HUMANS ARE PREDATORS !

THE INDISCRIMINATE DUMPING OF CHEMICAL AND OTHER WASTE IN OUR OCEANS MEANS THAT MANY DOLPHIN POPULATIONS ARE SUB-

JECTED TO A COCKTAIL OF TOXIC POLLUTANTS. THE CURRENT PLIGHT OF THE DOLPHINS IS AN INDICATOR

OF WIDER PROBLEMS IN THE MA-RINE ENVIRONMENT.

CAUSES OF EXTINCTION.

In 1987 large numbers of dead bottlenose dolphins (in excess of 700) were washed up on the coast of New Jersey, in the eastern USA. The dolphins were

covered in sores, and their skin had become de-tached over large areas of their bodies. It was con-cluded that the dolphin’s immune system had been seriously damaged, and that consequently they had succumbed to a variety of pathogens. The question still remains as to the cause of this immunosuppres-

sant. The US Government’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) declared that

the cause was the ingestion of fish which contained toxins produced by a “red tide”. A red tide is a type of plankton, resulting from extreme environmental fac-tors . They produce a toxin known as brevotoxin, and the NOAA declared that it was this substance enter-

ing the food chain that had caused the demise of the dolphins. However, it is widely held that the result

of the demise of the dolphins is because of dumping waste of many different types. And this was proved

this during the inspection of dead dolphins on toxins.

The dolphin has evolved over a period in ex-cess of 30 million years to be superbly adapt-ed to it’s environment. It is a highly stream-lined and efficient

swimmer, due to it’s shape and the com-position of it’s skin

which reduces friction to a minimum.

It has a highly de-veloped brain, and

if we ignore the mass of blubber under it’s skin, it

is the only animal to have a greater brain mass/body weight ratio than man. The enter-

tainment industry has been exploiting this adaptation for

many years.

WE MUST DO SOME-THING TO STOP IT!

There are no captive dolphins in the United King-dom. This has been achieved by educating people to the plight of captive dolphins, together with a total commitment by members of or-ganisations like IDW who have campaigned re-lentlessly over many years.

The situation is also improving in Europe due to similar efforts, but regrettably, this is not so in the USA, where pow-erful commercial organisations gain substantial rev-enue from “entertaining” with captive dolphins. Their publicity machines even strive to convince people that they are engaged in valuable research aimed ultimately at improving the dolphin’s lot. Don’t be fooled.

Dolphins and Commercial

FishingA major player in prevent-

able dolphin deaths is commercial fishing. Fish-ing techniques including

gill netting, trawling purse seining lead to dolphin in-jury or deaths via entangle-ment or drowning. Oceana works to prevent bycatch by defending the U.S. leg-islation that protects ma-

rine mammals, pushing the National Marine Fisheries Service to reduce dolphin bycatch, and participating on a stakeholder team with fishermen and scientist to find ways to reduce dol-

phin bycatch.

Representative person of the company Oceana.

Company Leaders.

Saving the ‘Dol-

phin Deadline’

After months of persistent

campaigning by Oceana, the U.S. House of Repre-

sentatives passed legislation that

maintains an im-portant deadline

for protecting tens of thou-

sands of dolphins, whales and other

beloved ocean creatures from

becoming by-catch.

Representative person of the company Oceana.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.http://www.idw.org/html/dolphins_in_danger.html http://oceana.org/en/our-work/protect-marine-wildlife/dolphins/overview http://www.dolphinspotter.karoo.net/factdanger.htm http://www.eurocbc.org/page608.html