Nation IN BRIEF : NEW JERSEY : Prospects Dim for Rescuing Dolphins

Hopes dimmed for saving several dolphins trapped in a frozen river near Sea Bright, N.J., after a four-day rescue mission failed again. The rescue effort tugged on the heartstrings of workers and onlookers, who worried that the four bottlenose dolphins--which must breathe air to survive--would drown in the Shrewsbury River. One of the dolphins had died by Wednesday, when New Jersey Marine Police and U.S. Coast Guard vessels repeatedly cut through ice to clear a path to open water. Rescue workers planned to continue searching today, though they said little chance existed of finding the dolphins alive in the salty, frigid water. Attempts to herd the group to open waters using a makeshift net strung between two boats failed when a fast-moving ice floe kept filling in channels cut for the mammals to swim through.