Sore skin (Image: Mark P. Coter)

DOLPHINS in California aren’t happy. Some 90 per cent of bottlenose dolphins in Monterey Bay are suffering from an outbreak of skin lesions – and nobody knows why.

Between 2006 and 2008, a team led by Daniela Maldini of Californian research organisation Okeanis found that of 147 identifiable adult dolphins and 42 calves living in the area, 133 adults and 30 calves had skin lesions (AMBIO: A Journal of the Human Environment, DOI: 10.1007/s13280-010-0066-8).

Five different conditions were identified, with the most common being lesions similar to those caused by poxvirus, which affected 142 …