"The Pacific Ocean is growing more acidic at a much faster rate than anticipated, scientists say, putting everything from corals to mussels in jeopardy."
BlueVoice traveled to Peru in March, 2012 to document the rumor of large numbers of dolphins dead on beaches. We counted 615 in one day. Dr. Carlos Yaipen Llanos of ORCA Peru, funded by BlueVoice, has conducted necropsies on 30 of these dolphins.
He has found no evidence of disease, starvation, entanglement in nets or red tide. There were no marks or lesions on the exterior of the stranded dolphins. What he has found is evidence of acoustical trauma leading to rapid ascent and decompression syndrome. In other words loud noises, produced repeatedly over a long period of time, startled the dolphins who raced for the surface and incurred what humans call the bends.
Scientists are hoping to see more Southern Right Whales migrating down Tasmania's east coast this year.
There are usually between 50 and 100 Southern Right Whale sightings a year, but last year only nine were spotted off Tasmania.
MIAMI | The electrifying in-water duet between trainer and killer whales at SeaWorld will never be quite the same after a judge ruled recently that animal trainers must be better protected from the fearsome mammals during performances.
The animal trainers — who not so long ago kissed, rode on, hugged and were thrust into the air by the killer whales — must either remain at a greater distance from them, stand behind a physical barrier or use other devices to keep them safer during performances.
Tides come and go in the Salish Sea. Sometimes entire species vanish almost unnoticed on the ebb of history.
And sometimes - to widespread astonishment - those same species ride the currents of conservation back home again.
Humans have exacted a terrible toll on our region's marine life over the past 150 years, through commercial whaling, reckless overfishing, and bounties, culls, and commercial harvests of harbour seals and sea lions.
Without question, the ecological effect of those actions continues to be felt today.
When a retired fisherman called to report that about 1,500 dolphins had washed up on Peru's northern coast, veterinarian Carlos Yaipén's first reaction was, "That's impossible."
But when Yaipén traveled up the coast last week, he counted 615 dead or dying dolphins along an 84-mile stretch of coastline.
Now, the death toll could be as high as 2,800, based on volunteers' counts. Peru's enormous dolphin die-off is among the largest ever reported worldwide. The strandings, which began in January, are a marine mystery that may never be unraveled. Experts say the causes could be acoustic impact from testing for oil, or perhaps an unknown virus or other pathogen. Little marine research takes place in Peru, and even in the United States, of 55 marine mammal strandings since 1991, the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration has classified 29 as "undetermined."
Sickly, underweight bottlenose dolphins living and dying in the northern Gulf of Mexico may be the result of exposure to oil that gushed into the water after the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion.
The oil disaster occurred April 20, 2010, when the Macando oil well blew out. During the three months it took to contain the leak emanating from the broken riser pipe at the well, about 4.9 million barrels of oil
Body boarders were unmoved by the hulking carcass of a whale at a beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
The watersports carried on at Sao Conrado as rescue workers in an inflatable boat attended to the dead animal.
It was identified as a Bryde's whale by the Aqualung Institute on Tuesday (Wednesday New Zealand time).
It is the same species as a whale that was found off Waiheke Island in New Zealand earlier this year.
At the time, the Department of Conservation's Phil Brown said Bryde's whales spend a lot of time near the surface, making them vulnerable to being hit by ships.
"These whales are being killed at an unsustainable level," he said.
Wikipedia says Bryde's whales are baleen whales, the "great whales" or rorquals. They are considered medium-sized.
Environmentally minded celebrities including Ed Begley Jr., Sophia Bush and Michelle Rodriguezgathered at a private home in the Hollywood Hills to honor activist Ric O'Barry and his Earth Island Institute's Dolphin Project at a benefit aiming to raise awareness and funds to fight the dolphin hunts in Japan (as portrayed in the Oscar-winning documentary "The Cove") and anywhere dolphins and whales are threatened.
Once again, the Government is calling for submissions on plans to save the Maui’s dolphin.
In 2007, the Ministry of Fisheries and Department of Conservation published a Threat Management Plan, setting out a series of options for preserving the Maui’s dolphin, including a ban on set nets in certain areas where Maui’s dolphins have been found, and extending marine mammal sanctuaries under the Marine Mammals Protection Act.