Around noon on July 4, 2026, local residents found an Indian Ocean humpback dolphin (Sousa plumbea) and an Indo-Pacific finless porpoise (Neophocaena phocaenoides) dead at separate locations on the Kozhikode beach in Kerala. Alerted by the public, officials recovered the carcasses for a post-mortem examination. The necropsy of the roughly 200-kg dolphin, an endangered species on the IUCN Red List, revealed something alarming. Its stomach was empty, while most of its organs were functioning normally, but a nearly 2 kg plastic fishing net was found tightly lodged in its oesophagus, disrupting normal feeding and leading to its death.“It might have accidentally ingested the net while feeding on marine prey, but was unable to regurgitate it. We believe the net was originally in the stomach. As fermentation produced gas, the plastic twisted into a ball under pressure and was forced into the oesophagus,” says K.M. Manojlal, chief veterinary officer, District Veterinary Centre, Kozhikode, who conducted the necropsy.

Workers and officials prepare to conduct the necropsy of the Indian Ocean humpback dolphin that washed ashore in Kozhikode on July 4, 2026.

| Photo Credit:

K. RAGESH

The post-mortem of the approximately 80-kg Indo-Pacific finless porpoise suggested it most likely died of suffocation, probably following an accident such as an entanglement in a fishing net.Human-induced stress on marine ecosystemAccording to experts, the recent marine mammal deaths underscore the growing impact of human-induced pressures on the marine ecosystem along India’s coastline, with plastic pollution, ‘ghost nets’, and entanglement in fishing gear emerging as major threats.Marine mammal strandings have remained relatively high along the Indian coastline in recent years. According to data from the Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (CMFRI), Kochi, 171 strandings were recorded in 2024 and 161 involving 14 species in 2025. Among the States, Goa recorded the highest number of strandings in both years, 87 in 2024 and 113 in 2025, followed by Kerala (29 and 15, respectively). Tamil Nadu recorded 14 strandings in 2024, while Maharashtra reported 11 in 2025.A portion of the plastic net retrieved from the dolphin’s oesophagus