Bottlenose Dolphin

Rocko, Nando, Kite and Palwas.. Those are the names of four very distinct bottlenose dolphins who are currently turning tricks at the dolphinarium in Germany. The dolphinarium was constructed in 1974 as a part of the local zoo, and is one of the last three of its kind in Germany. There were originally nine such facilities in Germany, however, only Nurnberg, Duisber, and Munster are still fighting concerns of the various animal welfare groups, conservationists and even politicians.

Christine Bindal, and Arne Feurhahn, who are both co-founders of The Black Fish, a new ocean activist group, have recently made their way to Munster to see with their own eyes, exactly what is going on in Westphalian city. “Our aim is to shut this facility down as quickly as possible. Public education and constant pressure are our main strategies to get our four aquatic friends out of the miserable and unworthy conditions they live in”.

This motion all began about seven days ago, when the award winning documentary “The Cove” finally made its way to the silver screen. This documentary completely unveils the brutal yearly slaughter of dolphins in a secluded cave in Taji, Japan. Many of the dolphins which are reeled in in Taji end up in dolphinariums around the globe.

One can only hope that “The Black Fish” can raise awareness for the mistreatment of dolphins around the world, and finally something can be done about this horrible situation. Dolphins are intelligent creatures and really do deserve more respect that what we give them.

Otto the Octopus, an eight-armed resident of the Sea Star Aquarium in Germany, baffled his caregivers by deliberately short-circuiting an annoyingly bright light that shone into his otherwise cosy aquarium.

According to staff, the marine exhibition began to suffer from mysterious blackouts to which the puzzled electricians could not find any reasonable explanation. This prompted the aquarium staff to take shifts sleeping on the floor in hope of solving the mystery. “It was a serious matter because it shorted the electricity supply to the whole aquarium that threatened the lives of the other animals when water pumps ceased to work,” a spokesman of the aquarium explains.

During the third night, a befuddled aquarium crew found out the reason behind the incidents – an annoyed octopus that had realised that he could extinguish the irritating lamp by climbing onto the rum of his tank and squirting a jet of water at it.

“We knew that he was bored as the aquarium is closed for winter, and at two feet, seven inches Otto had discovered he was big enough to swing onto the edge of his tank and shoot out a the 2000 Watt spot light above him with a carefully directed jet of water“, says the spokes man.

Octopuses are clever and curious animals and they can easily grow bored in captivity. If you wish to keep an octopus, it is very important to constantly provide it with challenging tasks and things to explore to keep it happy and healthy. An octopus must also have suitable caves or similar in the aquarium where it can relive stress, carry out its natural behaviours – and hide from pesky lights. You can read more about octopuses in captivity here.

A carbon capture and storage facility has been built at the Schwarze Pumpe coal-fired power plant in Germany. The facility is built as a test to see how well the technology work and will be ran as a pilot project over 3 years. Another test facility will be built in France next year.

The carbon capture and storage facility uses a technique where coal is burned in pure oxygen and CO2 instead of regular air. This results is a by product of almost pure CO2 that can be collected and stored underground. The test facility in Germany is expected to capture up to 100,000 tons of CO2 each year. The CO2 is to be stored in a nearby gas field. The power plant the new carbon capture and storage facility has been built at produces 12 MW of electricity and 300 MW of thermal power which sustain about 1000 homes. The potential capture of 100,000 tons CO2 from this power plant alone might show the effect carbon capture and storage facilities might have on global CO2 emissions if they are found to be effective. Experts do however expect it to take a long time, at least 10 years, before this technology gains widespread use. Some experts also raise security concerns about the technology and the practice of burying large pure CO2 deposits underground.

It is claimed that this is the first carbon capture and storage facility in the world but I am unsure about this as Norway supposedly have been depositing CO2 underground for years. Anyone that can shedd some light on this is welcome to comment.

A large wells catfish tried to eat a football (soccer ball for you Americans) in the city of Würzburg, Bayern, Germany. The catfish couldn’t swallow the football and go its teeth stuck in the ball after biting down on it. It is believed that the wells catfish couldn’t get the ball out of its mouth again and suffocated. The catfish was a little over 2 m / 7 ft long.

You can see pictures of the catfish by clicking here. The article itself is in Swedish so it might not interest most of you.

Picture of weels catfish

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