some lung and lung lymph [samples], and then some blowhole swabs, and different swabs of the mouth, and look for the different diseases that we're seeing to get some more information to nail down what the one cause might be.”
Another one of Keenan’s colleagues is investigating whether calves or juvenile dolphins have trouble seeing certain types of fishing gear.
Something else they’re watching is that they’ve had more reports of marine mammals swimming up the Cape Fear River and spending time there; some of them have even made it as far as the Neuse River.
“The salinity is very high, so there are also a lot of saltwater fish that are in there, going all the way up to 40 miles inland. So some of their favorite fish that they are chasing are going inland a little bit more,” Keenan said.
The UNCW stranding team recently responded to a beaked whale calf off Beaufort in May. Unlike the calf that stranded in Emerald Isle in 2023 because it ingested a balloon, Keenan said, “It seems that it may have just been an issue with birthing, which can happen. We know about 20% of calves will die just due to different issues with birthing, so it's not uncommon, but it's an uncommon species for us.”
UNCW studies on healing from shark bites, applications of the brain lymphatic system
It wasn’t until about a decade ago that scientists realized humans had a lymphatic system extending into the brain.
Keenan and other researchers, as published in the journal Animals and in Nature's Scientific Reports, found that dolphins also have this system; their research could have applications for human health, including respiratory problems such as sleep apnea and asthma, as well as neurological issues such as Alzheimer's.
To confirm that the brain lymphatic system exists in dolphins, she’s been collecting samples since 2021.
“Dolphins who hold their breath for extended periods of time, you would expect to see higher levels of these different diseases. We actually see lower levels. So, a) Do dolphins have this system? Check, [they do]. But then b) How are they making this work? What does this system look like compared to what it looks like in humans? [Dolphins] can hold their breath without creating these different plaques or these different neurological issues down the line, so that's what we're looking into next,” Keenan said.
A component of studying this dolphin brain lymphatic system, Tift said, is that dolphins sleep with half their brain, and “so this brain lymphatic system often gets activated during sleep. There's potential to learn from these animals to benefit human and veterinary medicine. Bottlenose dolphins can get symptoms of Alzheimer's disease, and so they are an excellent model for a large mammal that we can learn from in terms of understanding these debilitating neurological disorders.”
Keenan is also now working with the Office of Naval Research on a wound-healing study. She said dolphins can heal from some shark bites really fast, so now they're looking at how they do it. She said the military is interested in those applications.
Contact the stranding network, weigh in on their federal funding
The program gets a majority of its funding from the federal Prescott Stranding Response grant. Keenan said there’s an open comment period until July 13 for its continuation.
UNCW’s marine mammal stranding network encourages the public to call if they see an animal in distress or deceased by either dialing 911 or calling their hotline at 910-515-7354. They also encourage the public to report any sightings of manatees.
