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.
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
When you care enough to give the very best, don’t call on Hallmark, call Willie Soon.
Senators John D. Rockefeller and Olympia Snowe have written a scathing letter to Rex Tillerson, CEO of ExxonMobil. Reading Tillerson the riot act, Rockefeller and Snowe are point blank accusing ExxonMobil of ‘longstanding support of a small cadre of global climate change skeptics’.
Hot words to be sure the letter goes on to say, …’ExxonMobil has helped foster the perception that the United States is insensitive to a matter of great urgency for all of mankind…’
The Senators call ExxonMobil’s support of the global warming ‘deniers’, dangerous.
Clearly the old saying, if you can dazzle them with your brilliance baffle them with your bullsh**, requires more than one astrophysicist ‘in pocket’.
So where is this all leading? It’s leading straight to the Hudson Bay in Canada and the Polar Bears that are skating on thin ice.
Congressman Brad Miller (D-NC) has sent a letter to ExxonMobil requesting ‘all records since 2002 related to their support for scientists working on polar bears and other Arctic animals.’
Miller, chairman of the U.S. House Committee on Science and Technology Subcommittee on Investigations and oversight is demanding that ExxonMobil explain just how it came to be that ExxonMobil funded an astrophysicist to research on polar bears!
“The subcommittee wants to understand how ExxonMobil decided to fund an astrophysicist to do research on polar bears,”
In 2006 Interior Secretary, Dirk Kempthorne announced the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service would begin gathering information and undertaking analyses before making a decision whether to add polar bears to the list of endangered species. In his announcement, Kempthorne, used the words ‘melting’, ‘receding sea ice’, loss of ice, decline of ice, thinning ice, reduction of ice and reduced ice. He pointed out analysis of what may be causing melting,receding, thinning etc. beyond the scope of the Endangered Species Act review process, and these things are discussed in ‘other’ analyses undertaken by the Bush Administration.
Kempthorne stated “our goal ultimately is to combine the best science available with the power of working hand in hand with states, tribes, foreign countries, industry, and other partners to minimize the threats to polar bears and conserve this great icon of the Arctic for future generations”.
The best science available, or in any case the best science ExxonMobil can buy from an astrophysicist.
In Miller’s letter to Tillerson, ExxonMobil CEO he points out that Willie Soon’s articles published in Ecological Complexity is a ‘viewpoint’ not a peer-reviewed scientific article. “To the lay person, this “viewpoint” is indistinguishable from a peer-reviewed journal article.
Miller asserts ExxonMobil should come clean, “If the Governor of Alaska and the Commissioner of the Department of Fish and Game cannot tell whether this paper is science or an elaborate editorial, what would a less sophisticated audience think?” “This essay, funded in part with ExxonMobil money is now a key exhibit for those who oppose a listing of the polar bear as threatened and deny that climate change is eroding the Bear’s habitat.”
Miller’s request has a due date of November 6, 2007…
Read the entire letter written by Sens. Snowe and Rockefeller to Tillerson at http://snowe.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=PressRoom.PressReleases&ContentRecord_id=9acba744-802a-23ad-47be-2683985c724e
Read the Department of the interior’s Dec.27,2006 press release at http://www.doi.gov/news/06_News_Releases/061227.html
Read Congressman Miller’s letter to Tillerson at http://democrats.science.house.gov/Media/File/ForReleases/miller_exxonmobil_response_01jun07.pdf
Photo Thanks pb-scott-schilebe-usfws.
Labels: Brad Miller, DOI, ExxonMobil, Global Warming, John D. Rockefeller, Olympia Snowe, Polar Bear, Polar Bear Memo, Willie Soon
© 2009, Pacific Spirit Marine Institute.
Global Warming and Polar Bear Reports: You get what you pay for after all!
Monday, November 5, 2007
When you care enough to give the very best, don’t call on Hallmark, call Willie Soon.
Senators John D. Rockefeller and Olympia Snowe have written a scathing letter to Rex Tillerson, CEO of ExxonMobil. Reading Tillerson the riot act, Rockefeller and Snowe are point blank accusing ExxonMobil of ‘longstanding support of a small cadre of global climate change skeptics’.
Hot words to be sure the letter goes on to say, …’ExxonMobil has helped foster the perception that the United States is insensitive to a matter of great urgency for all of mankind…’
The Senators call ExxonMobil’s support of the global warming ‘deniers’, dangerous.
Clearly the old saying, if you can dazzle them with your brilliance baffle them with your bullsh**, requires more than one astrophysicist ‘in pocket’.
So where is this all leading? It’s leading straight to the Hudson Bay in Canada and the Polar Bears that are skating on thin ice.
Congressman Brad Miller (D-NC) has sent a letter to ExxonMobil requesting ‘all records since 2002 related to their support for scientists working on polar bears and other Arctic animals.’
Miller, chairman of the U.S. House Committee on Science and Technology Subcommittee on Investigations and oversight is demanding that ExxonMobil explain just how it came to be that ExxonMobil funded an astrophysicist to research on polar bears!
“The subcommittee wants to understand how ExxonMobil decided to fund an astrophysicist to do research on polar bears,”
In 2006 Interior Secretary, Dirk Kempthorne announced the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service would begin gathering information and undertaking analyses before making a decision whether to add polar bears to the list of endangered species. In his announcement, Kempthorne, used the words ‘melting’, ‘receding sea ice’, loss of ice, decline of ice, thinning ice, reduction of ice and reduced ice. He pointed out analysis of what may be causing melting,receding, thinning etc. beyond the scope of the Endangered Species Act review process, and these things are discussed in ‘other’ analyses undertaken by the Bush Administration.
Kempthorne stated “our goal ultimately is to combine the best science available with the power of working hand in hand with states, tribes, foreign countries, industry, and other partners to minimize the threats to polar bears and conserve this great icon of the Arctic for future generations”.
The best science available, or in any case the best science ExxonMobil can buy from an astrophysicist.
In Miller’s letter to Tillerson, ExxonMobil CEO he points out that Willie Soon’s articles published in Ecological Complexity is a ‘viewpoint’ not a peer-reviewed scientific article. “To the lay person, this “viewpoint” is indistinguishable from a peer-reviewed journal article.
Miller asserts ExxonMobil should come clean, “If the Governor of Alaska and the Commissioner of the Department of Fish and Game cannot tell whether this paper is science or an elaborate editorial, what would a less sophisticated audience think?” “This essay, funded in part with ExxonMobil money is now a key exhibit for those who oppose a listing of the polar bear as threatened and deny that climate change is eroding the Bear’s habitat.”
Miller’s request has a due date of November 6, 2007…
Read the entire letter written by Sens. Snowe and Rockefeller to Tillerson at http://snowe.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=PressRoom.PressReleases&ContentRecord_id=9acba744-802a-23ad-47be-2683985c724e
Read the Department of the interior’s Dec.27,2006 press release at http://www.doi.gov/news/06_News_Releases/061227.html
Read Congressman Miller’s letter to Tillerson at http://democrats.science.house.gov/Media/File/ForReleases/miller_exxonmobil_response_01jun07.pdf
Photo Thanks pb-scott-schilebe-usfws
Labels: Brad Miller, ExxonMobil, Global Warming, John D. Rockefeller, Olympia Snowe, Polar Bear, Polar Bear Memo, Polar Bears, Willie Soon
© 2009, Pacific Spirit Marine Institute.
Polar Bears and ExxonMobil:You Get What You Pay For After All
