11.04.06
Posted in Uncategorized at 8:05 am by
A fisherman discovered a young dolphin partly buried in a Southampton beach, separated from its mother and in poor condition.
The dolphin was discovered about 9:30 a.m. Sunday at Mecox Beach, and within an hour rescuers from the Riverhead Foundation were on the scene, working to put the 5-foot, 120-pound common dolphin onto its stomach and take it to the foundation’s facility for a physical examination, said Kim Durham of the foundation.
But hours later, the animal died, Durham said. A necropsy determined the dolphin had early indications of liver disease. It was also highly stressed, she said, after being separated from its mother when it should have been nursing, and from being in such close proximity to humans.
Full Story: http://www.newsday.com/news/local/longisland/ny-lifish314954626oct31,0,1682166.story?coll=ny-linews-headlines
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Posted in Uncategorized at 5:02 pm by
TERN ISLAND, Hawaii — In a small white cinder block room here in the French Frigate Shoals, five monk-seal biologists crowded around a dead Hawaiian monk seal laid out on a table covered with white plastic.
The pup’s black eyes reflected the light and its whiskers quivered at a touch, but a shark had bitten off its hind flippers. A large gash and 14 smaller cuts pockmarked its back. When the scientists had finished doing the animal equivalent of an autopsy, had taken samples for testing and removed the seal, Suzanne Canja, a field biologist, took a moment to contemplate the empty table.
“Another poor little guy,” she said. “It’s really sad.”
Full Story: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/31/science/31seal.html?_r=2&em&ex=1162443600&en=1812426b4c2ef2bb&ei=5087%0A&oref=slogin&oref=slogin
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11.10.06
Posted in Uncategorized at 3:26 pm by
EVERETT, Wash. A 54-foot-long fin whale whose carcass turned up at the Port of Everett this week had apparently suffered a series of mishaps before its death.
John Calambokidis, of the Cascadia Research Collective in Olympia, says the huge mammal, an emaciated juvenile, likely was brought in from the Pacific Ocean on the bow of a large ship.
Fin whales live in oceans and do not normally enter inland waters such as Puget Sound.
Full Story: http://www.kndo.com/Global/story.asp?S=5660295&nav=menu484_2
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11.11.06
Posted in Uncategorized at 8:47 am by
The NMMP primarily uses bottlenose dolphins and California sea lions for underwater sentry duty, mine clearance, and object recovery because of their sensory and diving capabilities. In addition, the Navy is conducting research involving beluga whales.Dolphins naturally possess a sophisticated sonar system. Their sonar can accurately detect potentially dangerous objects while operating in challenging environments such as deep, murky, or dark water.Sea lions have excellent low light vision, underwater directional hearing, can maneuver in tight spaces and can go onto shore if necessary.
http://www.marines.mil/marinelink/mcn2000.nsf/0/54E85D836A5DE5B185257221004D9B57?opendocument
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11.15.06
Posted in Uncategorized at 8:01 pm by tiswas
At least 25 tiger sharks ate a young humpback whale alive Monday off the Big Island’s Kailua-Kona Coast, an eyewitness reported yesterday.
But wildlife managers say they are more worried about the behavior of some people — who leaped into the ocean from boats while the feeding frenzy was happening.
Sharks feeding on an injured animal “is part of the natural processes of the ocean,” said Justin Viezbicke, a marine conservation coordinator for the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary.
The ailing whale was harassed and bitten throughout Monday morning and afternoon by at least 25 tiger sharks, he said.
Viezbicke went to check on the whale after the sanctuary received a report Monday morning that it was being followed by sharks, he said.
By the time the whale died off Lyman’s Point at about 4 p.m., it had been badly mauled by the sharks, and Hawaii County officials had closed several nearby beaches.
Full story: http://starbulletin.com/2006/11/15/news/story06.html
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11.17.06
Posted in Uncategorized at 9:20 am by tiswas
Gill net fishing in federal waters off the Southeast Atlantic coast will be banned for the North Atlantic right whale calving season that begins this week.
The National Marine Fisheries Service announced the net ban as the U.S. Coast Guard began warning mariners to watch out for the endangered whales. The area covered by the ban begins just south of New Smyrna Beach.
The whales migrate each winter from the Bay of Fundy and Nova Scotia to coastal waters off Florida and Georgia. After research last year, the fisheries service has expanded the designated critical habitat north to include the ocean off South Carolina.
Federal officials say the greatest cause of death among right whales is fishing gear entanglements and collisions with boats.
Full Story: News-Journal online
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11.21.06
Posted in Environment at 3:42 pm by tiswas
WASHINGTON — Animal and plant species have begun dying off or changing sooner than predicted because of global warming, a review of hundreds of research studies contends.
These fast-moving adaptations come as a surprise even to biologists and ecologists because they are occurring so rapidly.
At least 70 species of frogs, mostly mountain-dwellers that had nowhere to go to escape the creeping heat, have gone extinct because of climate change, the analysis says. It also reports that between 100 and 200 other cold-dependent animal species, such as penguins and polar bears are in deep trouble.
“We are finally seeing species going extinct,” said University of Texas biologist Camille Parmesan, author of the study. “Now we’ve got the evidence. It’s here. It’s real. This is not just biologists’ intuition. It’s what’s happening.”
Read the full story at the Environmental News Network
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12.07.06
Posted in Uncategorized at 9:25 am by tiswas
The United States Navy is going ahead with two different plans involving the use of controversial sonar training off the U.S. East coast.
The plans have attracted negative heat from environmental groups who successfully sued the Bush Administration over sonar issues.
In one of the sonar projects, the Navy is seeking to revamp its Atlantic Fleet Active Sonar Training that provides real world practice for Navy sonar technicians up and down the entire U.S. eastern seaboard. The training loops around Florida into the Gulf of Mexico.
Navy spokesperson Jim Brantley of the Navy Fleet Forces Command said emerging science as well as the successful federal court lawsuit brought by environmental groups is leading the Navy to consider changes to AFAST.
“Do we really need to operate in this entire area?” Brantley said. “Is it cost-effective?”
Once the public comment period ends next week on Dec. 10, the Navy will assemble a draft Environmental Impact Statement.
The Navy’s second sonar project, to build an Undersea Warfare Training Range to conduct sonar exercises off the shores of Florida, North Carolina and Virginia, has already passed the public comment period.
Once the Navy assembles its EIS, a second public comment period will open before Pentagon officials make a final decision. The plan includes installing and constructing underwater instrumentation in 120 to 900 feet of ocean so underwater and surface Navy vessels can practice the use of new technology sonar.
Certain kinds of sonar can alter the behavior of marine mammals, especially whales and dolphins, and can, in the right conditions, cause injury or death.
The National Resources Defense Council, one of the outspoken opponents to the Bush Administration’s support of Navy sonar training, said flooding ocean habitats with man-made, high-intensity noise interferes with basic marine mammal functions including mating and foraging.
The NRDC and other groups successfully sued the Navy and the Bush Administration. A federal judge ordered the Navy to limit its sonar training in the Pacific Ocean to a small area.
The Navy said the Undersea Warfare Training Range would include 161 training events lasting between one and six hours. There could be several exercise events in a day, he said.
Surface ships, submarines, and helicopters operating in the sonar range will be emitting midrange frequency sonar.
The sonar controversy first erupted in 2000 after U.S. Navy vessels practicing sonar in the Bahamas Islands killed 16 beaked whales and, according to whale researchers in that area at the time, may have injured hundreds more.
It was the first such case in which carcasses could be quickly frozen and shipped to research facilities so a scientific link between inner ear damage and sonar could be analyzed. An independent commission appointed by the Navy ruled out any other explanation for the deaths.
Congress has dictated that the Navy must employ rigorous standards of environmental review, including a fair description of potential impacts of range activities, an analysis of all reasonable alternatives, and a delineation of measures to mitigate harm.
Brantley said environmental issues would be strongly considered, such as halting sonar training off the coast of Jacksonville during whale caving season during December, January and February.
The Navy said it believes active sonar training is necessary for its sailors because diesel submarines are so quiet, they can hide easily in shallow waters and attack commercial or military shipping.
Source: NBC6
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12.20.06
Posted in Uncategorized at 7:26 pm by tiswas
Small, Smaller, Smallest — The Plight of the Vaquita Highlighted in New Research
San Diego, California (Dec 10, 2006 16:14 EST)
Research published in the academic journal Mammal Review has uncovered the missing link in the depleting population of the vaquita. With a body less than 1.5 m long, the vaquita is the smallest living cetacean (the order Cetacea consists of whales, dolphins and porpoises). It also has one of the smallest ranges (c. 2235 km2) and one of the smallest populations (< 600 individuals based on a 1997 survey). This little porpoise is one of the two most critically endangered small cetaceans in the world, suggesting that its chances of survival are small, just like its population size and area of distribution. So, what actions have been and are being taken to prevent the vaquita’s extinction and promote its recovery" In a recent paper published in Mammal Review, the authors from Mexico and Canada reviewed the scientific issues, described previous and ongoing conservation efforts, and identified remaining obstacles, established priorities, and provided recommendations.
Full story: Underwater Times
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12.23.06
Posted in Uncategorized at 7:36 am by
SEATTLE — A federal judge on Wednesday dismissed a lawsuit filed by building and farm groups that challenged the decision to make Puget Sound’s resident killer whale population an endangered species.
In the decision, U.S. District Judge Thomas S. Zilly said the Building Industry Association of Washington and the Washington Farm Bureau couldn’t prove they would be harmed. The lawsuit cannot be refiled, he said.
“We’re surprised,” said lawyer Russell C. Brooks with the Pacific Legal Foundation, which represented the plaintiffs.
The National Marine Fisheries Service said last year that the whales deserved protection. The lawsuit claimed the move would result in needless water and land use restrictions for farms, and would open them to fines or jail time for “the most basic farm practices.”
The three orca pods _ or families _ that live in western Washington’s inland waters are a distinct population of a subspecies, the Northern Pacific resident orcas, which include orcas off Alaska and Russia. The plaintiffs had argued that the Endangered Species Act applies only to a distinct population of a species _ not a subspecies.
“Just because there are orcas elsewhere in the Pacific Ocean doesn’t mean we’re willing to live without them in Puget Sound,” said Patti Goldman, an attorney for Earthjustice, said after the lawsuit was filed. The group challenged the lawsuit.
Puget Sound’s southern resident orcas are genetically and behaviorally distinct from other killer whales. The pods use their own language, mate only among themselves, eat salmon rather than marine mammals and show a unique attachment to the region.
The three pods now total 85 whales _ down from historical levels of 140 or more in the last century, but up from a low of 79 in 2002.
Pollution and a decline in prey _ the region’s salmon runs also are protected under the endangered species law _ are believed to be their biggest threats, although stress from whale-watching tour boats and underwater sonar tests by the Navy also are concerns.
Source: Houston Chronicle
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