Unusual Mortality Event of dolphins in the Florida Panhandle

2026, February 3. USA, Gulf of Mexico, off the coast of Levy and Citrus counties in Florida, USA. A large bolide. Time: Around 11:50 pm. Coordinates: (29°00'36.0"N 83°21'00.0"W) GLM detected. First notified by witness from Wakulla County 160 km away to the NW. Image: GOES Lightning Mapper (GLM). NASA’s All Sky Fireball Network logged this as Event 20260203-023717. The fireball was a fragment of an asteroid traveling at approximately 72,100 mph (32.2 km/s). It was first detected at an altitude of 56 miles over the Gulf, west of Bonita Springs, and travelled northwest for 100km before disintegrating roughly 45km above the ocean.

2026, March 7. USA, Florida Panhandle, Gulf of Mexico. More than a dozen dead dolphins have washed up along the Panhandle coastlines this month. The Florida Panhandle Marine Institute said they’re working with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) and National Marine Fisheries Service to investigate. We are told that most of the dolphins were found in Mexico Beach and Port St. Joe, with one also discovered in Walton County.

Important Points:

February 3, 2026 (11:50 PM): The bolide airburst occurs. This is offshore from the Big Bend (Levy/Citrus County's.

February 15–28, 2026: Scattered, individual reports of dolphin carcasses began appearing in the marshy areas of the Big Bend (closest to bolide event).

March 7, 2026: A major "spike" or cluster of 12+ dead dolphins is discovered in Mexico Beach and Port St. Joe (Florida Panhandle), roughly 200 km northwest of the bolide site.

Currents and Movement

Oceanographic data for the West Florida Shelf during February and March 2026 shows a consistent north-to-northwest flow. Surface Direction: During late winter, the nearshore currents along the Big Bend typically move water (and anything in it) toward the Apalachicola Embayment and the Panhandle. The Theory: If a pod of dolphins was acoustically disoriented or injured by the pressure wave at the bolide coordinates (29°N) in early February, the natural shelf currents would have helped guide or drift disoriented animals toward the Mexico Beach area (30°N) over the following weeks.

Japan cetacean strandings

There will be further data added to list. 

2025, August 19. Japan, Hokkaido, Urahoro. Species Name: Cachalot. Sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus). Coordinates: Long-Lat: (42.829063N 143.849480E). In a state of advanced decomposition. Body length: ~10m. Sex: Unknown.

2025, August 20. Japan, Hokkaido Hidaka. Species Name: Short-finned pilot whale (Globicephala macrorhynchus). Coordinates: (Long-Lat: 42.468305N 142.120956E). In a state of advanced decomposition. Body length: 573.5. Sex: M

2025, August 25. Japan, Hokkaido, Tomakomai. Species: Short-finned pilot whale (Globicephala macrorhynchus). Coordinates: (42.602420N 141.493814E). In a state of moderate decomposition. Body length: ~2m. Sex: Unknown.

Cetacean strandings since April 8

This list is incomplete due to information already covered and future data entry. There is also a continued stream of beaked whale deaths coming to shore in New Zealand. 

2025, April 8. Philippines, Pangasinan. Dead Irrawaddy dolphin.

2025, April 9. USA, Cape Cod, Chapins Beach. Dead dolphin.

2025, April 10. USA, North Carolina, Outer Banks, near Shad Street in Corolla. A dead female juvenile humpback whale washed ashore. The carcass floating in the surf moderately decomposed.

2025, April 11. Malaysia, Penang, Teluk Bahang beach, Straits of Melacca. The carcass of an Irrawaddy dolphin, was found washed ashore.

2025, April 11. Greece, Roda beach in North Corfu. Dead dolphin.

2025, April 12. USA, California, Hunington Beach, Pasea Hotel. A Gray whale washed ashore dead.

2025, April 14. Philippines, Nanay. Dead dolphin.

2025, April 13. Cambodia, Kampot, Boeung Touk commune, Bokor town, Kampot province. 3 Melon headed whales were rescued after stranding.

2025, April 15. Ireland, Donegal, Mouncharles Pier. A porpoise washed ashore dead.

2025, April 15. Hong Kong, Cheung Chau. A Indo-Pacific finless porpoise washed shore in advanced state of decomposition.

2025, April 16. Pakistan, Sukkur. An endangered Indus River dolphin, commonly known as the blind dolphin, was found dead near Gate No. 5 of the Sukkur Barrage.

2025, April 16. USA, Massachusetts, Plum Cove Beach in Gloucester. Dead dolphin.

2025, April 17. USA, New York, Queens, Rockaway Park. Dead dolphin.  

Seventh meteor airburst

Another Meteor Airburst in Africa region. This is the seventh airburst this year globally detected by NASA. Compared to last year it's 7:1.

Timeline of events.

2025, February 2. Namibia, Salambala Conservancy, 20 km south of Katima Mulilo. Airburst. Time: 16:30. Coordinates: (-17.7, 24.3). e = 4.0, -e = 0.13 or 130,000 kg/TNT.

2025, February 20. Namibia, south of Walvis Bay (Walvisbaai), Casita Roja, Hottentotsbaai Bay. A mass stranding of over 120 dusky dolphins. All died.

New event: 2025, February 22. Atlantic Ocean, 70 km west of Quinzau, Angola. Airburst. Coordintes: ( 6.9E, 12.1E). Energy: e = 3.5, -e = 0.12 or 120,000 kg/TNT.

Mexico Marine Animal Alert still in effect

Seeing the continued strandings on the Mexican Pacific coastal line is concerning. The airburst on December 20 has done considerable damage. I'm surprised there has not been a mass stranding of cetaceans, however, sometimes it can take months for them to come ashore. In this situation involving the time of year, the location of the incident and cetaceans' behaviour after injury concerning their orientation towards turning right it could very well be sometime before coming ashore. The alert still stands for this incident.  

Rescue efforts to save dolphins stranded on Tasmanian beach near Devonport. Update: 20240814 Fish deaths in Victoria

Six short-beaked common dolphins were found stranded in Tasmania at Hawley Beach, east of Devonport, around 9:30am on Tuesday.

This stranding is interesting because the atmosphere has been energetic since the July 3 fireball incidents. I looked at the data since and found that meteor activity was increasing. It's the most active for the region this year. Below is a snapshot of the sky on the 31 July. Unfortunately, I haven't any camera data from the 3 August onwards and the bad weather has seen blank cards so I will have to wait, maybe a week or more to find out any further information. Hopefully, something large has come in and was caught on one of the Victorian cameras. This is a great example of having real-time data to allow warnings for probable events? We need cameras around Tasmania and more cameras in the coastal regions of Victoria!!!!

Meteor Map – Fireballs Aotearoa

Rescue efforts underway to save dolphins stranded on Tasmanian beach - Pulse Tasmania

2024, August 14. Victoria, Port Phillip Bay. Hundreds of dead fish washed up on the foreshore of Capel Sound. It appears to have affected one type of fish species.  

2012 Peru dolphin die off

2011, January 8. Pacific. Airburst. Time: 19:38. (33.3, -125.8). e = 2.9, -e = 0.1. Altitude: 48km.

2011, February 12. Pacific. Airburst. Time: 11:00. (7.8, -95.3). e = 2, -e = 0.073.

2011, March 23. Pacific. Airburst. Time: 04:16. (-16.8, -85.6). e = 2.2, -e = 0.079.

2011, March 24. Pacific. Airburst. Time: 20:23. (0.6, -127.5) e = 5.8, -e = 0.19. Altitude: 59km.

2011, April 27. Pacific. Airburst. Time: 20:38. (1.4, -126.6). e = 22, -e = 0.61. Altitude: 28.7 km.

2011, August 4. Pacific. Airburst. Time: 07:25. (-40.7, -86.7). e = 2.8, -e = 0.098. Altitude: 63.

2011, October 12. Pacific. Airburst. Time: 07:13. (-26.4, -78.4). e = 3.6, -e = 0.12.

2012, January to April. Peru. Initially, 615 dead dolphins along a 135-kilometre coastline were discovered then 900 were cleared away. The death toll could be as high as 2,800, based on volunteer counts. Peru's massive dolphin die-off was among the largest ever reported worldwide. All of the 20 or so animals examined showed middle-ear hemorrhage and fracture of the ear's periotic bone, lung lesions and bubbles in the blood. A few dolphins at first were discovered every 150 meters, then every 10 or 20 meters. The first account of 24 dead dolphins came on Jan. 21 in Piura on the north coast, just south of the border with Ecuador, the same region where the 1,500 were reported by marine coastal reserve staff on March 10. Another 416 were counted in Piura on March 21. More than 870 were spotted in February and March on beaches in the Lambayeque region, south of Piura. Two species were stranded. About 90 percent are long-beaked common dolphins (Delphinus capensis), which swim close to the surface and had probably migrated south from Central America to feast on the abundance of fish in the nutrient-rich Humboldt Current that sweeps Peru’s coast. The rest are Burmeister’s porpoises (Phocoena spinipinnis), a deepwater species that moves closer to the surface to calve. All the Burmeister’s porpoises were recorded being pregnant or lactating females or calves. Also, since March some 4,000 birds, mostly pelicans and boobies died.

Fireballs (nasa.gov)

2018 Argentina dolphin stranding

2018, March 25. Argentina, El Doradillo, Golfo Nuevo, Península Valdés, Puerto Madryn. (42° 38’ S, 64° 58’ W). Northern patagonia. Protected Natural Area. 68 short-beaked common dolphins. 47 died and 21 were returned to sea. Of the dead 29 were male and 18 were female.

In the maps below is a bolide detected 8 days before the stranding. It was the only one detected after an airburst to the south over a year before that had an energy of 130,000 kg/TNT. The beaching was blamed on a killer whale attack. This was correct as observations of such behavior has been seen off Tasmania. The reason is that killer whales tend to run down animals in a vulnerable state. It wasn't a panic stranding, caused by atmospheric activity. If it was a split stranding (as seen), they would all be dead. The dolphins were survivors of an airburst event, with a large portion of animals dying before the stranding. The area in the South Atlantic was the most active on earth in the 6 months prior and post-stranding, with four events in the two months before the dolphins came to shore.

Bolide Home (nasa.gov)

Fireballs (nasa.gov)