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.

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.”

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.

RIO De JANEIRO – The bright pink dolphins of the Amazon River as very docile, and gentle creatures. This unfortunately makes them easy pickings for the people who trap them using harpoons and nets, as they will simply nose up beside the fishing boats to say hello.

The sad fact is that their dead, dismembered bodies are now making appearances on riverbanks in numbers that are mind boggling. Their flesh has been used as bait, and the remains have been chucked away carelessly, with no concern for how this is going to affect the species. Researchers are warning that if something is not done soon, these dolphins may suffer the same fate as those in other parts of the world; extinction. “The population of the river dolphins will collapse if these fishermen are not stopped from killing them,” explained the top aquatic mammals expert at the government’s Institute of Amazonian Research, Vera de Silva, “We’ve been studying an area of 11,000 hectares (27,000 acres) for 17 years, and of late the population is dropping 7 percent each year.”

In plain English this means that somewhere in the neighborhood of 1,500 dolphins are hunted down and killed every year in Mamiraua Reserve of the Western Amazon, where da Silva studies these remarkable creatures.

Da Silva went on to explain that researchers first began to discover the discarded remains of these pink dolphins along the banks cerca the year 2000. They had obviously been struck down by human means, as they had been hacked and quartered, their flesh stripped away like so many a fish fillet.

The appearance of these dolphin carcasses are indicative that the killing of these dolphins is on the rise, the environmental agents and researchers say. The problem is so large in scope that the government has even admitted that there is a problem and something needs to be done about it. It is already illegal to kill these dolphins without explicit permission from the government – as is the case with all the other animals of the amazon. However, nothing is really being done in terms of enforcing those laws.

There are less than five full time environmental agents on site, which are supposed to be in charge of protecting the wildlife in the jungle region which spans across two-thirds of the Amazon. This area is two times the size of Texas, so it is no wonder that nothing gets enforced. The Brazillian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (Ibama), had this to comment on the situation, “It’s a matter of priority, and right now the government is focusing on deforestation, the killings of these dolphins exists – it’s a fact.” Although nothing has been said on what exactly is being done to rectify the matter.

The pink dolphin’s flesh is a popular commodity amongst anglers, as it is a rather effective bait for catching a breed of catfish in the area, known as piracatinga.

In order to survive until it becomes a skilled hunter, a shark pups is born with an enlarged “super liver” that functions as a food source for several months.

This new finding have surprised marine scientists, because shark pups were believed to suffer from a high mortality rate because they had to find food immediately after being born.

“They’re much more likely to survive when they’re born than we previously thought,” says Australian Institute of Marine Science researcher Aaron MacNeil.

Unlike live-bearing sea mammals like dolphins and whales, live-bearing shark mothers do not produce milk for their offspring. Until know, researchers assumed that the shark mothers didn’t invest much energy into keeping the offspring alive once it was born, but the new finding changes this perception radically. The shark mother is effectively sending her young off with a liver so packed with energy and nutrients that it keeps the baby fed for several months.

“It is likely that the liver reserves enable the newborn sharks to acclimatize themselves to their environment and to develop their foraging skills,” says lead researcher Nigel Hussey, “We know that large sharks use their livers as an energy store, but we had no idea that the mother provisions her young with additional liver reserves to enhance their survival.”

The research that led to the discovery was carried out by an international team of researchers headed by the Bangor University in Wales.

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.

Bottle nosed dolphins living along the coast of Florida are getting used to supplement their diet by snatching bait from fishing lines or circle recreational anglers practising catch-and-release. Some dolphins have even made a habit out of routinely approaching humans to beg for food.

Scientists at the National Marine Fisheries Service have now been able to show that this behaviour is spread down through generations of dolphins.

“We are able to document lineage, from grandmother to mother to calf, all following fishing boats and taking thrown-back fish,” says Jessica Powell, a National Marine Fisheries Service biologist.

Dolphins begging for food might be an endearing sight, but approaching humans in this fashion means taking a great risk. In 2006, three dead Sarasota Bay dolphins turned out to have fishing lures stuck inside them.

“Whenever animals become reliant on humans for food, it puts them at jeopardy,” says Dr. Randy Wells, director of dolphin research at Sarasota’s Mote Marine Laboratory. “If they are coming to boats or piers to get fish, they are swimming through a maze of lines, hooks and lures and those lines are designed to be invisible under water.”

Some dolphins do however seem to have figure out how to stay clear of harms way. A bottlenose dolphin nicknamed “Beggar” has been soliciting free meals in a narrow stretch of Intracoastal Waterway near Nokomis Beach since he was a juvenile 20 years ago. Despite routinely swimming just inches from boat propellers, the skin of Beggar’s 8 feet long body is free of major scars. Hopefully, the same is true for the inside of his 400 pound body.

As if the menace of razor sharp propeller blades, invisible fishing lines and jagged double hooks weren’t enough, bottlenose dolphins also stand the risk of encountering anglers who may not appreciate having their bait or catch snatched away by a hungry cetacean. A commercial fisherman out of Panama City, Florida has been sentenced to two years in prison after throwing pipe bombs at dolphins trying to steal his catch. Off Panama City, tour operators have been feeding dolphins for years to assure their presence at the popular “swim-with-the-dolphins” tours.

Feeding the Florida dolphins is illegal under both state and federal law, with federal law banning wild dolphin feeding in the early 1990s. Feeding wild dolphins can also be dangerous and the abovementioned “Beggar” dolphin has for instance sent dozens of overfriendly patters to the hospital for stitches and antibiotics.

Hand-feeding aside, a severe red tide in 2005 seems to have made the habit of interacting with humans for food much more widespread than before among the Florida dolphins. The red tide wiped out 75-95 percent of the dolphin’s usual prey fish and the hungry dolphins eventually realised that they could fill their bellies by picking bait fish off fishing lines.

“We suspect that the dolphins were
hungry,” Wells explains. “Their main prey
base was gone. Seeing a fresh pin fish
dangling from a line might look pretty
good to them. And once they learned
that anglers are a source of food, they
don’t forget that very quickly.”