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Loading...Scientists Link Mass Dolphin Deaths To BP Oil Spill
For over a month now, scientists have been baffled by the massive number of dead infant and adult dolphins washing ashore along the Gulf Coast.
Despite a government order to keep their findings confidential, wildlife biologists investigating the deaths revealed that oil has been discovered on the dolphin bodies, and some of it came from the BP oil spill.
In a conference call with reporters on Thursday, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said that of the 406 dolphins that have washed ashore in the last 14 months, 15 of them had oil on their bodies. Of that number, eight have been linked to oil from the BP catastrophe last year in the Gulf of Mexico (Digital Journal).
Sign the petition: Prosecute BP For Dolphin Deaths
Blair Mase, the NOAA Fisheries southeast marine mammal stranding coordinator, said: “It is significant that even a year after the oil spill we are finding oil on the dolphins, the latest just two weeks ago,” according to Reuters.
There have been 153 deaths since January 1, 2011, 65 of them newly born or stillborn calves, NOAA officials said on Thursday.
Experts are still speculating about how the baby dophins were exposed to the toxic oil. It’s assumed that oil ingested or inhaled by dolphins at the time of the spill had taken a belated toll on the marine mammals, possibly leading to dolphin miscarriages.
Although BP has done its best to stay out of the headlines since the catastrophic Deepwater Horizon explosion, the company recently came under fire for omitting figures from the three month-long spill in its annual sustainability report.
BP claimed that figures for the Deepwater Horizon spill were omitted because of a lack of definitive figures.
Sign the petition: Prosecute BP For Dolphin Deaths
Related Reading:
Environment Beyond BP: Politics, Policy and Power
New Oil Spill Spreading Across Gulf of Mexico
Offshore Drilling: Is Energy Worth The Ecological Disaster Of Oil Spills?
Read more: bp, calves, dolphins, environment & wildlife, gulf coast, mass mortality, ocean, oil spill, restoration, sustaintmc
Image Credit: Flickr - Jesslee Cuizon
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+ add your ownHow disgraceful is!!! i cannot believe what we human being are doing to all the animals of the earth!!
JUST WATCHED THE COVE AGAIN....AND IT REALLY BROUGHT ME TO TEARS!! THESE BEAUTIFUL, UNIQUE CREATURES DESERVE PROTECTION AND THEY DESERVE IT NOW!! WHO CAN HELP TO CLOSE THE COVE IN JAPAN AND STOP THE YEARLY SLAUGHTER OF OVER 20K DOLPHINS???
u r so cruell!!
My last comment was about electric cars replacing oil guzzlers.
After doing some research it seems electric cars might have some unexpected problems, especially when it comes to accidents.
The new Chevy "Volt" runs on 300 volt DC current. That's a serious problem for rescuers should you be involved in an accident, not to mention the danger of injury to the vehicle's occupants.
THE INNOCENT ALWAYS PAYS THE HIGH PRICE FOR THE GREEDY
BP go out of business!!
I HATE BP!
UUGGGH. It angers me so much. Even if BP is prosecuted, which they better be, they can't take back the damage! If we are weren't so greedy and lazy, we wouldn't have to have been drilling for the oil. We've already caused so many deaths to the animals and caused so many to go extinct or to the point of extinction, it's ridiculous and devastating! There needs to be a huge change, I'm not sure what, but it needs to be big.
What else?
BP & Halliburton deserve to be prosecuted. In the UK and Europe, the regulations surrounding the construction of oil rigs is much tighter. If they hadn't cut costs and ignored the safety reports the oil spill wouldn't have happened. The environment and every living creature have been affected by their greed. I'd like to think that they cared, but it's clear, by their actions, that they don't.
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