MASS ANIMAL DIE-OFF: Disaster Precursors - Around 300 Turtles And A Bottlenose Dolphin Found Dead In India?!

© Orissadiary.com

January 22, 2016 - INDIA - The Puri Beach in Odisha turned into a graveyard for around 300 Olive Ridley turtles and a bottlenose dolphin. The marine animals were found dead here on 20 January.

Although turtle carcasses are usually found near Pantha Niwas on the beach during winter, the sheer number of the dead animals spooked locals.

According to news reports, the forest and marine fisheries authorities have seized two trawlers for carrying out unauthorised fishing - despite a ban which was put in place due to the nesting season of the turtles.

Collector of Puri, Arabind Agarwal, told the media that a report had been sought from the concerned agencies. He said:

"This is unfortunate that a large number of Olive Ridley turtles died on the beach. It seemed that they were hit by trawlers."

The Beach Protection Council of Odisha (BPCO), a voluntary organisation working for the protection of the beach has given a memorandum to Aggarwal demanding strict implementation of the fishing ban between November and May.

Renowned sand artist Sudarsan Pattnaik has created a sculpture of the turtles with message "Give us space to live" on Puri beach.

Recently, around 80 whales were washed ashore on the southern coast at Tiruchendur in Tamil Nadu. At least 40 of the short-finned pilot whales died despite rescue efforts.


WATCH: Dead sea turtles wash up ashore in India.

- Catch News.

MASS ANIMAL DIE-OFF: Mysterious Dolphin Deaths Continue In The Gulf Of Mexico?!

January 17, 2013 - GULF OF MEXICO - An unusually high number of dolphin deaths that began three years ago in the northern Gulf of Mexico is continuing though the number of deaths in Florida peaked in 2011. From February 2010 to Sunday, the bodies of 830 marine mammals, nearly all bottlenose dolphins and a few whales, have been found along the coast from Louisiana to Apalachicola, Fla., according to figures from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Dolphins frolic in the wake of a cruise boat just offshore from Fort Pickens State Park in the Gulf of Mexico near Pensacola Beach, Fla. © Bruce Graner, Pensacola (Fla.) News Journal.

Of those, almost 150 dolphins found dead on beaches or in marshes were premature, stillborn or neonatal bottlenose.  In the seven years before 2010, the northern Gulf each year saw an average 63 bottlenose dolphin strandings, incidents where injured or sick marine mammals come ashore.  That the number of dolphin deaths continues to be higher than before 2010 worries Teri Rowles, who heads NOAA's investigation team.  "This is the longest unusual mortality event nationally," she said of the dolphin deaths.  The dolphin deaths began their climb before the Deepwater Horizon disaster April 20, 2010, but the oil spill is being considered as a cause. Bacteria and biotoxins, such as red tide, also are being investigated as factors contributing to the deaths.  Scientists don't know the full scope of the die-off because they rely on field reports of deaths. Not all dead dolphins wash up on populated beaches and waterways where they can be recovered, so many deaths may be going uncounted.

Bacteria culprit 
In fall 2011, NOAA scientists confirmed that brucella bacteria killed five dolphins found off of the coast of Louisiana.  And as of Dec. 9, some 13 out of 56 stranded dolphins tested positive or suspected positive for brucella.  Many of the dolphins found dead are too decomposed to test for the bacteria, Rowles said.  Scientists are looking deeply into whether brucella, a common bacteria also found in livestock, has become more lethal in dolphins in the northern Gulf.  Brucella in marine mammals was first recognized in the 1990s and seems to be endemic in many marine mammal populations globally, according to NOAA scientists. But the significance of the bacteria that causes miscarriages, brain infections, pneumonia, and skin and bone infections, is still unknown.  In a search for answers, NOAA recently began working with other federal and state agencies in 12 coastal states to compare their brucella samples with the strain in the Gulf.  "We're trying to find out if the animals in the Gulf were more susceptible or was brucella more virulent," she said. "To do that, we need to compare history in the Gulf with other strains in the United States not associated with large numbers of deaths."  A marine-mammal version of canine distemper that has been a factor in past die-offs in the Gulf has been ruled out, Rowles said.

Stranding network 
Dolphin calving season is beginning, and Rowles said NOAA is relying heavily on Marine Mammal Stranding networks across the northern Gulf coast to watch closely and respond to dolphin strandings.  Three dolphins already have been found dead recently that were stillborn or died at birth, she said. One was found near Navy Point here.  "The (stillborn, premature) deaths peaked in February 2011 and the deaths lasted to April," she said. "We're heading into the calving season - the months of February, March and April. Typically, we see a peak in the deaths in March."  Steve Shippee, marine mammal stranding and research coordinator for the four westernmost Panhandle counties, said his team recovered the premature dead dolphin near Navy Point during the holidays.  And they responded to two adult dolphins found dead in the past two weeks.  In all three cases, he thinks the deaths are what normally would be seen this time of the year.

Bottlenose dolphin strandings
To report dead, injured or entangled marine life, including stranded dolphins from the Gulf of Mexico to North Carolina to the NOAA Fisheries Service, call 877-WHALE-HELP. (The easy-to-remember phrase works even though it has more than seven digits.)

• 2002-09 average: 63
• 2010: 228
• 2011: 330
• 2012: 153

- USA Today.

ANIMAL BEHAVIOR: Rare Spectacle - Whales and Dolphins Play in Hawaiian Waters!

Images produced by the National Center for science Literacy, Education and Technology (NCSLET) showed a rare from of interaction in the wild between two species. Bottlenose dolphins and humpback whales were captured playing in Hawaiian waters.

According to a paper published in the Aquatic Mammals Journal, based on what is known about the behaviour of both species, play was the most plausible explanation of the observed interaction. The paper observed that humpback whales are known to engage in "object play," and "social play" is a common occurrence among dolphins, but never has the behaviour been observed in the wild to extend across species boundaries. According to the paper, given the "apparent initiation and cooperation of each dolphin being lifted, object (i.e., the dolphin) play by the whale and social play by the dolphin seem to be the most plausible explanations for the interaction."


Science Bulletins reports the images were taken from two locations in Hawaii. The dolphins were seen "riding" playfully on the heads of whales. The whale lifts the dolphin up and out of the water and when the dolphin slips back, tail first, into the water, the whale picks the dolphin up and the motion is repeated with the obvious cooperation of the dolphin.Science Bulletins observes: "The two species seemed to cooperate in the activity, and neither displayed signs of aggression or distress." The bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) and the humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) share a common habitat. Observation of what appears playful frolicking between the two species is considered significant because most interspecies interactions in the wild are aggressive predator and prey interactions. Science Bulletin comments further: "Whales and dolphins in Hawaiian waters often interact, but playful social activity such as this is extremely rare between species." Bulletins says these are the "first recorded examples of this type of behavior [in the wild]." - Digital Journal. 

WATCH: Whales give dolphins a lift.