http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/science/03/03...s.ap/index.html


Stranded dolphins die in Florida Keys


Friday, March 4, 2005 Posted: 10:41 PM EST (0341 GMT)

MARATHON, Florida (AP) -- Nineteen dolphins that became stranded off the Florida Keys have died, including 13 who were euthanized, officials said Friday.

More than 30 others will be moved to rehabilitation facilities Saturday.

The dolphins were euthanized after blood tests showed 13 of them were "not likely to recover at all and that they are suffering," said Laura Engleby, a biologist with the National Marine Fisheries Service.

"Some were still not swimming on their own, and they couldn't hold themselves up," Denise Jackson of the Marine Mammal Rescue Team said.

More than 60 rough-tooth dolphins beached themselves Wednesday on flats and sandbars about a quarter mile off Marathon. Rescue teams moved the dolphins to a nearby canal where veterinarians have been conducting medical tests.

The remaining 31 live dolphins were being given Pedialyte -- a drink normally given to dehydrated human babies -- and fresh water, Jackson said.

Teams planned to move them by Saturday morning to rehabilitation facilities along the Keys or on the mainland, officials said.

Marine mammals may become stranded when they are sick, injured or disoriented, Engleby said. Scientists performing necropsies will take genetic samples to determine whether the dolphins all came from the same population.

Rough-tooth dolphins normally inhabit deep waters in the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean.

Marathon, in the middle of the Florida Keys, is about 46 miles east of Key West.

This is so sad!

Well, the same thing seems to be happening with whales beaching en masse...

The latest theory is that instuments used underwater by the Navy interfere with these mammals' sonar. Sonar is how dolphins and whales navigate--bouncing soundwaves off of objects. It's entirely possible their courses are being altered due to military activity underwater. I wonder what else in the natural world we fabulous humans can manage to destroy...? Guess nothing's safe!

It needs to stop!

I can't stand to hear about defenseless animals being killed.
Dolphins are suppose to be extremely intelligent.

I'm going to look into this some more over the weekend when I have more time to research

I know...I love animals, too. Because animals rock, I will now post, in their honor, my favorite little ditty about them (thanks to Walt Whitman, my poet du jour):

I think I could turn and live with animals, they are so placid and self-contain'd;
I stand and look at them long and long.
They do not sweat and whine about their condition;
They do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their sins;
They do not make me sick discussing their duty to God;
Not one is dissatisfied--not one is demented with the mania of owning things;
Not one kneels to another, nor to his kind that lived thousands of years ago;
Not one is respectable or industrious over the whole earth.
So they show their relations to me, and I accept them;
They bring me tokens of myself--they envince me plainly in their possession.


I happen to agree with Walt's assesment of the animals, and if we as thinking humans continue to do things to kill them off needlessly, then we as thinking humans pretty much suck.

Late last night, on the radio, I heard a wildlife expert saying she believes the reason those dolphins came ashore could be one of four things:

Navigational devices (as readyinTX discussed)

The increased use of microwaves (cell phones, satellites, etc.)

Navy Tests (experiments in the ocean)

Or, the last one (and the one I lean toward-- since those dolphins were sick) is an increase in heavy metals in our ocean.....she hopes they will test the brain matter for heavy metals when they perform the autopsies.

We simply cannot continue to use our ocean waters as dumping grounds without paying the price. Without healthy oceans, we will all pay the price-- not only whales and dolphins.

After all, how does anybody know we will be saved by a second coming in the next couple of years (like the fanatical evangelicals say)? Let's just pretend, shall we, that we might need our planet for another million or so years to come. Okay?