When science and sentiment collide, the result is what has been playing out at the Jersey shore since June: A battle over whether wild animals need humans' help to survive, or whether they should be left alone to let nature take its course.
"They're like children," said Marlene Antrim of Hazlet, who has circulated "Save The Dolphins!" fliers in businesses near the Shrewsbury River, north of Asbury Park and the central Jersey shore. "They're frightened."
Three dolphins have died so far, and only five of the original 16 remain in the Shrewsbury. It is unclear what happened to the other eight. Officials with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration say it's possible they left the river on their own and returned to the open sea, but they have no way to know for sure.
The agency says trying to move the remaining dolphins is risky and probably wouldn't work. Critics fear a repeat of 1993, when four dolphins died in the river when ice closed in on them and they drowned.
"There is a very strong connection a lot of people feel with the animals," said Teri Frady, a spokeswoman for NOAA. "If you believe that these animals are trapped or can't get out, then I can completely understand why people want us to move them. Our real job is to help people understand that we don't think they're trapped, and that actually trying to move them can cause fatalities rather than improving their prospects for survival."
Antrim berated federal officials for refusing to allow marine mammal rescue groups to either coax, scare or carry the dolphins back out to sea.
"I wish they would spend a night in that river and feel how cold the water is," she said.
This isn't the first time emotions have run high over perceived threats to wild animals and whether or not to try to save them. In June 2001, a 50-ton right whale dubbed "Churchill" became tangled in fishing gear in the Atlantic Ocean off Massachusetts, spurring a three-month rescue effort that included seven unsuccessful tries to save the animal.
Rescue groups and the federal government spent more than $250,000 on the effort, which failed when Churchill died that September.
Frady was part of the NOAA handling of that case, as well.
"This went on for months and months," she said. "People from all over the world were calling about the whale."
The phenomenon isn't solely an American one; in 1985, the Soviet Union sent an icebreaker to free thousands of white beluga whales that had become trapped by ice in the Senyavin Strait, about 130 miles from the Alaskan coast. Helicopters and experts were brought in, and local villagers brought frozen fish to feed the whales.
Royal navy divers in England freed a humpback whale from fishing gear in 2006 near the Isle of Skye, and just before Christmas last year, dozens of volunteers in McBride, Canada spent a week digging a passageway through snowdrifts to rescue a pair of starving, ice-covered horses stuck on a mountain.
Earlier this month, NOAA said it expects some or all of the last five New Jersey dolphins will either die or strand themselves as winter progresses. They said that is a natural phenomenon that should be allowed to play itself out, even if the remaining animals perish.
"Unfortunately we can't save every animal," said Mendy Garron, coordinator of NOAA's Northeast Regional Stranding Network.
Frady said the Marine Mammal Protection Act is designed "to protect the dolphins from human intervention, not to protect them from nature."
The controversy began almost as soon as the dolphins showed up in the Shrewsbury and Navesink rivers in early June. They delighted onlookers, hundreds of whom crowded riverbanks to watch them chow down on bait fish, and occasionally leap out of the water and land with a dramatic splash.
Dolphin sightings in the Shrewsbury go back as far as the 1980s. But never before had this many dolphins called the river home.
Groups like the Marine Mammal Stranding Center in Brigantine recalled the 1993 deaths, and began calling on NOAA to authorize a rescue attempt before last year's July 4 holiday brought heavy boat traffic to the river, drawn by a huge fireworks display.
"They (NOAA) have been saying the same thing all along: They're fine, they're happy, leave them alone," said Bob Schoelkopf, co-director of the stranding center. "Well, they're not. Three of them are dead already. We started out with 16; now there are five."
But many scientists say the dolphins have to be left to their own devices and instincts.
"From past attempts to rescue these animals, there has been more harm done to the animals," said Thomas Armbruster, director of the Sandy Hook Sea Life Foundation. "These animals should be left alone."
Frank Baran, a local resident who sometimes stops by the river to look for the dolphins, agrees.
"They know what they're doing," he said. "They've been here a long time, and they'll be around for a long time."
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On The Net:
NOAA NJ dolphins' Web site: http://www.nefsc.noaa.gov/njdolphins
Marine Mammal Stranding Center: http://www.marinemammalstrandingcenter.org
