‘Incredibly painful’ item was stuck in dead dolphin’s throat, NC researchers find

A 50-year-old bottlenose dolphin found dead in a coastal North Carolina creek was starving due to something “incredibly painful” stuck in its throat, researchers discovered.

“So, you know dolphin eat fish ... Have you ever wondered whether dolphins accidentally swallow fish that still have fishing lures attached? Unfortunately, it does happen,” the N.C. Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores wrote in a Facebook post.

“When the N.C. Aquarium Marine Mammal Stranding Team ... performed a necropsy, they discovered a fishing lure lodged in the dolphin’s throat, which must have been incredibly painful. It’s an important reminder to be mindful of your fishing gear.”

The 9.5 foot male was pulled from Blounts Creek in June and the necropsy also detected multiple signs of infection, suggesting a bacterial disease, according to N.C. Marine Mammal Stranding Coordinator Victoria G. Thayer.

“The stomach chambers were empty, likely because the fishing lure was blocking passage of any prey items,” Thayer said in an email.

Bottlenose dolphins can live up to 60 years and are a protected species in the Western North Atlantic, according to NOAA Fisheries. Common threats include biotoxins, chemical contaminants, disease, and fishing gear entanglements, experts say.

Blounts Creek “is a swampy, brackish” waterway in Beaufort County that flows into the Pamlico River, the Southern Environmental Law Center reports.

Beaufort County is about a 120-mile drive southeast from downtown Raleigh.

This story was originally published July 6, 2026 at 12:54 PM with the headline "‘Incredibly painful’ item was stuck in dead dolphin’s throat, NC researchers find."