The dolphin death toll along the New Jersey coast recently topped the century mark as the record for total dolphins washing up in the Garden State shattered the old record.
A dolphin washed up by the Brigantine seawall Thursday morning bringing the total number of dolphin deaths for this season to 103, officials with the Marine Mammal Stranding Center told NBC40.
The old stranding record of 93 was set back in 1987.
A bottlenose dolphin that washed up last month tested positive for morbillivirus, a form of measles, but officials are hesitant to declare an outbreak as they are unsure if that's what killed all of the dolphins.
"...Because of the size of it right now, everybody's making that link at this point, but that is not a confirmed diagnosis or cause of this event at this point," National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Marine Mammal Stranding Coordinator Teri Rowles said.
The deaths, however, have been declared an "unusual mortality event" possibly caused by a virus, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
New Jersey is pitching in on efforts to research the cause of the deaths by sending an aircraft to look for stranded dolphins in the ocean and paying for testing.
So far, more than 500 dead dolphins have washed up along the Atlantic Coast this year.
