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Ear to the Ground

Baby Dolphins Are Washing Up Dead Along the Gulf

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Posted on Feb 21, 2011
The Pug Father (CC-BY)

Scientists at the Institute of Marine Mammal Studies are investigating unusually high numbers of stillborn and aborted dolphins in the Gulf of Mexico region. Seventeen infant dolphins have washed up on shore so far this year, compared to an average of one or two a month, says one scientist.

It’s possible, though too soon to tell, that the BP oil disaster and ensuing chemical cleanup may be to blame.

Sun Herald:

“For some reason, they’ve started aborting or they were dead before they were born,” [institute director Moby Solangi] said. “The average is one or two a month. This year we have 17 and February isn’t even over yet.”

Deaths in the adult dolphin population rose in the year of the oil spill from a norm of about 30 to 89, Solangi said.

Solangi is gathering tissue and organs for a thorough forensic study of the infant deaths and is cautious about drawing conclusions until the data is in within a couple of weeks.

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Clash's avatar

By Clash, February 22, 2011 at 10:59 pm Link to this comment

The train keeps moving faster, on the horizon chaos, then the cliff, will the chaos force change, or will cliff bring extinction?

For the ignorant please toss your children (grandchildren) in the chemical soup so we can see how well they make out.

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zonth_zonth's avatar

By zonth_zonth, February 22, 2011 at 6:57 pm Link to this comment

Well as it seems BP has backed off lately (media advertising), that leaves plenty of room for Chevron.  According to their new TV add campaign, they not only contribute to clean energy, but are good for small business and are saving jobs all over the world.
just when one thinks a big corporate entity just may self destruct, another one of its competitors will see it as opportunity and claim its virtues to be opposite the vices of its publically sullied opponent.

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By SarcastiCanuck, February 22, 2011 at 2:08 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

WOW,what a fucking surprise that wildlife is starting to die.I think they must be Muslim,suicide dolphins.How could a mammoth oil spill cause this?

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prisnersdilema's avatar

By prisnersdilema, February 22, 2011 at 12:06 pm Link to this comment

Of course, what did you think would happen? Why is this a surprise?

American’s are taught not to connect the dots between their chemical exposure, and their Cancers. Their lymphoma’s, leukemia’s, breast cancers, pancreatic cancer, and prostrate cancer.

Conservatives who get their thinking from Oil Company public service announcements, love to hate environmentalists, they consider them nut jobs.

Because only a nut job, in their view, would stand in the way of all that money.

So, consider the dolphin deaths and miscarriages, just a preview of what will happen to our children in the coming years.

You might as well reserve your seat in the oncology wing of your local hospital where you and your family will suffer the death of a thousand cuts, after years of imbibing, TCD, PCB, Glyophosate, TDD, and 80,000 others. Out of these chemicals, only 2 or 3 have ever been adequately tested, and their potentiating effects have never been evaluated.

So go ahead, enjoy your toddlers soccer game, oblivious, to the tons of glyphosate that have been dumped on the grass on which you sit. As the cell tower behind you gives you and all the other families there a healthy exposure to microwave radiation.

It’s fun washing children grow up, even if no one seems to be able to figure out why so many of them are dying of lymphoma.

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By sharonsj, February 22, 2011 at 11:09 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

Those “multiple factors at work” boil down to pollution, pollution, pollution, with a dollop of global warming thrown in.  We have used the oceans and waterways like toilets for decades, so what else would you expect?  For the smartest species on the planet, we’re pretty dumb when it comes to our own survival (and the corporate-controlled is the rest of the problem).

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By keepyourheaddown, February 22, 2011 at 1:38 am Link to this comment

All the people involved in the cause of the disaster will rot in fucking hell!!!

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By Tim, February 22, 2011 at 12:23 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

Baby Right Whales have been dying at abnormal rates off the Argentinian coast for a few years now. We ought to be looking at other possibilies. Is it probable that the degradation of the Animal Kingdom is due to multiple factors?

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rico, suave's avatar

By rico, suave, February 21, 2011 at 10:56 pm Link to this comment

“It’s possible, though too soon to tell, that the BP oil disaster and ensuing chemical cleanup may be to blame.”

It’s also possible, but too soon to tell, that Martians have been doing medical experiments on our second most intelligent species.

It’s also possible, but too soon to tell, that dolphins, intelligent as they are, have begun to understand that they have a “choice” and that some mothers have made their “choices.”

“Solangi ... is cautious about drawing conclusions until the data is in within a couple of weeks.”

But please, truthdiggers, throw caution to the wind and feel free to start another round of BP bashing. Don’t let another crisis go to waste. Solangi is obviously a pussy.

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Queenie's avatar

By Queenie, February 21, 2011 at 9:44 pm Link to this comment

“...too soon to tell..” and “For some reason….”

Then why not wait until there is proof positive, or is this the only story we will get on this ongoing disaster. Wait. And then name names.

I hate a tease. Dishonest and cowardly.

I smell a coverup. How long before these scientists are bought off and we never get the results.

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By purplewolf, February 21, 2011 at 9:42 pm Link to this comment

Of course it’s the Corexit and oil sludge that are responsible for the death of these dolphins. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure that out.

A few weeks back on a Sunday afternoon, a local TV station ran a special hosted by David Hasselhoff that the Gulf was back. They claimed that all the oil was cleaned up and that everything was back to normal as if the oil spill never happened.Perhaps a few of the sheeple believe that, I know better. And as for that pansy ass GOP down south who apologized to BP because he stated that Obama was pressuring them to put up the money for cleaning up their mess. BP offered to put 20 billion in an account to clean up the mess and last week I heard they are out of that money already. No surprise there either.

Marty Weiss:Thanks for the mention of the Great Lakes, I live in MIchigan . Maybe the water that the Nestle company is stealing from the Great Lakes for their bottled water pant in Stanwood, Michigan will have to close when these pollutants hit the G.L. Former Gov. John Engler let Nestle lease the land for 99 yrs. and they pay about one hundred dollars a year to suck up and sell all of our fresh water. They have already drained the Au Sable rivers dry, several wetlands on the west side of the lake and now have pumping stations hidden in the forests fenced off as “wildlife reserves” and such. It is illegal to have over the land pumping so they have gone underground to make that part of stealing the water legal. As the pipes are not seen it is harder to find them and where they come out under water in the G.L. areas. They even have the local sheriff department on their private list of keeping the public at bay. If you try to go to the pant in Stanwood, it isn’t to long before the sheriff shows up and chases the people away. Now since this state has been so generous to Nestle, one would think that perhaps the people showing up at their door might be looking for a job and that Nestle, with its free water and generous tax breaks and subsides would hire a few locals. Nope. And what they have left for the people in the area is water that is filthy and not even fit to flush your toilets with.

Don’t you just love big business?

After the last animal dies, all the trees are clear cut and all the waters polluted, only then will you realize you cannot eat money….old Indian saying.

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By marty weiss, February 21, 2011 at 8:51 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

Soon, oil from the BP disaster in the Gulf of Mexico will be found in trace amounts worldwide.
It will make its way to the tops of Everest, Fuji and Kilimanjaro. It will form a skin on Mt. Rushmore and a film on the Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials. Oil and Corexit will filter up to Kennebunkport, it will fall in rain on Minnesota’s Boundary Waters, it will contaminate the Amazon, the Volga, the Congo and the Ganges, the Missouri, the Columbia and the Nile. BP petroleum and Corexit will contaminate the fresh water of the Great Lakes and the seas of polar regions. It will permeate organic life and mark the young of every species. The farthest reaches will not go untouched. A thousand years from now Geologists will shake their heads in shame at the evidence of the lethal irresponsibility of our generation visible in the rocks of every continent forever.
Wait, there’s more. BP continues to discharge mercury-bearing toxic sludge from its Indiana oil refinery into Lake Michigan to this day. In fact, the Republican Governor of Indiana recently allowed an increase in the dumping to guarantee BP would save more money by avoiding expensive but safe disposal. Penny-wise and pound fatal.

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By Rodney, February 21, 2011 at 8:18 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

All the oil and dispersants we fouled up the water
with. In the words of BP and the Republicans ‘Business
as usual. And Obama or Eric Holder won’t hold them
accountable either. It’t what Obama copied from the
Bush Administration.

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By rollzone, February 21, 2011 at 7:19 pm Link to this comment

hello. of course it is from the BP blowout and the
sludge still remaining all over the floor of the Gulf.
the magical microbial digester burped and died, and so
is every other living organism in the Gulf. it is so
important to tiptoe around BP, when the company is
engaging in high level growth in India, (to provide
more parachute revenues to the stockholders, and
simultaneously provide liquidity to damage claims),
instead of stating the obvious. oil barons rule. try
drinking a glass of oil. see if you and your babies
survive.

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