Beached dolphin dies in the Saguenay

A blue and white striped dolphin, found stranded in a port the Saguenay River, died Tuesday afternoon after onlookers tried to help the animal.

According to local newspapers, the dolphin was spotted by employees of a Rio Tinto Alcan port around noon Tuesday. It was stranded and seemed disoriented, but it was alive.

The workers helped the dolphin back into the water, but soon after it beached itself again and later died.

"Many questions remain unanswered. Normally, dolphins live in groups. So why was he alone in the bay? In addition, it was plump. It did not seem to be sick,” Guylaine Simard, director of an area museum, told the local newspaper.

The animal will be sent to the University of Montreal’s Faculty of Veterinary Medicine in St. Hyacinthe for a necropsy.

• 

  A dolphin that beached itself on the shores of the Saguenay River died Tuesday afternoon. Photo credit: Twitter, Réseau québécois d'urgences pour les mammifères marins and Rio Tinto Alcan