Two dead bottlenose dolphins have been found on the coast of Changhua in the past two days, according to the Coast Guard Administration’s (CGA) local unit.
The CGA’s Central Coastal Patrol Office on Sunday said that its personnel at Lunwei Fishing Port in Lukang Township (鹿港) had found a marine mammal body along the seawall a day earlier.
The 2.2m, 150kg animal was identified by the Taiwan Cetacean Society as a bottlenose dolphin, the coast guard said.
Society members collected bone and tissue samples from the dolphin, and sent them to National Taiwan University for further examination to determine the cause of its death.
The dolphin was the second dead bottlenose dolphin found in Changhua in as many days.
On Friday, fishermen said they saw a dead dolphin near the bank of the Hougang River (後港溪) in Fangyuan Township (芳苑), 15km south of Lukang, the coast guard said.
The 1.8m, 200 kg dolphin was thought to have been washed ashore, the coast guard said.
It has been sent to National Cheng Kung University for examination, the coast guard said.
Experts from the society, who were called to Fangyuan, said that both of the carcasses were so decomposed that it was difficult to determine their causes of death.
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