Dolphins dying and washing up on shores around the world

[ariellyn]

I saw a news report this morning briefly about dolphins showing up on the east coast. Families were happily gathering around to watch the dolphins for several days and then they started dying and washing ashore. One of the people on the report said after one of the dolphins died, they cut it open and it was empty--no food. These dolphins, it seems, have lost their food source.

I googled a bit and found that this is a phenomenon that has been happening more and more. I found one MSNBC story that tried to explain away the death of about 70 dolphins by attributing submarine sonar as the cause. But all of these deaths in different places, can't be explained by individual stories.

Seems like global warming to me. And a traqedy. :cry:

http://cbs4boston.com/topstories/local_story_009110930.html

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/05/0501_060501_dolphins.html

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4954950.stm

http://www.truthout.org/cgi-bin/artman/exec/view.cgi/34/9465

[originalpckelly]

1. OK WTF? First birds now fucking dolphin cuties?

:grr:

What the hell is happening?

So long and thanks for all the fish? Do they know something we don't? Did they get raptured too?

[roguevalley]

9. the big fauna die first. north sea dolphins are starving. :(

[madeline_con]

2. I saw a report that said the food source was closer to shore,

due to warmer water temps.

Also, acording to Reuters, weren't 8 led back out to sea?

[Roxy66]

3. OVER FISHING, OIL DRILLING, GLOBAL WARMING.......to many things to fight

[The Traveler]

4. Global warming is only one

source of pressure on aquatic ecosystems. Pollution, over fishing are also major problems. This is sad news, and I fear we will hear more of this kind of thing over the next few years.

[AspenRose]

5. Oh, no.

I love dolphins.

Birds dropping dead out of the air.....facing polar bear extinction....

May heaven have mercy on us for what we are doing to the earth. :cry:

[bdamomma]

20. we all to realize that our way of life is intertwined with these creatures

too, everything has a domino affect, we are all in this together, we only have one earth and we have to respect her.

[bananarepublican]

6. I will keep my anti-Japanese (dolphin culling related) remarks to myself! n/t

[Warren DeMontague]

7. I don't know- that Very Low Frequency Sonar can screw with marine mammals for hundreds of miles.

From what I understand. It's appalling, and should be scrapped- except, you know, Osama might be on a submarine. :eyes:

[OneBlueSky]

8. that we are killing the oceans -- rapidly -- may well be THE most critical . . .

of the myriad of environmenal catastrophes facing us . . . if the food chain is broken at that level, ALL animal life on the planet is seriously threatened -- including us . . .

the governments of the world must come together to immediately designate large portions of the oceans as sanctuaries where neither fishing nor dumping are permitted . . . and dramatically reduce same in all other parts of the sea . . .

without the oceans and the life teeming therein, we are doomed . . .

[Recursion]

10. So long, and thanks for all the fish n/t

[file83]

16. What ever you do...

[orleans]

11. how sad. i blame bush as usual. i blame him for everthing that goes wrong

bush & his freaky administration

may they all burn in hell

[formercia]

12. Master Moon's fishing fleets

raping the ocean.

[Boxerfan]

13. Raptured?? (sarcasm alert Ok?)

Just sayin...If there WERE to be a "rapture" wouldn't gawd want some happy little sea critters around?. Way better than those nasty religious zealots mind you...

[peacebuzzard]

14. this phenomena happens too often to be considered an

anomaly. This is part of the march to global warming. Efforts to aid the remaining fauna's adaptation to this generation's poisoning of the earth need to be front and center now. But we need more focus on these issues to raise awareness in order to help the dying environment and the living inhabitants of mother earth. More alarmists need to hear the cries of these creatures.

Right now, the Amazon is disappearing at the rate of an area the size of NJ each year. The earth's lungs are eaten away by the cancerous growth called "economic progress".

[BrklynLiberal]

15. Canaries in the mine shaft, so to speak...

[Sugar Smack]

17. You know Sea Shepherd's going to look into it;

there's also a LOT of illegal over-fishing going on in some countries and in international waters.

[Jcrowley]

18. K&R n/t

[Jeffersons Ghost]

19. try this theory on for size...

Dolphins are smooth-skinned, hairless mammals, so oil tends not to stick to their skin, but they can inhale oil and oil vapor. This is most likely to occur when they surface to breathe. This leads to damaging of the airways, lung ailments, mucous membrane damage or even death. A stressed or panicking dolphin would move faster, breathe more rapidly and therefore surface more frequently into oil and so increase exposure.

Dolphins eyesight may also be affected by oil. They might also consume oil-affected food or may even starve due to the lack of available food or an inability to find food.

Chronic ingestion of subtoxic quantities of oil may have subtle effects which would only become apparent through long-term monitoring. The transfer of petroleum hydrocarbons through the mothers milk to sucking young is another way oil affects dolphins.

It is also possible that oil pollution impairs dolphins immune system and causes secondary bacterial and fungal infections.

WHO BELIEVES WESTERN MEDIA IS REPORTING DEEP-SEA OIL SPILLS? WHO BELIEVES THAT OIL-TANKERS ARE CLOSELY MONITORED THESE DAYS?