Dolphins. Picture from aquariumposter.com

On February 21, three baby dolphins were found dead on the shores of Horn Island, and on February 22 the finding of a fourth carcass was confirmed by The Institute for Marine Mammal Studies (IMMS). This brings the amount of dead infant dolphins reported since January up to 18. Since the beginning of the year, 10 adult dolphins have also been found dead.

Located roughly 12 miles (20 km) south of Ocean Springs, Mississippi, Horn Island is one of several islands that make up the Gulf Islands National Seashore Park. National Resource Advisory employees are currently working with BP cleanup crews on the island.

Blair Mase, marine mammal stranding coordinator at The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is concerned about the high number of wash up dead dolphins.

“We’re definitely keeping a close eye on this situation,” says Mase. “We’re comparing this to previous years, trying to find out what’s going on here.”

We are now early in the birthing season for dolphins in the area, and so far, 18 bodies of baby dolphins have been found where the baby was either stillborn or died shortly after birth.

“We’re trying to determine if we do in fact have still births,” says Mase. “There are more in Mississippi than in Alabama and Louisiana. With the oil spill, it is difficult. We’re trying to determine what’s causing this. It could be infectious related. Or it could be non-infection. We run the gamut of causes.”

The necropsy of the dead dolphins will hopefully help shed some light on the situation.

A new species of dolphin has been discovered with a short, spoon shaped nose, and a high bulbous forehead. This new “balloon head” dolphin has been identified from fossilized remains discovered in the North Sea.

The Platalearostrum hoekmani was given its name after Albert Hoekman, the Dutch fisherman who stumbled across the skull of the creature in 2008.

These newly discovered dolphins can be up to eighteen feet long, and roamed the world’s oceans some two to three million years ago.

The remains of the amazing creature and a model are part of a fascinating display at the Natural History Museum Rotterdam.

Researchers from the museum, Klaas Post and Erwin Kompanie have gone on record in the journal Deinsea as commenting that the North Sea is a very rich source of fossils in recent years, and has become even more prevalent as fishing has become more common there.

The increase in fishing activity has yielded thousand upon thousands of fossils – many which cannot even begun to be classified.

The only thing which is clear at the moment is that the bone discovered by Mr. Hoekman is that the creature belonging to it is within the same family of aquatic animals known as Delphinids – ocean dwelling dolphins which actually encompasses killer and pilot whales as well.

Anything more descriptive than that is somewhat left in the air.

Based on research, and comparisons of similar fossils, scientists still think that the new species discovered is closest to the pilot whale in the spectrum.

The Black Fish, a conservation group based in Europe, have claimed that they cut some nets of holding pens in Taiji, and freed number of dolphins which were due to make their way to various aquariums and dolphinariums around the globe.

The group of divers, associated with The Black Fish, made their way stealthily out, depsite the rough waters, and cut open the nets of six pens which housed the dolphins. Lukily, no arrests were reported, so they seem to have gotten away with it.

The fishermen of Taiji are partaking in the yearly dolphin hunt which started the first of Septembet. The poor creatures are either sold off, or butchered for their meat.

Earlier on in the week, the well known activist whose exploits were featured in “The Cove”, Ric O’Barry, has reported that a number of Risso’s dolphins had been slaughtered by the fishermen. The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society just recently documented the slaughter of pilot whales and Risso’s dolphins.

This escapade by the The Black Fish is the first such act performed by the group this year. While it is vandalism, it is all for a good and just cause.

The co-founder of the Wietse ven der Werf had this to say about the matter: “The connection between the dolphin entertainment industry and this annual drive hunt can no longer be denied. To be successful in our campaigns in Europe we need to get to the root of this illegal trade, which is right at Taiji.”

Bottlenose Dolphin

The WDSF, The Black Fish, and ProWal, which all have been lobbying together to get a dolphinarium in Munster Germany shut down, are clinking their glasses today after an announcement was made that four of the dolphins of said facility are going to be going home by the end of 2012.

While it is not what they had been pushing so hard to get, any victory is a big victory. Considering that this is the first time such activity has actually given rise to action for dolphins, they have been lobbying hard and giving it their all for a few years now, the groups are not going to be looking the gift horse in the mouth.

Arne Feuerhahn, an activist with The Black Fish is hoping for the best: “We will find a respectful and acceptable solution for the future of these four bottlenose dolphins. Transferring them to another concrete prison is not one of them.”

The Munster Zoo, which has been the home of the dolphinarium in question, has given affirmation hat the dolphins will be released by the end of 2012.

This past week a dolphinarium in Hisaronu, Turkey also saw its doors being closed after a long process of lobbying by other animal welfare groups.

It looks to be a bright new world for dolphins, let’s just hope that these claims are true, and that there’s nothing fishy going on here.

Turkey

A dolphinarium situated in southwestern Turkey really attracted a lot of attention due to worries about the living conditions the dolphins were subjected to, to such an extent that the venue has been closed and the dolphins released after efforts from civil society organizations.

“This has been an intense but effective campaign but we will only feel truly happy when the [dolphins] are finally back in the wild. This shows how much can be achieved by a collaborative effort and people working together across the world with one collective aim: a real testament to the power of the people. With modern communications and clear aims, we have shown what can be achieved,” a representative of Dolphin Angels, Nichola Chapman commented this past weekend.

Dolphin Angels is just one of the NGOs, nongovernmental organizations, which lobbied to have the dolphins freed. The other NGOs which were involved in the efforts were Born Free, and SAD/DEMAG, and were locked in heated debates for months to have the dolphinarium shut down and release the dolphins.

The project proposing to close down the Dolphinarium and save the dolphins from their cruel captors was initiated by a group of Turks and British expats. By organizing themselves into the Dolphin Angels, and marching against the Dolphin Park, they managed to get many travel companies to stop selling tickets. Then finally the dolphins were freed.. Score one for the dolphins, score zero for the fat cat exploiters of the world.

The Cove promo poster

Japanese fishermen led a swarm of dolphins into “the Cove”, a cove which made quite a stir when released in an Oscar-winning documentary, however these Japanese fishermen did not finish the job, and no dolphins were slaughtered.

An inside source in the seaside village of Taiji, which was shown in “The Cove”, has commented that a select few of the dolphins herded were kept to be sold to aquariums, however the majority were set free Friday in the morning. No further details were volunteered.

The decision to let the majority of the dolphin go free is a far cry from the past practice of killing them all.

Sea Shepherd, the conservationist group, has been keeping close tabs on Taiji, with a tiny crew of activists this past week, and has been urging people to aid in the cause of saving the dolphins.

Dolphins swim in large groups, known as pods, in the ocean. The fishermen of Taiji round them up, by making noises which scare them, and lead them to the cove. They then go about selecting the best for sale, and promptly dispense with the rest, stabbing them repeatedly, until the waters run red with blood.

Hopefully this new practice of letting the rest go will catch on, and mother earth will no longer need to shed tears for her lost dolphin children. If the slaughters continue, who knows what will become of the poor dolphins, and the innocents of Taiji.

Yellowfin tuna, Thunnus albacares

You like to think you’re doing the world a favor, and doing your part by making sure that can of tuna you pick up at the supermarket is “Dolphin Safe”, however, have you ever stopped to think what it might be doing to other sea life?

To properly understand the conundrum, we first need to look at the underlying history of “Dolphin
Safe” tuna.

The story goes something like this.. Way back when, a bunch of environmental activists got together and exposed those nasty tuna fisherman for the vermins they were. They were reeling in record amounts of tuna sure. But how did they find the tuna? Truth of the matter is, there are really only two ways to go about looking to tuna in the sea; rigorously searching using sonar, boats, and planes, or following around the dolphins.

No one really knows why, but dolphins tend to be associated with huge schools of tuna. So whenever a group of these tuna fishermen went out, they looked for pockets of dolphins and cast their lines.. It worked. They brought in record amounts of tuna, but they were also harming the dolphins.

We got all worked up about the poor dolphins, so the fishermen had to get creative. They now use floating objects on the ocean surface to attract the tuna, and then circle around them with a bunch of boats and reel in everything in the circle using seine nets.

Well surprise surprise… The dolphins are now safe, however any number of other species are now being caught as by-catch in bigger numbers than ever! You see, it seems that most sea faring creatures are drawn to these interesting floating things in the ocean, as they’ve never seen them before.. They go in to investigate, and BAM! They are stuck too!

So, did we REALLY do a favor by introducing “Dolphin-Safe” tuna? The dolphin isn’t endangered after all, but some of the other sea creatures being reeled in now are.. So we saved one species, but put another 100 or more at risk of extinction…

You can read a more extensive examination of the problem by visiting Southern Fried Science.

Bottlenose dolphin

Tokyo (AP) – “The Cove”, an award winning documentary which exposes a Japanese village engaging in the acts of hunting down and killing dolphins, has finally made its debut on Saturday after being delayed by angry nationalist protests.

Of the six cinemas which started showing the film, a small number completely sold out, and the others were just plain empty. Another 18 cinemas are scheduled to show the film at a later time.

At a popular art theater in Tokyo, Image Forum, somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 protesters were seen brandishing Japanese flags, and were shouting out slogans against the film. The police were seen trying to stop shoving matches between the protesters and the small group of supporters for the film.

The film goers didn’t seem to take notice, and weren’t the least bit reluctant to go and see the film, as the first two showings at the theater were completely sold out.

One movie goer, Tomokazu Toshinai, had this to say about the film, “I didn’t know about dolphin hunting. Whether it’s TV or movies, Japanese have a right to know these things.”

In the last month, three other theaters which were scheduled to show the film canceled the showings, after some rather intense protests and telephone campaign against the documentary. The Nationalist groups are saying that the United States produced film is Anti-Japanese, has no bearing on reality, and is in cahoots with a militant anti-whaling organization.

The rare Gangetic dolphin (Platanista gangetica) has been declared National Aquatic Animal of India. A few days after the formal declaration, which took place at a National Ganga River Basic Authority meeting in New Delhi earlier this week, Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar announced that he has directed state authorities to put a halt to dolphin hunting in the Ganga.

“A close watch is being kept on the ghats of river Ganga by the magistrates, police officials and block development officers to stop hunting and fishing of the mammals,” senior officials said.

Patna District Magistrate J K Sinha said that instructions from chief minister has been passed
to senior officials, including sub-divisional officers, magistrates, police officers and block development officers to ensure close surveillance and act swiftly to stop hunting of the aquatic animal.

“Schools will take steps to aware the students about the gangetic dolphin which would

boost eco-tourism in the region,” he added.

Although the Wildlife Protection Act of India mandates dolphin conservation as a priority, little has been done at the government level to implement or enforce the law.

Where is Bihar?

Bihar is an Indian state located in the eastern part of the country. It is bordered by Nepal to the north, Jharkhand to the south, Uttar Pradesh to the west, and West Bengal to the east. The state is bisected by the Ganga River which flows through the middle of the state from west to east.

What is Ganga?

Outside India, the Ganga River is more commonly known as the Ganges River.

What is the Gangetic dolphin?

The Gangetic dolphine, also known as Ganges dolphin, Ganges river dolphin, Blind dolphin, and Side-swimming dolphin, is a dolphin endemic to the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna and Karnaphuli-Sangu river systems of Nepal, India, and Bangladesh. Its scientific name is Platanista gangetica and it is listed as Endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. The current population consists of 1,200-1,800 individuals, and roughly half of these are found in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.

It is referred to as the Blind dolphin due to its poor eye-sight which is probably an adaptation to the murky waters of the Ganga River.

This Sunday, a mile-long super pod consisting of over 1,500 dolphins was encountered by eight lucky Sea Trust volunteers off the coast of Pembrokeshire, UK.

The volunteers were doing a small boat survey when suddenly confronted with what they first thought was a blizzard in the distance.

“As we approached, we realised that the ‘blizzard’ was thousands of gannets* spreads out over a mile or more,” said Sea Trust founder Cliff Benson.

The enormous pod, consisting of adult dolphins and their offspring, formed a veritable wall as they hastily rushed thought the water, probably in pursue of fish.

“They just kept on coming pod after pod passing by the boat some came and looked at us but most just kept on going”, said Benson. “The gannets were like an artillery bombardment
continually diving in with an explosion of spray, just ahead of the line of dolphins.”

According to Benson, the pod was most likely the result of many smaller pods that had joined together to follow a huge “bait ball” of fish.

In August 2005, a similar super-pod was filmed off Strumble Head, and last weeks spotting of a second one has caused Benson to suggest that super-pods might be a regular phenomenon in these waters.

* Gannets are a type of large black-and-white birds.