Dolphins Under Threat

• Dolphins are aquatic mammals, closely related to whales and porpoises.
  


• There are almost forty species of dolphin in seventeen genera.


• They vary in size from 4 ft. and 88 lbs. Maui's Dolphin, up to 30 ft and
  ten tons the Orca.


• They are found worldwide, mostly in the shallower seas of the continental
  shelves, and are carnivores, mostly eating fish and squid.


• Dolphins evolved about ten million years ago, during the Miocene.


• Dolphins are considered to be amongst the most intelligent of animals and
  their often friendly appearance and seemingly playful attitude have made them
  popular in human culture.

Dr. Paul Spong has made it possible for us to see and hear Orcas on live feeds from his live webcasting base on Cracroft Point.

Nature Networks 2006 "live" webcast has ended but we will inform you when it begins again.

OrcaLive Highlights from 2003: 2003 Video

Learn more about Dr. Spong by watching this interview: Dr. Paul Spong Interview

You can learn much about the Orca by viewing these cards from the Nature Network: The Orca

We know dolphins are intelligent so it should come as no surprise that they can use their own tools. Research undertaken by Professor Janet Mann of Georgetown University has discovered that some bottlenose dolphins in Shark Bay, in the Indian Ocean, Western Australia, use sponges to find food on the seabed.

Professor Mann and her team have been studying the dolphins in the area for 21 years and in particular their use of marine sponges. They have counted just 41 dolphins using sponges out of a large dolphin population and the skill is passed from mother to calf.

The research has discovered that more females use sponges than males and that they work harder and longer at looking for food on the sandy seabed mostly in deep ocean channels. Professor Mann describes the sponge using dolphins as 'workaholics'. When discussing the difference in numbers of females and males using sponges, she says, "We believe these early sex differences foreshadow the long-term reproductive interests of males and females, with males being focused on alliance formation, necessary for successful mating, and females focused on foraging skills, necessary to meet the demands of three to eight years of nursing each calf."

Now read more about the research. You can either read a summary or the full report, Why Do Dolphins Carry Sponges?.

Picture above used under Creative Commons Licence and by courtesy of Ewa Krzyszczyk.

A video that was broadcast by Globo TV showed Brazilian fishermen killing 83 dolphins and laughing and joking about it.

The dolphin kill apparently took place near the mouth of the Amazon River where it flows into the Atlantic Ocean.

Brazil law makes killing dolphins punishable by up to 1.5 years in prison but nobody has been charged because the authorities claim the fishermen can not be identified yet.

Click Here to read the story on NSNBC's website!

Come and have fun with the dolphin for toddlers, preschool, and adaptable for early elementary grades (ages 2-6). Visit a theme to find lesson plans and activities that include easy instructions and a list of materials needed. You will find printable crafts, activities, coloring pages, recommended literature and related resources. Just Click Here!

In Key Largo, Fl. a stranded bottlenose dolphin named Castaway gave birth to an, as yet un-named, calf monday.

The mother, Castaway, is deaf so researchers are attempting to let the calf learn to communicate by bringing the sounds of other dolphins from a nearby lagoon into the habitat electronically.

For the whole story click here!

If you don't mind putting up with a short advertisement, you can watch this Today show Video!

As many as twenty dolphin were recently captured in the Solomon Islands to meet supply and demand for the epidemic of captive dolphin amusement parks popping up around the world. At this early stage we don't know exactly where the "Solomon Twenty" are destined for. When we find out we will inform you.

Dolphin dealer Christopher Porter of Marine Export Ltd (MEL) apparently has a buyer for twenty dolphins. Mr. Porter is working with his partners, Wildlife International Network, Inc. (WIN). You may recall that WIN is also known as Ocean Embassy (OE) in Panama. OE applied for a permit to capture eighty dolphins from Panamanian waters. A grassroots campaign is underway in Panama to stop these captures.

The Solomon Islands has a ban in place which prohibits the export of dolphins from the country, however the new government may have changed their mind about the export ban. We need to flood the prime minister -- and the newspaper -- with e-mail messages in order to stop this international traffic in captive dolphins.

The capture of wild dolphins and whales is violent, cruel, and disruptive to entire communities of cetaceans and the ecosystems in which they live. One capture method involves chasing dolphins to the point of exhaustion with high speed boats. The dolphins are then netted and dragged aboard. Undesirable dolphins (the old, the very young, the weak, injured, or sick) are thrown back into the sea, while the young, healthy specimens that meet aquarium specifications are kept for sale and transport.

Another method also involves chasing the animals with boats and herding them into enclosed bays or makeshift sea pens, where they are trapped and frequently separated from family members. (Dolphins and whales live in tightly knit social units, known as pods. In the case of orca whales, the pods stay together for life.) -Please take action to ask the Prime Minister to uphold the ban on dolphin exports from the Solomon Islands today! Please urge friends and family to contact him as well. Also send a copy of your letter to the Solomon Star newspaper: solstar@welkam.solomon.com.sb.

-Read an article in The Age on the capture.

Whale or Dolphin?

Scientists are working on finding a biological division of species taking into account which species are more closely related to each other. Cetaceans are accordingly divided into toothed whales and baleen whales, and under this classification not only do the river dolphins belong to the toothed whales but also the dolphin-like whales, to which in turn belongs the dolphin family. Also part of this group is the Long-finned pilot whale, whose English name does not suggest that it is a dolphin at all. Yet the system (biological division according to genetic proximity) is based on evolutionary relationships as opposed to the layman's view which is more connected with outward appearances.

How and where do Pilot whales live?

Pilot whales occur in cold, temperature and sub polar waters both in the northern and southern hemispheres. They prefer deeper water, and some therefore live in the open sea all of the time and others follow the migration of squid (their favourite food) from the high seas to coastal areas and back. Pilot whales are pitch black or dark grey with a dorsal fin which bends backwards. The forehead area is markedly rounded. The shape of their heads used to remind whalers in the olden days of black cooking pans, from which derived its alternative name of "pothead whale". Pilot whales are very social animal, which migrate in groups of up to 100 individuals, under the leadership of one animal. These large dolphins are often involved in mass strandings because the family ties among the group are very strong and the entire school tends to stick to a single stranded animal. The most pressing threat is posed by fishing nets and direct hunting is blamed for the decline of the population. The Bern Convention and the Bonn Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS) prohibit the hunting of pilot whales and have placed this species under protection. The pilot whale is listed on Appendix II of the Bonn Convention.

By adopting a dolphin, you can help stop big conglomerate, foreign fishing agencies from destroying strong "dolphin safe" tuna labeling rules. They want to be able to sell you tuna that has been caught using dangerous practices that can kill dolphins and still label it "dolphin safe."

Defenders of Wildlife is fighting back in court against the Bush Administration's attempt to weaken the dolphin-safe label so your support is more important than ever. We are challenging new regulations that would allow dolphin-deadly tuna to be labeled as dolphin-safe. So far, we've been successful, but the battle rages on.

You can help Defenders of Wildlife win the battle to keep dolphins safe and protect endangered wildlife for the sake of our children and grandchildren -- Adopt a Dolphin right now.

For those of you who are interested in watching a disturbing video on the capture of dolphins, please Click Here

It takes a minute ot two to load so please be patient.

Keeping highly intelligent animals such as dolphins in captivity is extremely cruel. Many dolphins die in the capture process. The dolphins who are captured are taken from their families. They are condemned to spend the rest of their lives in cement tanks, often in unsanitary conditions, forced to perform tricks for food.

People love dolphins, but they often suffer a failure of empathy and imagination. They do not make the connection that to bring a dolphin into these preposterously unnatural circumstances requires that dolphins be ripped from their natural environment, kidnapped from their families and pod mates, held in nets, carried in trucks, hoisted into planes and flown to distant locations. Many die in the process. Those that survive are condemned to a life in a cement tank, listening to the interminable hum of the filtration system and the screams of the audience.

This article is from BlueVoice.org.

Dateline: February 9th, 2009 - 200 Beached Dolphins led to Safety
Today, an estimated 200 dolphins beached themselves in Manila Bay, in the Philippines and had to be guided to safety in deep water. Local people woke up to find a large number of melon-headed dolphins in shallow water near their homes and notified the authorities. Nobody knows why they put themselves in such danger but Malcolm Sarmiento, director of the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, suggested that it could be some major disturbance, like an underwater earthquake. On local radio he said, "If their eardrums are damaged they become disorientated and they float up to the surface." Another possibility is that they followed a sick or injured leader.

Local volunteers, including fishermen, took to their boats with the engines off to guide and encourage the dolphins into deep water and so out of danger. Out of the estimated 200 dolphins involved, just three died.

Dateline: February 4th 2009
Conservationists foil Whale & Dolphin Hunters in Southern Oceans
The Steve Irwin, a ship belonging to the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, is on the tail of a Japanese whaling fleet hunting dolphins and whales in the cold waters of the Ross Sea, off the coast of Antarctica.

They are there to harass the whalers and prevent them from carrying out their gruesome business. The whalers carry out manoeuvres to throw the Steve Irwin off their tracks. To do so, they turn in circles apparently without firm directions or purpose.

Captain Paul Watson of the Steve Irwin says, "Onboard the Steve Irwin, we don't really care what direction they go or how many circles they perform. We're quite satisfied to follow along knowing that they are not killing whales."

Read the full report from Captain Paul Watson.

Dolphins Keeping Pace with a Ship, Galapagos, Ecuador Photographic Print
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3 December 2008 The world's oceans and seas are becoming noisier as a result of increases in vessels; a rise in seismic surveys and because of the new generation of military sonars , an alliance of wildlife groups said today.

They are concerned that the cacophony of sounds pervading the once seas are intensifying threats to marine mammals who use sound, sometimes over great distances, to communicate, forage for food and find mates.

The groups, attending a the United Nations Environment Programme's Convention on Migratory Species conference in Rome, are urging governments and industry to adopt quieter engines for ships, tighter rules on the use of seismic surveys in oil and gas exploration and new, less intrusive sonar technologies by navies.

The news comes amid new concerns that rising levels of carbon dioxide (C02), the result of the burning of fossil fuels, may be aggravating noise levels from increased human activities.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), established by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Meteorological Organisation, warned in its latest report of growing acidity or 'acidification' of seas and oceans.

The IPCC flagged concern over the impacts of falling PH levels (increasing acidity) on coral-reef building creatures and on plankton at the base of the marine food chain.

Researchers at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute in the United States are also suggesting that increasing ocean acidity may be making the marine environment noisier.

Indeed the changing chemistry of seawater may mean that currently it is 10 per cent less absorbent of 'low' frequency sound than it was prior to the Industrial Revolution.

Unless emissions of greenhouse gases are cut - a key issue on the table this week in Poznan, Poland at the UN climate convention meeting - acidity levels in the seas and oceans could reach a point by 2050 where noise from ships to seismic guns is travelling 70 per cent further.

A Pod of Bottlenose Dolphins Swim in the Gulf of California Photographic Print
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Mark Simmonds Science Director of the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society, said: "Underwater, man-made noise, is already triggering a kind of acoustic fog and a cacophony of sound in many parts of the world seas and oceans.

"In addition there is now evidence linking loud underwater noises with some major strandings of marine mammals, especially deep diving beaked whales. However, it also appears that other species may also be affected and this year has for example witnessed two major stranding events in Madagascar and the United Kingdom which are still being investigated," he added

"Now we confronted with cutting-edge evidence that fossil fuel burning and the build-up of C02 may pose a new and even 'louder' threat unless urgent action is taken to cut emissions over the coming years and decades. There clearly needs to be a comprehensive and joined-up response to noise pollution in the underwater world,"he added.

The European Community and its member states have submitted a draft resolution to the 9th Conference of the Parties to the UNEP-CMS this week on marine noise.

Text from United Nations Environment Programme

Some claim that dolphins have the power to heal. It has been suggested that dolphins can alleviate depression and promote a healing response but this is still somewhat controversial, and according to many dolphin scientists, is without any real scientific basis.

Water Planet has a "Harmony Program" where children with Autism, Down Syndrome or ADHD swim with dolphins. They claim to have noticed a significant improvement in communication skills with children who have participated in this program.

Water Planet will be conducting several sessions during the spring/summer of 2007. As of April 22, they still had availability for the following sessions: May 06 through 11, June 10 through 15, July 08 through 13, August 05 through 10.

You can learn more by visiting their site and contacting them.

As I learn of more personal experiences with the healing power of dolphins, I will either add them here or provide links to the information.

The Healing Power Of Dolphins Links:

Operation Sunshine!

A Psychodynamic Perspective

"Photo: Protected Resouces Division, Southwest Fisheries Science Center, La Jolla, California. swfsc.nmfs.noaa.gov/PRD/"