Obama administration restricts findings on Gulf’s dead dolphins

Obama administration restricts findings on Gulf’s dead dolphins

The Obama administration has issued a gag order on data over the recent spike of dead dolphins, including many stillborn infants, washing up on Mississippi and Alabama shorelines, and scientists say the restriction undermines the scientific process.

An abnormal dolphin mortality this year along the Gulf coast has become part of a federal criminal investigation over last year’s BP oil spill disaster and as a result, has led the US government to clamp down on biologists’ findings, with orders to keep the results confidential.

The dolphin die-off, labeled an “unusual mortality event (UME),” resulted in wildlife biologists being contracted by the National Marine Fisheries Service to record the recent spike in dolphin deaths by collecting tissue samples and specimens for the agency, but late last month were privately ordered to keep their results under wraps.

Reuters has obtained a copy of the agency letter that states, in part: “Because of the seriousness of the legal case, no data or findings may be released, presented or discussed outside the UME investigative team without prior approval.”

One biologist involved with tracking dolphin mortalities for over 20 years and speaking on the condition of anonymity, told Reuters that: “It throws accountability right out the window. We are confused and ... we are angry because they claim they want teamwork, but at the same time they are leaving the marine experts out of the loop completely.”

What are they hiding?

Almost 200 dead bottlenose dolphin bodies have been found since mid-January through this week along shorelines of Gulf coast states, including Florida, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana, Reuters notes. About half of the carcasses are newborns or stillborn infants.

That number is around 14 times the average numbers recorded during the same time frame between 2002 and 2007 and has coincidentally occurred during the first calving season since the BP Deepwater Horizon debacle last year in the Gulf.

So much for government transparency...



EVERYTHING about this administration is a fraud!



I particularly love this part:

Some scientists said they have received a personal rebuke from government officials about “speaking out of turn” to the media over attempts at determining the dolphins’ deaths.

Additionally, these scientists say the collected specimens and samples are being turned over to the government for evaluation under a deal that omits independent scientists from the final results of lab tests.

Sounds real American to me...

Is the coast being watched? Can't an independent go out there and steal one to be examined? This is just ridiculous!

The dolphins in that image are bleeding. This just screams "we're testing a new weapon underwater", and what better place to find out the effects of something on organic tissue than in the depths of the seas? It's also worth noting that dolphins are mammals. There's no way for anyone to really find out what's going on deep in the waters, unless someone here owns a submarine.

This reminds me of cattle mutilations as well.

It may have to do with oil, but seeing how they have their own scientists doing testing on the corpses, I'm leaning towards a weapon of some kind.

Are you sure those are dolphin in the picture, they look like tuna to me

That isn't the picture from the site.Not the dead dlphins aregood, but to use that picture to promote the thread is misleading.

reply to post by AdamsMurmur

Originally posted by AdamsMurmur
The dolphins in that image are bleeding.

I'm a little worried about relying too heavily on that image. It was one I pulled from this article, but almost passed it up, because I have not heard bleeding was one of the symptoms. But I was a little pressed for time, so ran with it...

When I have time, I'll see if I can confirm bleeding is one of the symptoms.

reply to post by mugger


See above.

ETA:

Because in the time I have I can't verify the authenticity of the photo, I've changed it for right now...

Sounds like another NIST scam in the works where they don't even look for the actual cause, just make one up. This helps avoid one of the few things that can change things with the public shame. With a lack of scientific integrity provided to the people that where affected by the gulf spill and corexit this is one story that is tagged to fade away. The restrictions on the scientists is just one of many events of censorship surrounding this issue.

reply to post by loam


You know what? This whole story just makes me angry. First of all those beautiful mammals dying off it's sad, but the government trying to cover up the evidence out there with all that happened to recently worldwide? I must say WOW . Do they think we are stupid? I mean seriously, when is this veil of ignorance going to be taken of?
So many questions, yet so few answers. These people know infos that we don't and it seems they're having a hard time keeping it like this.

Thruth must revealed ATSers because when mess is gonna start to happen and don't count over the mass media on this one, it'll be too late.

Just another proof and evidence that something big is going right now IMO.



Thruthseek3r

reply to post by thruthseek3r

Originally posted by thruthseek3r
Do they think we are stupid?

I read this story to mean they don't care either way.

reply to post by loam


Thanks for the article and clarification.

The real problem is that we won't know the catastrophic effects of this oil spill for decades.

200 baby Dolphins washed up on shore, but how many were eaten by scavengers or predators or just sunk to the bottom? How many actually survived? Is there going to be an entire generation of dolphins missing? If there is an entire generation that doesn't fend well, how will that affect other species of fish? Will we see a drastic increase in invasive species like jellyfish? Will we see endangered species not breeding well and go extinct?

If these are the aborted fetuses that some scientists were worried about, and if it is connected to eating contaminated sea life, then how many human mothers were eating contaminated shrimp and scallops and oysters last year? How many babies were lost by humans that will never be studied or accounted for?

Will this continue year after year for awhile?

What will the final effect be if dolphins have bad reproductive years for many years to come? Will we see a Gulf that is absent major mammals like Dolphins, Manatees, and Orca's? Will we see a Gulf that is overrun with invasive jellyfish and scavengers? Will the beach be worth visiting? Will the Gulf Fish be accepted as a food source?

In my opinion, it is very likely that it will take 5-20 years before the truth is apparent, and in the end it could end a way of life along the Gulf coast!

reply to post by getreadyalready


So much to agree with in your post.

But notwithstanding all of the open questions, I think consuming Gulf seafood is NOT the wisest choice.

I'm just throwing this out there - what if this has nothing to do with Bp, Corexit or Military testing?
There has been a huge increase in livestock stillborn deaths which some are linking to pesticides and GMO crops.
The Mississippi river carries all this stuff from nearly 2/3 of the American land mass and dumps it in the Gulf of Mexico.
Whatever the answer is I hope it's one that we can remedy.

reply to post by loam


Sadly, I believe you are correct, but since I am stubborn, and I intend to "will" things better, and since I am a male and don't intend to have more kids, I will be eating it anyway. I ate a Sheepshead and a Redfish last week, and I am still eating Apalachicola Oysters.

I would not recommend pregnant women or infants eat the Gulf Seafood, or anyone with any health defects, but as for me, I am going to refuse to let it affect my lifestyle. Probably a dumb idea, but I am more famous for my stubbornness than my good sense.

reply to post by Asktheanimals

Originally posted by Asktheanimals
I'm just throwing this out there - what if this has nothing to do with Bp, Corexit or Military testing?
There has been a huge increase in livestock stillborn deaths which some are linking to pesticides and GMO crops.
The Mississippi river carries all this stuff from nearly 2/3 of the American land mass and dumps it in the Gulf of Mexico.

This is a good point, but of course it appears the administration isn't going to let you find out.

reply to post by getreadyalready

Originally posted by getreadyalready
Sadly, I believe you are correct, but since I am stubborn, and I intend to "will" things better, and since I am a male and don't intend to have more kids, I will be eating it anyway. I ate a Sheepshead and a Redfish last week, and I am still eating Apalachicola Oysters.

Good gawd, man. At least limit the amount you consume!

(there's a bigger story)

(go find the people that have been tagging Atlantic Tuna and tracking them via satellite....ask them if the trackers are still moving)

They are not. Atlantic Tuna are now extinct. They are all dead.

reply to post by Pervius


I googled it and found a blog for Bluefin Tuna Taggers, and the last entry was 03/27/2011 and it was apparently a good day. Source

Where are you getting your information from?

Originally posted by loam
reply to post by AdamsMurmur

 

Originally posted by AdamsMurmur
The dolphins in that image are bleeding.

I'm a little worried about relying too heavily on that image. It was one I pulled from this article, but almost passed it up, because I have not heard bleeding was one of the symptoms. But I was a little pressed for time, so ran with it...

When I have time, I'll see if I can confirm bleeding is one of the symptoms.

The fish pictured in that photo are Dolphin or Mahi Mahi; a game fish with no relation to Porpoise Dolphins.

It's a sad state of affairs; sickens me to know my oceans are dying... the fact that the US govt. is hiding the findings does not surprise me though.

reply to post by getreadyalready


According to this article in mid-January,from the Wall Street Journal, the jury still seems out:

Tuna Fight Muddies Waters Over Damage From BP Spill

Bluefin hatch in the northern Gulf from roughly May through June—in the general area, and at the general time, of the BP spill. Eggs and larvae in the oil almost certainly died, scientists say.

That doesn't address the bigger issue: how the spill affected the bluefin population as a whole. Answering that would require knowing all the places bluefin spawn—in the Gulf, and beyond.

Accepted wisdom has held that there are different stocks of Atlantic bluefin. One, which regulators call the western variety, spawns only in the Gulf. Another, the eastern variety, spawns only in the Mediterranean Sea.

As adults, both stocks forage for food in the Atlantic, where most bluefin are caught. But, the thinking goes, the two stocks are genetically distinct.

That's the basis for the concern that the BP spill could decimate the western-Atlantic bluefin.

Some scientists, though, increasingly question that view. Citing recent modeling, NOAA now concludes most of last spring's Gulf spawn was far from where the oil hit. "Some of the bluefin probably got hit a little bit, but [the oil spill] probably was not a significant impact on the population," said John Lamkin, a NOAA scientist.

Other tuna experts cite evidence that large numbers of western-Atlantic bluefin may spawn beyond the Gulf—in the Caribbean, for instance, and as far away as the Azores.

Still, for whatever bluefin did run into BP oil, the spill could prove enormously damaging, scientists say.

...

Each side has sponsored scientists whose work bolsters its view.

...

Stanford University tuna expert Barbara Block's work has helped underpin the just-in-the-Gulf view.

In the ocean, she and her research team catch bluefin, and ease the live fish into a boat. They insert tracking devices, either by incision into the fish's belly, or with a dart at the base of one of the fish's fins. Within minutes, they release the tagged bluefin. Since the 1990s, Ms. Block has plotted the tracks of hundreds of tuna.

Ms. Block's research funders include the government and environmental groups. In a speech last spring, she said there was "outstanding science" for listing the Atlantic bluefin as endangered under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, something the Obama administration also has supported. This week, Ms. Block said that "we can't really clearly establish how many tunas remain" until scientific models assessing the fish's population improve.

...

In early May, two weeks into the spill, in a blog post titled "Hot Tuna and Oil" on the website of a tagging program she helps run, she featured a map of the Gulf with a black blob showing the area hit by BP oil. Through the blob ran a yellow line: the path that data showed one of Ms. Block's tagged tuna had traveled in 2009.

On May 24, the Center for Biological Diversity, an environmental group, filed a legal petition asking the Obama administration to list the Atlantic bluefin as endangered—which would ban fishermen from targeting the fish in U.S. waters.

The bluefin population "will be devastated" by the spill, the document said. "The Gulf provides the only spawning ground known to the western-Atlantic bluefin tuna," it added. The document frequently cited Ms. Block's work.

Two days later, another scientist fired off a contrasting view.

On May 26, Molly Lutcavage, a longtime tuna tagger now at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, published with several colleagues a peer-reviewed paper reporting that some bluefin they had tagged were swimming beyond the Azores during the spring, when the fish are known to spawn.

Based on her research, Ms. Lutcavage thinks as many as one-third of all western-Atlantic bluefin tuna could be spawning outside the Gulf. "They are not putting all their eggs in one basket," she said.

...

NOAA is growing increasingly persuaded by the possibility western-Atlantic bluefin may spawn in significant numbers beyond the Gulf.

There is much more in the article.

Sounds like ping pong to me...

Who knows what the truth is?

Dolphins call each other by name and have a complex language, but then "they" know that already!

Just so heartbreaking, we're the ones in tests and not doing the right thing to pass, (not the dolphins) which is, to for once understand that the governments and system is not our friends and is doing everything to hurt us, and to get it together, seeing past borders, political stripes, economic models, to take the best From ALL of them, and dump the unloving harsh things away forever and we have to form wide awake, awareness/peace groups in every town, city, region ,in the world, that networks together and meets and problem solves, and SHARES.

We just mind find, we're much better problem solvers than the ones we have hired, or the ones who took power over some.

And that every single negative thing that occurs, is being done by their ancient knowledge of Weird Science and Frickin Magic, so they code it, publish it, put in scriptures, put it movies, and bring it in with their negative forces/and portalled in allies. This is the thing, we also need to focus on positive, envisioning positive, and praying for meditating for positive, love, equality together freqently.

Its our consciousness they're hijacking.

We need to stop waiting for them to change, and start to 1) send them light and prayers and invitations to join with us, but 2) Do it. In communities.

They are covering up a number of things: BP, the chemical dump theyre making that is so toxic to everything, geomagnetic things, GMO and destruction of environment. But there is also this re-emerging Bird Flu that is said to affect fish and some kind of a fungus that also affects dolpins and whales. I doubt this is random mutation, but manmade probably.