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.
