Pacific Spirit Marine Institute
Sunday, June 15, 2008
It is still a mystery why the dolphins stranded in southwestern England near Cornwall on Monday. Some scientists say the deaths look like a “mass suicide”.
Those examining some of the dead dolphins found they had swallowed and inhaled big chunks of mud from the estuary. Vic Simpson, founder of the Wildlife Veterinary Investigation Centre in Truro says, “Their lungs and stomachs were full of it. That is very bizarre indeed.”
Sometimes dolphins will chase a shoal and become stranded when the tide goes out. That theory has been eliminated in this case because their stomachs weren’t filled with fish.
Don’t blame the Royal Navy although they have admitted to using sonar in the area just 14 miles from where the dolphins stranded themselves. The Royal Navy said in a statement it was considered “extremely unlikely”that the operation had affected the mammals. 14 miles from where the dolphins came ashore is not very far considering the common dolphin has been clocked at 23.6 mph at an underwater speed.
In 1996 twelve Cuvier’s beaked whales stranded themselves along the coast of Greece. NATO was testing active sonar in the area. In 2002 acute gas-bubble lesions, indicating decompression sickness, was found in whales that beached after the start of military exercises off the Canary Islands. 17 whales beached as a result of a sonar trial by the U.S. Navy near the Bahamas in 2000, the dead whales were found to have acoustically-induced hemorrhages and bleeding in their ears and eyes. These are only a few examples.
Last year 152 dolphins washed up on the coast of Iran. Of course there were no navy vessels from any nation in the waters off Iran…none that would admit to it anyway. Iran blamed the U.S. for the deaths of the dolphins. Maybe these dolphins were caught trying to defect from the Iranian navy. Check out this interesting story about Russian trained killer dolphins being sold to Iran.
In any case it is highly unlikely the use of sonar in the area did not cause these dolphins to strand. More than 40 of them came ashore in 4 separate locations at about the same time in the morning. Some swam up the Percuil River.
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Madagascar has found themselves with at least 55 dead dolphins washing ashore and more than 100 stranding, around the same time as the ones in the U.K.
In several reports Herilala Randriamahazo, from the Wildlife Conservation Society has said,”This is the first time that Madagascar has seen such sea animals.” Someone from the environment ministry said the dolphins had created a stir.
Foko-madagascar.org’s Harinjaka says, “the Malagasy population have a special bond with Dolphins.” “We don’t hunt or eat dolphins because our traditions tell stories of dolphins saving fishermen from drowning at seas.”
The dead melon-headed whales, a species of dolphins were first spotted at sea last month. Then, for some reason they beached last week.
An Exxon-Mobil ship is said to have been conducting seismic surveys in the area, and left Antsohihy port on June, 2nd on June 4th as many as 40 dead dolphins were seen stranded in the mangroves about 600 km from the capital. 100 or more dolphins have been stranded in the Northwest region of Madagascar last week.
Photograph: BarryBatchelor/PA
Photograph #2: Harinjaka
Labels: Dolphin, England, ExxonMobil, Killer dolphins, Madagascar, Royal Navy, Sonar, U.K., stranded
© 2009, Pacific Spirit Marine Institute.
26 Dead Dolphins; More Than 40 Stranded In U.K. 55 More Dead Dolphins In Madagascar.
Sunday, March 16, 2008
A mother pygmy sperm whale and her calf became confused on Monday and repeatedly became stranded on Mahia beach.
Just when Malcolm Smith, a New Zealand Conservation Department officer was thinking all would be lost, he received help for a familiar Mahia beach local. That local’s name is Moko, a female bottlenose dolphin.
Smith said he as he became cold, wet and tired Moko came to the rescue of the two whales. She seemed to communicate something to them and then guided the whales to safety.
Smith thinks Moko’s intervention with the whales did make the difference between life and death for them. Smith had tried to push the pair back out to sea, but they were having nothing to do with that action.
Moko is best known for playing with local swimmers and pushing kayaks through the water with her snout.
Smith said the dolphin made contact with the whales and “basically escorted them about 200 yards parallel with the beach to the edge of the sandbar. Then she did a right-angle turn through quite a narrow channel and escorted them out to sea.”
The two haven’t been seen since Monday but, Moko is back to her playful antics.
Watch this video of Moko the hero.
Labels: Dolphin, New Zealand, Whales, stranded
© 2009, Pacific Spirit Marine Institute.
Moko The Dolphin Saves Stranded Whales. Dolphins speak Whale?
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
China, China China. What am I to think of China. With all the bad news, bad products and bad feelings swirling around China these days suddenly and inexplicably the rare white dolphin has been filmed in the Yangtze River.
The little guy that spotted the, thought to be extinct, rare white dolphin said he had never seen such a large creature in the river before so he filmed it.
What a stroke of good fortune coming on the heels of all that bad fortune. Good fortune on all accounts in fact. China needed some good news to send to the rest of the world.
Good fortune that seemingly the only fellow to see the rare white dolphin, thought to be extinct happened to have a video camera handy.
Good fortune with Beijing hosting the 2008 Summer Olympics they will now be able to sell Olympic accouterments sporting the rare white dolphin. You may remember the white dolphin being sported on everything from ball caps and coffee mugs to kites during the Hong Kong handover celebrations in ‘97.
Good fortune that after not seeing hide nor hair of the rare white dolphin for years and after a top notch team of Zoologists spent an intense and unprecedented 6 week search for the rare white dolphin and came up empty.
The last time the dolphin had been spotted was in 2002 the same year the last baiji, rare white dolphin, died in captivity. The elite survey team including the US, Britain, Japan and China failed to site or find any evidence there were any surviving baiji.
The baiji as the Chinese call it numbered more than 5,000 less than one hundred years ago. Experts say there needs to be at least 50 to keep the gene pool from degenerating and the rare dolphin from going extinct after an illustrious run of more than 20-million-years.
The white dolphin had no enemies in its natural habitat save man who created devastating pollution, illegally fished, and ran them down with ships…
Good fortune for the Chinese indeed…color me dubious, but ever hopeful.
The timing of the sighting of the white dolphin couldn’t be better as Hong Kong Dolphinwatch, a commercial dolphin watching tour company entices tourists to tour their dolphin habitat.
“Welcome to the Year of the Dolphin!
2007 is also the 10th anniversary of Hong Kong’s reunion with Mainland China. Chinese White Dolphins here were made the official mascot of the 1997 Handover; ten years have passed, how are those mascots doing today? What has Hong Kong done to protect them? Can anyone say that we have done enough to eliminate the threats that they have been facing? What does the Hong Kong Government have in mind for their future?”
“Hong Kong Dolphinwatch has been dolphin watching since 1995 and witnessed the changes before and after the Handover. We hope we will have the chance to take you to our dolphins’ habitat and show you the remaining population of our lovely threatened pink dolphins, and let us tell you what our answers to the above questions are.”
Labels: China, Chinese, Dolphin, Rare, White Dolphin
© 2009, Pacific Spirit Marine Institute.
Rare Chinese White Dolphin Thought to be Extinct Maybe Alive After All!
