Dolphin found dead in Hutchinson River

County Police removed what appears to be a dead dolphin from the Hutchinson River near Glover Field in Pelham Friday.

The animal was seen by some local athletes who called authorities at about 3:45 p.m. County Police spokesperson Kieran O’Leary said Westchester County police and State Department of Environmental Conservation police were called to the scene.

“It probably somehow made it from the sound,” O’Leary speculated. The Hutchinson River does spill out into the Long Island Sound.

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Dolphins and whales are occasionally seen in the Long Island Sound, drawn to shore by large schools of fish, Joseph Schnierlein, of the Maritime Aquarium in Norwalk, told The Journal News last year.

"You can see them in as little as 15-to-20 feet of water," he said. "They have not been shy about coming in close to shore."

Last year a humpback whale made its way up the Hudson River and, in 2013, a dolphin was spotted struggling in the Hudson off of Stony Point, but O’Leary said it was the first time he had heard about a dolphin in the Hutchinson River.

"I’m with the county police 10 years and I don’t think we’ve had a dolphin in the river," he said.

The body of the dolphin had to be removed from the river by winch owing to the animal’s weight. Common dolphins can weigh 300 pounds according to an advocacy organization called Whale and Dolphin Conservation.

The exact species of the dolphin was not known. County Police secured the body overnight and turned it over to the DEC for a necropsy Saturday, in the hopes of discovering a cause of death.