The baby Bottlenose dolphin that was spotted Thursday about 11 AM was believed to have escaped the muddy creek at Cropsey Avenue and Bay 54th Street, known as the Coney Island Creek in Brooklyn, New York on Thursday evening. It mistakenly swam into the shallow creek when the tide was high and became trapped during low tide.

Officials had high hopes that the dolphin had navigated the creek back to safety after not seeing it come up for air again.

NYPD’s Elite Emergency Services Unit and the Harbor Unit crews removed a floating barrier, a build up of debris, like the one that was removed are used to help contain trash and debris in city waterways. “We removed that so he could make his way out, and we were told to let him be after that,” a police officer said.

The Riverhead Foundation for Marine Research and Prevention believed the dolphin to be healthy and swimming around, and with a viable escape route they had hope that it would survive.

Onlookers believed its fate had been sealed and that there wasn’t much chance of survival in those muddy and polluted waters. Aiding their dismal outlook was the fact that the dolphin had tried to beach itself earlier, and eventually disappeared from sight completely.

Sadly, Friday morning the dolphin was found dead around 11:30 AM.

The FDNY issued the following statement Friday: “Members of Rescue 5, Rescue 2 and the Scuba Unit were in the vicinity for pre-scheduled dive training incorporating new equipment purchased after Sandy when the Department of Environmental Conservation, which was unable to locate the dolphin, came upon it.”

It was then transported to shore and taken by the Department of Environmental Control (DEC), with the plan to perform a necropsy (autopsy) to determine the cause of death. A rep for the Department of Environmental Conservation said that the autopsy on the animal is an effort determine the cause of death but stated, “it looks like the dolphin was sick and loopy when it wandered into the waterway.”

Image via YouTube