West Side dolphin found dead at Chelsea Piers

The dolphin that took a swim up the Hudson River last weekend may have met a tragic ending.

Workers at Chelsea Piers found a dead dolphin at the marina early Thursday morning, according to an animal rescue crew that received numerous reports that a dolphin was swimming in the waters on Manhattan'sWest Side.

Kim Durham, the rescue program director for The Riverhead Foundation for Marine Research and Preservation, said she and her team could not immediately determine if the dead marine mammal is the same one that was spotted over the weekend, but she said she was upset that they couldn't get to the dolphin in time.

"We would have liked to have seen the animal and try and rehabilitate it," Durham said.

Chelsea Piers officials did not return calls for comment Thursday, but Durham said they were cooperating with the foundation.

An autopsy will be performed at the foundation's Long Island facility to determine the dolphin's cause of death, but Durham ruled out heat exhaustion.

"The animal was in the water and the heat doesn't affect them too much," she said.

The rescue expert, who has helped to save other dolphins that were found in New York waters, speculated that it could have been suffering from any number of ailments.

"Whether it be an infection, a virus or an injury, they start not eating and swim closer to shore," she said.

Durham urged anyone else who had seen the dolphin swimming in the Hudson to call the foundation's hotline, 631-369-9829, so her team can better understand what happened.