Weymouth's Danny the dolphin hit by a ship, post mortem confirms

It has been confirmed that the dead dolphin found in Portland Harbour this week was Danny the Dolphin.

Weymouth's resident bottle nose was found by members of Portland Port on Wednesday (28th October).

The Cetacean Strandings Investigation Programme carried out a post mortem. They identified him by the rake marks found his left fin.

During the examination other scars and features were found that matched Danny's. The examiner confirmed that he was hit by a boat and killed.

A spokesperson from the CSIP said:

"The findings from the examination carried out at ZSL yesterday evening are considered to be consistent with acute physical trauma, as a result of shipstrike.

"A deep penetrating laceration on the right side of the body behind the head and other injuries to the tail stock and dorsal fin were likely due to sharp force trauma following impact from a large propellor.

"The subadult male bottlenose dolphin otherwise appeared to be in good nutritional condition and no significant gross evidence of disease or ill health was noted.

"The dolphin had been feeding at or around the time of death, with a number of semi digested prey found in the stomach. Healed parallel linear scars on the left lateral body wall would also appear to be consistent with a prior historical encounter with a vessel and superficial interaction with a small propeller.

"Sadly, when animals become habituated to human and vessel presence, accidental encounters such as these can unfortunately result in serious injury or fatalities."