McClatchy Washington Bureau

GULFPORT -- NOAA will give high priority to an investigation into the large numbers of baby dolphin deaths along the Mississippi and Alabama coasts, an official told the Sun Herald on Wednesday.

Since the first of the year, 24 stillborn or infant calves have washed ashore in the two states.

What’s happening here falls under the formal designation of an Unusual Mortality Event, which requires special scrutiny by a panel of scientists and experts, and gives high priority to samples collected from the dead calves, said Trevor Spradlin, NOAA’s national coordinator for Unusual Mortality Events.

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