Are the dead porpoises on Scottish beaches more evidence of global warming?

[jus_the_facts]

http://news.scotsman.com/scotland.cfm?id=47902007

Climate change has resulted in a dramatic decline in the numbers of sandeels - a major part of the staple diet of the porpoises.

Marine scientists have recorded a significant rise in the percentage of porpoise deaths due to malnutrition. They are also becoming increasingly concerned about the impact of the declining sandeel populations on other species such as the bottle-nosed dolphin and the minke whale, believing this could jeopardise the future of Scotland's booming whale-watching sector.

The potential crisis was highlighted yesterday in a study by a team of scientists from Aberdeen University and the Scottish Agricultural College in Inverness, published in the Royal Society journal Biology Letters.

"It makes you wonder how many more hidden impacts of climate change there are for whales and dolphins that we simply did not expect to occur and so haven't taken into account when deciding on suitable conservation strategies."

Much more @ link

[NJCher]

1. dolphins dying in Long Island

There was a report on this this morning and it literally made me burst into tears.

The dolphins had been coming into a cove off LI. Families thought this was the greatest thing and were taking their kids to see them.

But then, like a Stephen King movie, it turned dark. The dolphins weren't leaving, so they taped them and learned they were making calls of distress. Then they started dying and autopsies showed they had starved. They had come into the cove because that is where the babies of whatever it is they like to eat procreates.

Yes, probably global warming but what about the giant sea trawlers that are sweeping the oceans clean of any fish?

And can you imagine what a defining experience this is for these children? Yes, republicans, what will we tell the children?



Cher

[YankeyMCC]

2. There's been a couple recent strandings on Cape Cod too nt

[jus_the_facts]

3. I posted that story as well....breaks my heart....

...found this story after looking for that one...the blurb it got on the national news had people telling their children it's just the natural way of things..circle of life and death...made me want to pinch the idiots head off because this is NOT normal. :evilfrown:

[YankeyMCC]

4. Letter from NE Aquirium on the Strandings

>From NEAq

Aquarium staff have been responding to dolphin strandings nearly
non-stop
over the past two and a half weeks. Strandings began as one would
suspect on
the Outer Cape as nearly forty common and white sided-dolphins and one
pilot
whale stranded over the first two weeks of January. Some Aquarium
rescue
staff stayed overnight on the Cape in the midst of serial strandings.
Many
of those animals were successfully treated and transported to deeper
waters
off the tip of the Cape. One was outfitted with a satellite tag.

This past Saturday, three of our rescue staff took our animal ambulance
with
a load of stranding supplies to the eastern tip of Long Island. The
Aquarium
was responding to a mutual aid request within the stranding network as
some
large groups of common dolphins were in shallow waters near Sag Harbor.
Connie Merigo, Sheila Sinclaire, and Kate Sardi have been living on the
road
since then. They have been an integral part of the rescue effort as
officials there are unfamiliar with preventing or responding to mass
dolphin
strandings. Late Tuesday morning, they were successful in helping to
herd
out part of a school of dolphins that had been caught behind a sand bar
for
a couple of days. They were able to partially dispel the sensational
front
page headline on Monday's New York Post which screamed "Hampton
Dolphins
Doomed". And you thought that our own Boston Herald was a little over
the
top.

In the "no good deed goes unpunished department", we had our first mass
stranding of dolphins in Boston Harbor within anyone's memory, less
than
twelve hours after we had strategically moved many of our resources to
Long
Island. Sunday morning at daybreak, passers-by on busy Wollaston Beach
in
Quincy found eight stranded common dolphins. Unidentified beach wlkers
pushed two of the dolphins back in to the water. The other six were
already
dead as they had probably been high and dry for several hours since the
overnight low tide. Four of those dolphins were brought to the Aquarium
for
necropsy. The proximity to Boston has resulted in heavy and ongoing
media
coverage.

The public's interest is high so here are some relevant talking points:

These dolphin strandings are unusual. Every winter, there are dolphin
strandings on the Cape, but these strandings stand out for three
principal
reasons:
1. The number is high as over fifty animals have stranded in just
over
two weeks in many different incidents.
2. The wide geographic distribution is unusual. Officials in Long
Island are not used to seeing dolphins in these numbers. Pods of
dolphins do
not regularly visit
Boston Harbor, particularly deep in the bays or the Inner
Harbor.
Tuesday morning, a reputable commuter ferry staff person spotted six
dolphins off of Pier # 4 and
Fan Pier, just across from the Aquarium.
3. Many of these animals when necropsied are showing signs of poor
health. The symptoms are not uniform. The pathology results from tissue
samples sent to labs
will hopefully reveal more information.

Below are links to news articles on the Boston Harbor and Long Island
strandings:

http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2007/01/15/stranded_dolphins_a_surprise_to_rescuers/

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/longisland/ny-lidolp0114,0,993565.story?coll=ny-linews-headlines