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Brazil: Whale found in Muria river
Friday, January 12, 2007 (Para):
A young whale measuring some nine meters, who beached itself on the Muria river in Brazilian state of Para has been successfully returned to the ocean with the help of rescue teams and volunteers.
The large sea mammal became more and more agitated as many curious bystanders gathered to watch the drama unfold.
According to specialists, whales usually do not enter rivers. This behaviour could indicate that the animal is sick.
Originally posted by Sacreligion
dolphin's are animals, so of course they're capable of attacking. i've actually read that the friendly smile you see them make all the time is actually a way to know they are about to attack.
i'm from MA and didn't hear anything about the cape cod beachings, but if i had to guess about the nature of them, the tectonic shift theory with gas being releasedseems to make sense, considering the gas smell in NYC and the mass bird deaths. the whales/dolphins might have come up for air only to find toxic gases, and it could intoxicate them to the point where they didn't know what they were doing. that's an unsubstantiated train of thought, though
Dolphins Stuck In Shallow Waters Of East Hampton(NY)
CBS) EAST HAMPTON, N.Y. About two dozen dolphins are struggling for survival in the unlikeliest of places, and thanks much in part to the unlikely winter weather. Rescuers in East Hampton have been working to free the mammals from shallow waters, worried they will die from hunger.
Beached whale may provide clues to other endangered whale deaths(FL)COCOA BEACH, Fla. - A dead female humpback whale discovered on the beach over the weekend may help explain why so many of the endangered species - nearly 30 - have died in the Atlantic Ocean in the last 12 months.
Eight dolphins strand themselves in Boston Harbor(MA)
QUINCY, Mass. (AP) - Eight dolphins were discovered early yesterday morning on a beach in Quincy in what scientists are calling an extremely rare mass stranding in Boston Harbor.
Giant whale washed ashore on Trisik beach, Yogyakarta(Indonesia)The decomposed body of the giant whale was first discovered by Muji, a local fisherman, about one kilometer east of fish auction port at the beach.
Muji said the sea mammal most probably had died in the sea for more than a week before it was washed ashore on the beach because it began to decompose when he found it.
Second whale washes ashore in Fla
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — For the second time in less than a week, a whale has washed ashore dead on Florida's Atlantic coast.
Marine biologists are trying to determine whether something in the water was responsible for the deaths of the great mammals
Rare primitive shark captured on film
"We believe moving pictures of a live specimen are extremely rare," said an official at the park. "They live between 600 and 1,000 metres under the water, which is deeper than humans can go."
"We think it may have come close to the surface because it was sick, or else it was weakened because it was in shallow waters," the official said.
The shark died a few hours after being caught. Frilled sharks, which feed on other sharks and sea creatures, are sometimes caught in the nets of trawlers but are rarely seen alive.
Rare whale dies at Morgan BayBuffalo City Municipality (BCM) amenities manager Willie Maritz, former chief of marine services at the East London Aquarium, yesterday said beaked whales were deep water creatures and were rarely found in such shallow waters.
“That’s why we know so little about them,” he said. “In the 18 years I’ve been involved in this line of work, this is the first time I’ve seen a beaked whale.”
Cause Of Whale Deaths Unknown
Another whale has turned up dead off the Florida coast.
It's the third dead whale found in three weeks, WESH 2 News reported.
A commercial fishing boat discovered the Right Whale calf off the coast of Jacksonville Beach.
The reason for the death of the whales is hard to tell and marine biologists said they don’t know the cause yet.
Originally posted by worldwatcher
So far for possible causes:
geomagnetic activity triggered by solar flares
frequency activity triggered by military/govt projects and exercises
aquatic virus, such as red tide, etc
change in water temperature affecting sources of food and swimming patterns.
I'm not sure exactly what is causing all of this, it could be a combination of the above but whatever it is it is disturbing very sensitive creatures.
Sea turtles dying along Bangladesh coast
COX'S BAZAR, Bangladesh (Reuters) - More than 200 turtles, some weighing 20 kg or more, have died in the Bay of Bengal along the Bangladesh coast over the past week, government officials and witnesses said on Monday.
"Around 140 turtles were found dead along a 4-km stretch of the beach," Mohammad Aminul Islam, deputy commissioner of Cox's Bazar district, said.
He said more turtles were dying on the shores of St. Martin island, 35 km off the country's southeastern tip, Teknaf.
Fishermen have reported that some dolphins have also died.
No one seems to know why the sea creatures are dying.
Islam said he believed the turtles died after being caught in fishing nets. But fishermen said they did not catch that many turtles to begin with, and when they do, they throw them back into the water.
Marine officials said the deaths could be caused by increased pollution in the bay, from waste disposal of ships or perhaps other unknown natural causes.
Feds step in as dead dolphins continue to wash ashore
60 washed ashore prompt worry for ocean's health; special probe launched
GALVESTON — An unusually high number of dead dolphins washed ashore in Galveston and Jefferson counties led federal officials Tuesday to issue a rare declaration, calling the deaths an "unusual mortality event."
At least 60 beached dolphin corpses were discovered in the two counties this month compared with nine during the same month last year, said Blair Mase, marine mammal stranding coordinator for the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration, which has launched a special investigation into the matter.
A team of NOAA experts reviewed recorded dolphin deaths in Galveston and Jefferson counties — where nearly all of the dolphin bodies have been found — for the last five years and recommended that Bill Hogarth, assistant administrator for the National Marine Fisheries, declare an unusual mortality event, Mase said.
A sudden spike in dolphin deaths is a cause for concern because the mammals are a barometer for the health of the ocean, according to Chris Marshall, assistant professor of marine biology at Texas A&M University at Galveston.
Whale beached days after sonar drill
A 15-foot female beaked whale stranded herself on the Outer Banks shore last week and died.
The whale, a nursing mother, had bleeding around both ears, but a scientist who performed an autopsy could not say what caused the mammal to strand.
Navy officials said Tuesday that they had been conducting sonar training exercises about 150 miles offshore of Virginia Beach, Va., about 10 days before the whale beached March 7. They declined to be more specific about the date, citing security reasons.
Sonar, which uses sound pulses to navigate under water, is a hazard to beaked whales, which live deep in the ocean off the continental shelf.
The technology worries many in North Carolina because the Navy wants to build a sonar training range about 50 miles off the coast. Environmentalists, fishermen and tourism promoters all fear that the sonar range would hurt their interests. But the potential harm to whales and marine mammals has generated the most pressure, especially after more than 30 whales beached near Oregon Inlet after a sonar exercise in 2005.
DAKAR: Rescue efforts could not save more than 30 long-finned pilot whales stranded on a beach in the north of the Senegalese capital.
Environmental expert Haidar el Ali said the 81 whales on Dakar's Yoff-Thongor beach represented the biggest mass stranding for 30 years in the west African nation.
Thirty-three whales lay dead on the beach, but rescuers, aided by fishermen, sent 48 others back to the ocean. Many of the stranded whales were thought to have been pregnant.
Experts were at a loss to explain thestranding and some of the whalecarcasses were taken to a veterinary school to find answers, a marine official said.
In 1990, a morbillivirus epidemic began in the seas off Spain, before spreading to the French Mediterranean coast. In all, 160 dead striped dolphins and white whales were found on French beaches. Altogether, more than a thousand were found around the Mediterranean. In the summer of 2007, the epidemic recurred, infecting more than 126 cetaceans, this time including the species known as bottlenose dolphins.
Marine mammal beachings along the French coast have been recorded by scientists since 1972. According to Nicolas Keck, a veterinary surgeon with the Herault Departmental Laboratory, 'beached dolphins are regularly found along the Mediterranean coast, for various reasons, primarily due to accidents and infections. The death rate is occasionally higher, generally as a result of the morbillivirus.'
There was nothing to suggest that they'd gone ashore because they were feeling ill or because they were not healthy," Knight said. "Nothing on the first seven post-mortem gave us any idea what would have made them strand."
"This is an unusual event," Knight said. "This doesn't happen around the world, let alone the UK."
Originally posted by worldwatcher
I started this thread January 2007 due to the number of beachings, then again in the beginning of 2008, we saw similar activity with a high number of beaching and now once again beginning of 2009 we also have mass beachings...could this be a pattern of some sort?