A dolphin that was stranded in a New Jersey river died Saturday.
The dolphin was first spotted Wednesday in the South River near Old Matawan Road in Old Bridge, New Jersey. Hundreds of spectators gathered to watch the dolphin swim in the river, located roughly 10 miles from the ocean.
On Thursday workers from the Raritan Riverkeeper organization went into the water with a Baykeeper boat and tried to gently push and guide the dolphin down the river but were unable to do so.
The dolphin moved downstream from the river overnight into Saturday but then ran itself aground halfway to the Raritan River, according to the New Jersey Marine Mammal Stranding Center.
Rescuers took the dolphin out of the water and tried to move it to a veterinarian but it died on the way there.
The dolphin appeared to be very old and its teeth were ground down to the nubs, according to Bob Schoelkopf of the Marine Mammal Stranding Center. It was taken to a pathologist for a necropsy to determine a cause of death.
