Category Archives: Marine Mammal

Foundation removes 5,667 lost fishing nets from Puget Sound

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http://www.komonews.com/news/local/Foundation-removes-5667-lost-fishing-nets-from-Puget-Sound-321765361.html

MOUNT VERNON, Wash. (AP) – The Northwest Straits Foundation has reached a milestone in its efforts to remove lost fishing nets from Puget Sound.

The foundation reported this week that it has retrieved 5,667 of the so-called “killer nets.”

About 260 species of marine animals were found in the nets, including 65 mammals, 1,092 birds and 5,659 fish. Many died while trapped in the nets, including porpoises, seals, otters, diving birds, sharks, salmon, crab and octopuses, the Skagit Valley Herald reports.

Foundation director Joan Drinkwin says between the time the program was launched in 2002 and the work was completed June 30, net removal restored 812 acres of marine habitat.

The organization is working with the fishing industry to prevent nets from becoming derelict. The organization also hopes to eventually recover lost fishing gear from deeper water.

Humpback whale rescued after CRAB fishing gear entanglement

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Crab pots, which require long vertical ropes through the water column, are a frequent source of entanglements. Fishermen and scientists are working together to minimize the risk to marine mammals.

Humpback whale rescued on high seas after reported entanglement

By Jason Hoppin, Monterey County Herald

Posted: 07/07/15, 6:28 PM PDT | Updated: 1 week ago

Members of the Whale Entanglement Team tracked this juvenile humpback up and down the Central Coast in an effort to free it from fishing gear. After four days, their efforts paid off when the whale swam free near the Gulf of the Farallones. (Photo courtesy Whale Entanglement Team, operating under MMHSRP Permit 18786)

Moss Landing >> A four-day odyssey to free a juvenile humpback entangled in fishing gear had a happy ending Monday when the whale finally swam free in the Gulf of the Farallones.

First spotted near Moss Landing, the whale was pursued by the Moss Landing-based Whale Entanglement Team with help from federal marine authorities. A crab pot line attached to gear later traced to Oregon had deformed the whale’s upper jaw and immobilized a flipper.

Over four grueling days that often lasted late into the night, the team tracked the whale and eventually was able to cut the whale free of the line. Officials said the prognosis appears to be good.

“We feel that it’s a young whale and it should survive,” said Peggy Stap, executive director and founder of Marine Life Studies and part of the Whale Entanglement Team.

So far this year, 40 whales have been reported entangled in the North Pacific Ocean, with 15 of those in the Monterey Bay alone. Researchers are still looking for two whales reported locally as being entangled.

In all of 2014, there were just 10 reported entanglements in the Monterey Bay area.

Stap estimated the whale at 33 feet, and despite its encumbrances, led rescuers from Moss Landing south to Point Sur before heading north past Año Nuevo. Whale Entanglement Team lead responder Pieter Folkens said the whale had life-threatening injuries, and rescuers feared the whale would lose its flipper.

Moss Landing-based Sanctuary Cruises first reported the whale. Rescuers tracked it with radio telemetry, and were aided by the U.S. Coast Guard and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, often not returning to harbor until near midnight.

“It was just insane,” a weary Stap said.

Crab pots, which require long vertical ropes through the water column, are a frequent source of entanglements. Fishermen and scientists are working together to minimize the risk to marine mammals.

After Rampant Overhunting, Sea Otters Still Dying

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Death of two endangered sea otters at Long Beach sparks inquiry

http://www.dailyastorian.com/Local_News/20150604/death-of-two-endangered-sea-otters-at-long-beach-sparks-inquiry

By Matt WintersThe Daily Astorian

June 4, 2015 7:35AM

NATALIE ST. JOHN — EO Media Group
A deceased sea otter washed ashore near Cranberry beach approach May 27. The marine mammals remain very rare in the vicinity of the mouth of the Columbia River after rampant overhunting between the late 1700s and early 1900s. This otter and another found earlier in May could have been delivered here by ocean currents, a federal biologist believes.

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A deceased sea otter washed ashore near Cranberry beach approach May 27. The marine mammals remain very rare in the vicinity of the mouth of the Columbia River after rampant overhunting between the late 1700s and early 1900s. This otter and another found earlier in May could have been delivered here by ocean currents, a federal biologist believes.
LONG BEACH, Wash. — Two dead northern sea otters have washed up on Long Beach in recent weeks, a surprise since the marine mammals — which are classified as endangered in Washington state — are not known to live here.

Biologists with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the lead agency looking into the deaths, believe the otters likely picked up a deadly protozoa and may not have died here at all.

A mature female sea otter found on May 27 by a home-school group just north of Cranberry beach approach is frozen and now on its way to Madison, Wis., where it will be examined at the National Wildlife Health Center lab run by U.S. Geological Survey. They will test the organs and look for lesions on the brain.

It could be months before people here know exactly how or why the otter died.

Another otter washed ashore about a week or 10 days earlier closer to downtown Long Beach and was too decayed for scientific analysis.

“They very well could have floated from anywhere up north,” said Fish and Wildlife Services Biologist Deanna Lynch.

Though some people suspected recent high levels of a marine toxin called domoic acid off the Long Beach Peninsula could have contributed to the otters’ deaths, Lynch says it is far more likely to be protozoal encephalitis, a disease otters can pick up through their food.

Historical context

Most of the world’s sea otters live in coastal Alaska, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. They have only recently started making a comeback in Washington state.

Here they eat sea urchins, clams, crabs and mussels. They must consume 25 percent of their body weight in food each day to maintain their high metabolism.

Sea otter pelts were once considered a pillar of the Lower Columbia River economy. Between 1700 and 1911, an estimated 1 million sea otters were trapped and killed for their fur along North America’s Pacific coast.

After being absent from the state for decades, 59 sea otters from Alaska were introduced to the Washington coast in 1969 and 1970. The sea otter was listed as a state endangered species in 1981, and has grown at an annual average rate of 8.2 percent from 1989 to 2004, according to WDFW surveys.

By 2010, they were believed to number about 1,000.

A survey from 2012 found the state’s largest concentration of otters was 562 around Destruction Island off the northern Olympia Peninsula. WDFW recovery plans predict that sea otters could be found once again in their historical southern habitat such as Grays Harbor and Willapa Bay.

The first modern Columbia sighting was on March 12, 2009, at North Head. Later in the same week, a sea otter was spotted at Cape Disappointment State Park. No official sightings were reported between then and the recent discoveries of deceased otters, though occasional appearances have been rumored.

The animals are protected by the federal Marine Mammal Protection Act, with steep fines and imprisonment for anyone convicted of harming or harassing them.

Because sea otters are so rare, confirmed sightings and strandings are important to report. If you see a sea otter, gather as much detail about the sighting as possible — its color, what it was doing, and where it was — then call 1-87-SEAOTTER to report your sighting.

If you encounter a stranded sea otter, do not approach it. It is illegal to handle sea otters and other marine mammals.

“The best advice we can give is stay clear and observe, don’t get near it no matter what,” Lynch said. “They can move faster than you think they can.”

‘Sea’ versus ‘river’

Many “sea otter” sightings in modern times are really just river otters taking dips in the ocean. Both species are members of the weasel family, a group that includes everything from minks to wolverines. But they are very different from each other. Several characteristics can help you identify which type of otter you are seeing:

• Adult sea otters are much bigger, reaching close to 5 or 6 feet long.

• They are stout animals with a thick multi-layered coat of fur.

• The fur on their bodies is usually dark brown while the fur on their heads can sometimes be lighter tan color.

• Both river and sea otters have webbed feet, but while river otters have distinct paws with claws and webbing, sea otters possess two flipper-like back feet in addition to their clawed and webbed forepaws.

• Sea otters rarely come to shore. They eat, sleep, mate and give birth in the ocean. They may drape themselves in kelp to keep from drifting while they sleep or gang up with other sea otters to float in large “rafts” on the ocean.

• They rarely come to land unless they are sick or the waves are simply too rough for them.

Spike In Dolphin Deaths Directly Tied To Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, Researchers Say

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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/05/20/deepwater-horizon-dolphin-deaths_n_7346250.html

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Posted: 05/20/2015 7:12 pm EDT Updated: 05/20/2015 7:59 pm EDT

GULF DOLPHIN

Dolphins swim near a boat carrying the Florida governor on a tour of oil skimming efforts in Pensacola Bay in Pensacola, Fla., Saturday, June 26, 2010. (AP Photo/Dave Martin) | ASSOCIATED PRESS
A dramatic increase in dolphin deaths in the Gulf of Mexico is directly linked to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, scientists concluded in a report published Wednesday.

Following the 2010 explosion on the drilling rig owned by British Petroleum (BP) and the subsequent spill of 4.9 million barrels (205.8 million gallons) of oil into the ocean, scientists have documented 1,281 dead and stranded cetaceans, primarily bottlenose dolphins, along the northern coast of the Gulf of Mexico.

gulf dolphin

In this photo taken May 10, 2015, a dead dolphin washes ashore in the Gulf of Mexico on Grand Isle, Louisiana.

In 2011, Louisiana saw 163 dolphins stranded, while Mississippi had 111. By comparison, each of those states saw an average of 20 such incidents per year from 2002 through 2009, reported the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

One in three of the dolphins recovered from the coasts of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama suffered from otherwise rarely-seen adrenal lesions consistent with petroleum product exposure, according to a report from NOAA’s Office of Response and Restoration. In Barataria Bay, Louisiana, one of the areas hit hardest by the oil spill, half of the dolphins showed similar lesions. In contrast, only 7 percent of stranded dolphins found outside of the Deepwater Horizon spill zone have had similar adrenal gland damage.

The adrenal gland produces and regulates a wide range of hormones, which, in turn, help manage basic bodily functions including metabolism and blood pressure.

gulf dolphin

A dolphin lies on dead on a beach on Horn Island, in the Gulf of Mexico, Tuesday, May 11, 2010.

“Animals with adrenal insufficiency are less able to cope with additional stressors in their everyday lives,” Stephanie Venn-Watson, the study’s lead author and a veterinary epidemiologist at the National Marine Mammal Foundation, explained, “and when those stressors occur, they are more likely to die.”

In addition to adrenal gland damage, researchers found 22 percent of dolphins suffered from serious bacterial pneumonia. In 70 percent of those animals, the lung disease was severe enough to have “either caused or contributed significantly to death,” the researchers noted.

Outside of the spill area, only 2 percent of dolphins had similar lung disease.

“The evidence to date indicates that the Deepwater Horizon oil spill caused the adrenal and lung lesions that contributed to the deaths of this unusual mortality event,” Venn-Watson told the New York Times. “We reached that conclusion based on the accumulation of our studies including this paper.”

BP responded to the report by questioning the link between dolphin deaths and the oil spill.

“This new paper fails to show that the illnesses observed in some dolphins were caused by exposure to Macondo oil,” Geoff Morell, BP’s senior vice president for U.S. communications and external affairs, told AFP.

“According to NOAA, the Gulf ‘unusual mortality event’ (UME) began in February 2010, months before the spill. … Even though the UME may have overlapped in some areas with the oil spill, correlation is not evidence of causation,” Morell added.

Jane Goodall: SeaWorld ‘should be closed down’

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http://www.wfla.com/story/28921634/jane-goodall-seaworld-should-be-closed-down#WNPoll146628

Apr 28, 2015 <em class=”wnDate”>Tuesday, April 28, 2015 3:59 PM EDT</em>

By CNN News

Jane Goodall is best known for her work with primates, but she is making waves for saying SeaWorld should be shut down.

In an interview with the Huffington Post, Goodall said whales and dolphins should never be held in captivity and that the theme park famous for its orcas should be put out of business.

“They definitely should be closed down,” Goodall told HuffPo in an interview published Monday.

SeaWorld (SEAS)has come under fire for its treatment of killer whales, or orcas, after the sharply critical documentary “Blackfish” aired in theaters in the summer of 2013 and on CNN in the fall of that year.

Goodall points out that whales and dolphins communicate with sonar-like sound waves. Keeping them confined in tanks means those sound waves bounce off of the walls and echo back, creating what she called an “acoustical hell” for the animals.

SeaWorld said in a statement that it works with experts in “bioacoustics” to measure the noise level in its enclosures, which it says are quieter than the “ambient ocean.”

The company suggested that Goodall may not be familiar with recent research on whales and dolphins kept in zoos.

“Jane Goodall is a respected scientist and advocate for the world’s primates, but we couldn’t disagree more with her on this,” SeaWorld said in a statement. “Zoos and marine mammal parks like SeaWorld allow people to experience animals in a way that is inspiring and educational.”

More broadly, Goodall said she is hopeful that humans are becoming less interested in watching orcas perform and more sympathetic to their plight in captivity.

“It’s not only that they’re really big, highly intelligent and social animals so that the capture and confinement in itself is cruel,” she said, but also that “they have emotions like ours.”

Goodall’s comments come amid an ongoing backlash against SeaWorld.

Attendance at SeaWorld parks, which are located in Orlando, San Diego and San Antonio, has declined since “Blackfish” premiered.

“Blackfish” recounts the 2010 death of veteran SeaWorld trainer who was killed by a whale named Tilikum. It challenges the concept of keeping killer whales for entertainment and suggests that Tilikum had been driven to madness by captivity.

The company has also lost some of its long-standing corporate sponsors, including Southwest Airlines (LUV), which dissolved its 26-year-long partnership with the company. Mattel (MAT), which made a SeaWorld-themed Barbie, confirmed last week that it would not renew its licensing agreement with the company.

Meanwhile, SeaWorld’s stock price has gone into a tailspin, falling roughly 48% since the documentary debuted.

The Jane Goodall Institution did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Also See, L.A. Times Editorial SUNY chimp case questions animals’ right to freedom: http://www.latimes.com/opinion/editorials/la-ed-chimps-20150504-story.html

 

Captive Killer Whales Die Much Younger than Wild Orcas

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Captive Killer Whales Die Much Younger than Wild Orcas
By Marc Bekoff Ph.D. on April 29, 2015 in Animal Emotions
A new study shows captive killer whales don’t live as long as wild relatives. The researchers show that “62 to 81 percent of wild female killer whales live at least 15 years. In contrast, only 27 percent of the now-dead females in the captive study survived that long. Roughly half of the still-living captive female whales are at least 15 years old.”

Federal judge rules U.S. Navy Pacific training harms too many marine mammals

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Federal judge rules U.S. Navy Pacific training harms too many marine mammals

April 1, 2015 by

U.S. Navy–RIMPAC 2012

In a 66-page ruling handed down today, U.S. District Court Judge Susan Oki Mollway in Honolulu ruled that the National Marine Fisheries Services should not have approved the U.S. Navy’s training activities in the Pacific Ocean a couple years ago because they harm too many marine mammals.

“The Navy and Fisheries Service had concluded that, over the plan’s five-year period, the Navy’s use of explosives and sonar, along with vessel strikes, could result in thousands of animals suffering death, permanent hearing loss or lung injuries,” stated an April 1 news release on the ruling from Earthjustice, which legally challenged the Fisheries Service approval in December 2013 on behalf of the Conservation Council for Hawaii, Animal Welfare Institute, Center for Biological Diversity and Ocean Mammal Institute. “Millions of others could be left with temporary injuries and significant disruptions to feeding, breeding, communicating, resting and other essential behaviors. In all, the Navy’s plan would cause an estimated 9.6 million instances of harm to marine mammals.”

That’s a huge number. Nearly three years ago, when I wrote this story on the Navy’s proposed Pacific testing and training activities, the estimate of instances of harm was just around 2 million. Of that, the Navy estimated, the exercises would kill 200 mammals and inflict another 1,600 injuries each year.

For its part, the Navy says it must conduct training exercises in the Pacific, especially using active sonar, to keep the nation safe. This, Earthjustice attorney David Henkin says, doesn’t give the service the right to inflict biological damage wherever they see fit.

“The court’s ruling recognizes that, to defend our country, the Navy doesn’t need to train in every square inch of a swath of ocean larger than all 50 United States combined,” said Henkin in the Earthjustice news release. “The Navy can fulfill its mission and, at the same time, avoid the most severe harm to dolphins, whales and countless other marine animals by simply limiting training and testing in a small number of biologically sensitive areas.”

Mollway’s ruling wasn’t subtle, either, and stated that the Navy exercises violate the Marine Mammals Protection Act (MMPA), Endangered Species Act and National Environmental Policy Act. Here’s her ruling on the MMPA:

“No one is disputing the importance of military readiness, but recognition of that importance does not permit the parties or this court to ignore the MMPA. Although MMPA provisions have been adjusted with respect to military activities, those adjustments do not permit the Navy to skirt the MMPA purely to avoid having its training and testing activities interrupted.”

Mollway was also downright sarcastic and even a little mean:

The government actions that are challenged in this case permit the Navy to conduct training and testing exercises even if they end up harming a stunning number of marine mammals, some of which are endangered or threatened. Searching the administrative record’s reams of pages for some explanation as to why the Navy’s activities were authorized by the National Marine Fisheries Service (“NMFS”), this court feels like the sailor in Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” who, trapped for days on a ship becalmed in the middle of the ocean, laments, “Water, water, every where, Nor any drop to drink.”

According to this Los Angeles Times story from earlier today, the Navy is still “studying the ruling and could not comment on its details.”

Photo of 2012 RIMPAC exercises: Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Apprentice Ryan J. Mayes/U.S. Navy/Wikimedia Commons

SeaWorld has new ad campaign after disparaging documentary

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SeaWorld has new ad campaign after disparaging documentary
By MIKE SCHNEIDER, Associated Press Published: Mar 23, 2015
http://www.komonews.com/news/local/SeaWorld-has-new-ad-campaign-after-disparaging-documentary-297269921.html
FILE – In this Monday, March 7, 2011, file photo, park guests watch as a killer whale flips out of the water at SeaWorld Orlando’s Shamu Stadium in Orlando, Fla. (AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack, File)
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — SeaWorld is starting an advertising campaign in the wake of declining revenue and attendance that followed the release of a highly critical documentary.

The campaign that began Monday focuses on the marine-life theme park’s efforts at caring for animals in captivity and in the wild.

SeaWorld Entertainment Inc. has faced declining revenue and attendance since the release of the 2013 documentary “Blackfish.” The documentary examined what led a killer whale to drown a trainer in 2010 at SeaWorld’s Orlando park.

Last year, SeaWorld’s revenue declined 3 percent from the previous year. Its chief executive resigned, and the company announced plans to build larger environments for its marine mammals.

SeaWorld said last week that Joel Manby will become its new president and CEO.

Immediate Help Needed: Keep Whales and Dolphins Out of Captivity

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ALERT

March 5, 2015

PLEASE BROADCAST NOW

NOTE: I think it important that form letters and emails be avoided and that the calls not be identified with an organization to help prevent reactions from legislators who will vote against anything “animal”.

Immediate Help Needed: Keep Whales and Dolphins Out of Captivity

Who: All Washington State residents, any age. Young people who do not want to see whales and dolphins in captivity are encouraged to call when their parents do.

What: Contact your legislators. Washington State Legislature House Bill 2115 would prohibit captivity of whales, dolphins and porpoise for entertainment and exploitation. It is under attack and being blocked from leaving the Rules Committee which decides if a bill will proceed to debate and vote by the full Washington State House of Representatives.

When: Now. All bills must be voted out of the House by Wednesday or they die.

How:

a)      If your Representative is on the Rules Committee, call their office or email them.

b)      Call your Representatives who are not on the Rules Committee. If many people call their Representatives, your voice will flow to the Rules Committee.

c)      If you need to find who your Representatives are in Washington State, go here.

Please act now!

Should dolphin hunting be completely banned?

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Vote in Poll Here: https://netivist.org/debate/should-dolphin-hunting-be-banned

Dolphin meat is part of the cuisine of some countries, however this is not the only driver for dolphin hunts. Dolphins are often hunted to be sold to aquatic parks and dolphinariums for shows and swimming courses. Dolphin hunting has become highly controversial and has raised international criticism, not only due to the cruelty toward dolphins but also to the possible health risk that the often polluted meat causes. Despite criticisms, thousands of dolphins are caught in drive hunts each year. Many of them are killed for their meat but many others end up in dolphinariums and aquatic parks. The Taiji dolphin drive hunt is probably the most famous of those traditional hunts and provide income for hundred of local residents. The residents of Taiji and the surrounding area have been refining whaling techniques since the 17th century and now run annually a large scale dolphin drive hunt.

Is dolphin hunting following traditional methods justifiable? What if dolphins are not slaughtered but sold to aquatic parks? Do dolphins deserve a special treatment compared to other animals? Should dolphin hunting be completely banned?