GULFPORT — Federal officials involved in the investigation of the deaths of dozens of baby dolphins along the northern Gulf said Wednesday that they are certain now that a portion of the infants were stillborn -- that their mothers did not carry them to full term.

Blair Mase, the Southeast Regional Stranding Coordinator, said they don’t have all the data and they are still collecting bodies.

But she said, “We know for a fact that a portion of the calves that washed ashore, especially the ones in January or early February, were stillborn.”

She said, “It’s a very important distinction, to know what stage these animals were in when they died, whether they were pre-term and aborted or whether they were born.”

She said it’s a clue to what was going on with the mothers during the birthing cycle.

However, she said they have no fresh carcasses of female dolphins that had just given birth.

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