“Recurring deaths of Amazon freshwater dolphins amid record-breaking drought”

Scientists are finding the carcass of a rare pink river dolphin almost every day in the Amazon Basin, an area now suffering from severe drought. Many of the animals are believed to have died after being hit by passing boats in shallow waters.

A dead freshwater dolphin lies washed ashore on a sandbank at Lake Tefé during Brazil’s worst-recorded drought. (Photo: Reuters)

On September 20, Miriam Marmontel, head of the dolphin conservation program at the Mamirauá Sustainable Development Institute (Brazil), issued a warning about the unusually high mortality of Amazon river dolphins.

Her warning came as scientists continued to discover the bodies of these endangered animals along the sandy banks of Lake Tefé. Last week alone, the research team recorded at least one death per day. At least two dolphins died from collisions with boats in shallow areas.

Marmontel explained that the prolonged drought in Brazil has dried up major tributaries of the Amazon River, shrinking the dolphins’ natural habitat while water temperatures have also risen rapidly. During a similar drought in 2023, more than 200 dolphins in Lake Tefé died under comparable conditions.

The most severe drought in the Amazon Basin since 1950 has placed the region’s ecosystem under extreme threat. (Photo: Reuters)

“No one expected this drought to come so quickly—or to be even worse than last year. Although the current death toll is still low, the dry season will last for more than another month. Water levels in the tributaries will continue to drop,” Marmontel warned.

Not only the dolphins but also communities across the Amazon Basin are suffering from this extreme weather event. Water levels have fallen so dramatically that boats can no longer move, leaving residents isolated. Their floating houses now sit stranded on dry sand.

“This is the first time my floating house has been completely grounded,” said Francisco Alvaro Santos, a fisherman on Lake Tefé. “Water is everything to us. It is part of our daily life and the main way people move around. Without water, we have nothing.”

According to Brazil’s National Center for Monitoring and Early Warning of Natural Disasters, this is the most intense and widespread drought the country has experienced since weather data began being recorded in 1950.