Dolphin rescued

It happened with the help of the U.S. Coast Guard, the U.S. Army, a team of volunteer marine experts from Texas and local residents of Cameron Parish, La.

NBC News reporter Kerry Sanders first came across the animal earlier this week, but he was unable to free the animal from it's watery prison behind a row of marsh grass.

Sanders' story on the dolphin and his call for help made the animal a local celebrity.

But some town residents said the attention given the dolphin seemed misplaced with all of the devastation caused by the storm.

But even some who lost everything were not without a soft spot. "We need to save the dolphin," said resident Rusty Welch. "No need to let it die right there. There's no need for anything to die a senseless death."

So the rescue team rehearsed, corralled and then captured the dolphin.

It was loaded on a Coast Guard helicopter for the flight across the marshes to the beach.
There were concerns during the 21-minute flight about the dolphin's breathing. Dolphins will sometimes instinctively stop breathing when they're out of the water.

But it survived the trip. At the beach, the team gingerly lowered the dolphin back into the Gulf of Mexico. Once it got its bearings, it swam off into the wild.

Military trained dolphins may not be as dangerous as anticipated

The Guardian Unlimited ran a story on September 25 about armed dolphins having escaped from US Naval facilities during Hurricane Katrina. The article explains the dolphins have been trained to shoot toxic darts at terrorists and spies using a specially designed harness and could prove extremely dangerous to surfers, divers and windsurfers should they be mistaken for terrorists by the dolphins. It went on to state, “The US Navy admits it has been training dolphins for military purposes, but has refused to confirm that any are missing.”

It’s a great yarn and it really got us going, until we checked with the US Navy’s press office and found the following press release had been issued on September 17, eight days prior to the Guardian's article. It reads, “Kelly the dolphin is placed in a temporary saltwater pool in a facility at Naval Construction Battalion Center Gulfport. Kelly has spent the last two and a half weeks in the Gulf of Mexico with four other dolphins who escaped when Hurricane Katrina destroyed their home at the Marine Life Oceanarium in Gulfport.” The press release continues ...

“The aboveground pool, along with other necessary filtration equipment needed to care for sea mammals, was provided by U.S. Navy Marine Mammal Program personnel from San Diego, Calif. Department of Defense units are mobilized as part of Joint Task Force Katrina to support the Federal Emergency Management Agency's disaster-relief efforts in the Gulf Coast areas devastated by Hurricane Katrina.”

The photo is the work of Petty Officer 3rd Class Chris Gethings, U.S. Navy.

And we suspect that surfers and divers and other aquatic users are probably safe to go back in the water now.

Dolphin stranded miles away from Gulf

Hurricane Rita didn't only displace people, it also stranded a dolphin four miles from its home in the Gulf of Mexico.

South Cameron, La., which is deep in the bayou, was directly in Rita's cross hairs. It's now accessible only by boat or helicopter.

While NBC News' Kerry Sanders was interviewing a returning homeowner, they heard a splash in a ditch next to the road.

A dolphin had been caught in the storm surge. When the waters receded, the animal had been trapped behind marsh grasses in just 4 feet of water.

With no one else around, Sanders jumped in the water and tried to clear a path through the marsh grasses.

Despite his best efforts, when the dolphin tried to make it through the grasses, it became tangled.

Sanders called the U.S. Navy, where officials said they would try and get to the dolphin's location.

Sanders planned to be there when the Navy and a civilian team of experts came to rescue the stranded animal.

Celebrity auction held for dolphin and whale charity

A host of A-list celebrities from film, music and sport have donated items to UK-based charity Marine Connection to help raise funds for dolphin and whale conservation work. Signed items from celebrities, such as Ozzy Osbourne, Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise, David Bowie and sporting idols Sir Geoff Hurst and Michael Schumacher and the winning Ashes England cricket squad, will be under the hammer at the prestigious London nightclub Chinawhite on Thursday 6 October. Guest can also bid for a VIP whale-watching trip Boston, a dolphin-watching weekend in the UK and a host of other prizes. A limited amount of tickets are available at a cost of £50 per person. Complimentary drinks, canapés and entertainment are included in the price. Tickets holders are also entitled to stay at the club until 3am following the auction.

Trained firing dolphins, armed and dangerous

Heavily-armed, frightened, and confused. No, we don't mean the Bush Administration, but a group of killer dolphins trained by the US Navy and lately washed into the Gulf of Mexico by Hurricane Katrina, if The Guardian is to be believed.

According to an Observer report by Mark Townsend Houston, Navy dolphins trained to shoot suspected terrorist frogmen with narcotic dart guns mounted on their heads have gone over the top, and may be menacing divers, and perhaps nice dolphins like the ones recently found cowering near their former pens at the Marine Life Oceanarium in Gulfport, Mississippi. No wonder they were so frightened.

The evidence for this report is the loose speculation of one Leo Sheridan - "a respected accident investigator who has worked for government and industry" - who, we are told, "had received intelligence from sources close to the US government's marine fisheries service confirming that dolphins had escaped."

"If divers or windsurfers are mistaken for a spy or suicide bomber, and if [the animals are] equipped with special harnesses carrying toxic darts, they could fire," Sheridan told the Observer. "The darts are designed to put the target to sleep so they can be interrogated later, but what happens if the victim is not found for hours?" he fretted.

Worrying to be sure. We find, however, that Sheridan has made sport of gullible reporters in the past. In 2003, he was confident that he and a team of divers he advised had located the site where English aviator Amy Johnson died, after her plane went into the sea off Kent in 1941. The Guardian carried that item too. Not surprisingly, there has been little news about Johnson's plane since the announcement.

He also appears to have been confident, back in 1998, that a group of US Navy killer dolphins had come to grief off the French Mediterranean coast when they got loose and their handlers detonated a "radio-controlled explosion of their signal collars, so that no one could find out their missions." (Find out their missions?)

Now, admittedly, the US Navy does use trained dolphins, by its own admission. They're useful for mine detection and for locating suspected enemy swimmers, rescuing friendly swimmers, and the like. But we find ourselves persuaded by the Navy's explanation that dolphins, being an alien species with an entirely different sensory and cognitive apparatus, are ill equipped to detect and process the subtle signals that humans use to distinguish between friend and foe, and are therefore unsuited to search-and-destroy missions.

But dolphin assassins would make great fodder for a B-movie suspense script.

Dolphins trained by US Military, loose in Gulf of Mexico

It may be the oddest tale to emerge from the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Armed dolphins, trained by the US military to shoot terrorists and pinpoint spies underwater, may be missing in the Gulf of Mexico.

Experts who have studied the US navy's cetacean training exercises claim the 36 mammals could be carrying 'toxic dart' guns. Divers and surfers risk attack, they claim, from a species considered to be among the planet's smartest. The US navy admits it has been training dolphins for military purposes, but has refused to confirm that any are missing.

Dolphins have been trained in attack-and-kill missions since the Cold War. The US Atlantic bottlenose dolphins have apparently been taught to shoot terrorists attacking military vessels. Their coastal compound was breached during the storm, sweeping them out to sea. But those who have studied the controversial use of dolphins in the US defence programme claim it is vital they are caught quickly.

Leo Sheridan, 72, a respected accident investigator who has worked for government and industry, said he had received intelligence from sources close to the US government's marine fisheries service confirming dolphins had escaped.

'My concern is that they have learnt to shoot at divers in wetsuits who have simulated terrorists in exercises. If divers or windsurfers are mistaken for a spy or suicide bomber and if equipped with special harnesses carrying toxic darts, they could fire,' he said. 'The darts are designed to put the target to sleep so they can be interrogated later, but what happens if the victim is not found for hours?'

Usually dolphins were controlled via signals transmitted through a neck harness. 'The question is, were these dolphins made secure before Katrina struck?' said Sheridan.

The mystery surfaced when a separate group of dolphins was washed from a commercial oceanarium on the Mississippi coast during Katrina. Eight were found with the navy's help, but the dolphins were not returned until US navy scientists had examined them.

Sheridan is convinced the scientists were keen to ensure the dolphins were not the navy's, understood to be kept in training ponds in a sound in Louisiana, close to Lake Pontchartrain, whose waters devastated New Orleans.

The navy launched the classified Cetacean Intelligence Mission in San Diego in 1989, where dolphins, fitted with harnesses and small electrodes planted under their skin, were taught to patrol and protect Trident submarines in harbour and stationary warships at sea.

Criticism from animal rights groups ensured the use of dolphins became more secretive. But the project gained impetus after the Yemen terror attack on the USS Cole in 2000. Dolphins have also been used to detect mines near an Iraqi port.

Help needed in dolphin's stabbing incident

STATE Government wildlife officers believe a man who rang their call centre could hold key information on a department investigation into a dolphin's death.

The Sustainability and Environment Department yesterday appealed to the man who called the department's customer service centre and the Dolphin Research Institute on Thursday to ring back.
The man's call followed widespread media coverage this week about the death of a Port Phillip bottlenose dolphin. Department workers recovered the body near Geelong's Eastern Beach after people walking at Limeburners Point spotted it about 30 metres off shore on Monday.

Department spokesman Ron Waters said department investigators needed to speak to the caller as soon as possible.

``Until we have the opportunity to speak with this person we cannot speculate on the likely authenticity of his information,.'' Mr Waters said.

He urged the man, who had given detailed, identical information to the customer service centre and the institute, to call the centre again on 136 186.

``As terrific as it is to get anonymous information, we have to check the veracity of that information,'' Mr Waters said.

``Please feel confident in calling us, your report to us will be absolutely confidential, that is a guarantee, but we would like to speak to you.''

``If you ring the customer service centre you will be connected with an investigator.''

Mr Waters confirmed yesterday that extensive pathology tests were underway to definitively determine the cause of the dolphin's death. Seven people had called the centre about the incident.
Corio veterinary surgeon Dr Verne Dove, who did the post mortem, told the Geelong Advertiser on Wednesday someone would have ``needed a good 30cm knife and a fair bit of force to create the injuries''.

When news of the dolphin's death surfaced earlier this week, department investigators planned to interview a fisherman claiming to have stabbed a dead dolphin in an attempt to sink it.

``We've followed that report through but are looking at all information in this instance,'' Mr Waters said.
``. . .We're looking at that information, the pathology information that will come in the next few days and we'd certainly like to hear from this male caller who provided some quite specific information to us on Thursday.''

Tangalooma wild dolphin resort

THE appealing frolic of the Tangalooma dolphins is not just the result of sheer fun and games. The allure of the dolphins to hundreds of thousands of tourists each year is a well-planned activity.

Tourists at the Tangalooma Wild Dolphin Resort in Queensland.

Behind the scenes of the world famous Tangalooma Wild Dolphin Resort on Queensland's Moreton Island is a robust network populated with VXL thin client technology, offered by Thin Systems.The daily tourist attraction is a part of a highly ordered system and keeping this complex routine running is the extreme reliability of VXL.Robust VXL Itona terminals link the 40 or so staff operating the island resort to their mainland base, some 43 kilometres away in Brisbane.

The former defence outpost and whaling station is now home to an integrated resort playground comprised of 134 motel units, 56 two storey family villas, 96 hotel rooms, 23 houses and 16 luxury beach front apartments.In addition, the resort has a tourism centre, restaurant, bar, resort, retail shop and a function centre - all with the IT infrastructure remotely managed from Brisbane."At Tangalooma we offer a wide range of recreation activities to be organised, booked, scheduled, checked, paid for and audited where applicable,” said the IT expert at Tangalooma, Sean Murdoch.

“It is a sophisticated operation with a substantial database and marketing function, too,.”"The activities clients can enjoy are dolphin, pelican, cormorant and whale watching, sailing, tennis, squash, snorkeling, fishing, scuba, bush-walking, eco-walking, golf-driving, 4WD and even para sailing. It's a full-on experience and a rigorous test for our staff and their operating systems."With limited access to the island - a 75 minute cruise across Moreton Bay from Brisbane - technology reliability is at a premium," he said.

"Of course price and performance are important considerations in any IT purchase, but reliability and on the spot commitment to service are paramount for the smooth running of Tangalooma resort...and the dolphins.""We have purchased dozens of thin client terminals from VXL since 2002. We have kept on buying them, such as the Itona, because VXL is flexible enough to be able to be committed to their customers, even ones with difficult configurations like ours," said Mr Murdoch.

"Other heavyweight tech companies can't match the quality of service that VXL Australia delivers," said Managing Director of VXL Australia, Michael Crocombe. "That is one very good reason why VXL is now number the three global manufacturer of thin client
terminals."

"Naturally, across all our activities, we have a variety of employees using the terminals," said Mr Murdoch. "The VXL thin client technology is ideal to cope with the variation in the computing expertise and experience of the Tangalooma staffers - and from the software security point of view it offers peace of mind.”"The user intervention is minimised. And while the dolphins don't intervene at all, their famous show goes on smoothly each day with the VXL peace of mind behind the scenes."

Dolphins survival story

Our sister station, WLOX in Biloxi, was heavily damaged by Hurricane Katrina, but somehow managed to remain on the air during the entire ordeal. A number of Newswatch staffers have helped them out during this crisis. Drew Speier and Scott Galloway filed this story of survival during their time in Biloxi.

"We're heading to where the dolphins are at the west tip of the pier."

Moby Solangi, the president of Marine Life Oceanarium, is talking about these dolphins...six females and two males. All part of an incredible story of survival from Hurricane Katrina.
The dolphins were left behind here. Not much is left of their home at Marine Life in Gulfport Harbor. But then, somehow, just over a week after the storm, they were sighted.

Solangi picks up the story from there. "They showed up, ten days later, I mean we had been looking and I'm in a helicopter flying out, boom. What the heck is that?"

Trainers from Marine Life have been coming out to the dolphins several times a day feeding them and giving them medical attention and at some point they are going to capture these eight dolphins and bring them back home.

But experts with the NOAA fisheries are waiting for the right time to do so. NOAA expert Jeff Foster says, "That's correct, yea we've been working with them the last four days and we're trying to get some food into them now, trying to build their strength and we're also medicating them so they're in good shape. We're also doing some conditioning so we can acquire them a little easier."

The dolphins don't seem to mind waiting. They'll continue to stay together a few hundred yards off shore. And while they may be a little battered and bruised, they seem to be doing just swimmingly.

The day after our story aired, two of the dolphins were rescued and and two more were captured a short time later. And just Wednesday, the final four were recovered by personnel from NOAA fisheries. All eight are doing fine and are spending their time right now swimming around in saltwater tanks provided by the U.S. Navy.

Dolphins harassed by speed boat driver

A SPEED boat driver has been reported for harassing a pod of dolphins just days after one of the animals was slaughtered in a frenzied stabbing in Port Phillip Bay.

Dolphin Research Institute executive director Jeff Weir said a person called to complain about the driver spinning in tight circles around half a dozen dolphins frolicking off Mt Martha yesterday.

Mr Weir said the report was disturbing, coming on top of the senseless slaughter of an adolescent female dolphin washed ashore at Geelong's Eastern Beach on Sunday.
An autopsy showed the healthy animal died from one of seven stab wounds to the stomach.
A search is on to identify the person responsible for the death. If convicted, they face fines of $100,000 and up to a year in jail.

Wildlife officers have appealed for the anonymous caller to ring again.

Mr Weir said the report of dolphin harassment by a boat driver yesterday was alarming.
"It is a concern because these sort of cases can end tragically," Mr Weir said. "In November 2001, we lost a two-year-old calf to a boat strike.

"At the same time, the report shows that the public has rallied behind Port Phillip Bay's dolphins this week and it appears they are determined to do what they can to help protect the species."
A marine scientist, Mr Weir said fun-loving dolphins were stressed when intimidated by humans in powered water craft.

The bay boasts a permanent population of about 100 bottlenose dolphins.

Anyone with information about the dead dolphin can call the Dolphin Research Institute on 1300 130 949 or the Department of Sustainability and Environment customer service centre on 136 186.

Inhumane act against a bottlenose dolphin

Wildlife authorities appalled by the stabbing of a bottlenose dolphin believe the mammal's normally curious and trusting nature may have led to its killing.

One of a population of about 80 in Victoria's Port Phillip Bay, the female dolphin was found dead with seven stab wounds on Sunday at Eastern Beach in Geelong, west of Melbourne.

The Dolphin Research Institute said a post-mortem examination revealed the dolphin was a healthy female which was about ready to start breeding and had been stabbed with possibly two different knives.

"There was nothing else to indicate that she was sick ... she died from a stab wound to the heart," research director, Anika Warren-Smith, told reporters in Melbourne.

Ms Warren-Smith described the act as "disgusting" and the loss was one the small dolphin population of Port Phillip Bay could not afford.

"I suppose it's similar to people torturing cats and dogs and other wildlife - you just wonder why you would actually consider doing something like this to an animal that is generally very trusting of humans," she said.

"They are very curious and trusting and to betray that is really quite distressing."

Ms Warren-Smith said there was a possibility the dolphin might have swum up alongside a boat, enabling someone to stab her - but she conceded this would be difficult.

"It's a bit of a mystery and that's why we're hoping the public can help us figure out what happened," she said.

The Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE) said dolphins were legally protected and any person found guilty of killing one could be fined more than $100,000 or face 12 months' imprisonment.

DSE spokesman Ron Waters said he was investigating claims by fishermen that they had seen a dolphin floating dead and had stabbed it to make it sink.

"We've got a vet saying: here's what we found - an animal with a full stomach, in good condition and no other signs of death, and one puncture wound through the heart.

"And we've got this other report ... saying: it was a dead one, mate, and we just plugged it. It was bloated and we sunk a knife into it.

"That explanation is at odds with what the vets have told us."

He said he initially feared the dolphin might have been caught in a net while being stabbed but there was no evidence to suggest this.

"It is very difficult to understand how someone could get that close to an animal that's wild and healthy, to be able to do that amount of damage," Mr Waters said.

Dolphin rescued

U.S. Navy photograph above shows, Kelly, an Atlantic Bottlenose Dolphin displaced when hurricane Katrina destroyed her home at the Marine Life Oceanarium" in Gulfport, Miss., being carefully placed in a temporary saltwater pool facility at the Naval Construction Battalion Center Gulfport. The above ground pool, along with other necessary filtration equipment needed to care for sea mammals, was provided by U.S. Navy Marine Mammal Program personnel from San Diego, Calif.

Kelly had spent the last two and a half weeks in the Gulf of Mexico with seven other dolphins, swept out to sea by a wave reported to be forty feet high during Hurricane Katrina. Because these dolphins are from a captive facility, they do not forage for food or necessarily have the survival skills needed to avoid predators or boat traffic. Since they were spotted off the gulf coast on Saturday, Sept. 10, Marine Life Aquarium trainers and National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries Service biologists have been feeding the dolphins several times a day from a NOAA vessel.

Charity Event for dolphin and whale

On Thursday 6 October 2005, one of the UK’s leading charities, the Marine Connection, is hosting an auction of celebrity items at the prestigious London nightclub Chinawhite to help raise vital funding for their dolphin and whale conservation work. Last year’s celebrity auction was a collectors' dream, with highly desirable items signed by a host of famous names including; Paul & Stella McCartney, Kylie, the Beckhams, Robbie plus goodies such as exotic holidays and luxurious spa treatments.

This year's event looks set to be just as star-packed; with signed items from celebrities such as Ozzy Osbourne, Brad Pitt, Justin Timberlake, Tom Cruise, Bowie and sporting idols Sir Geoff Hurst and Michael Schumacher going under the hammer, plus a VIP whale watching trip to Boston, dolphin watching weekend in the UK and other fantastic prizes to bid for.

One of the star items, though, will be some cricket memorabilia signed by the victorious Ashes England Squad! A limited amount of tickets are available at a cost of £50 per person.

Complimentary drinks, canapés and entertainment from our mystery guests are being generously provided for your enjoyment, so come along and help to protect the UK’s dolphins and whales living around your shores.

Following the auction, ticket holders are free to enjoy this fantastic club until 3am. For tickets call Marine Connection on 020 7499 9196 or email cwevent@marineconnection.org ENDS Media enquiries to: John Hicks Headline Promotions Press & PR Mobile: 07771 575 654 Fax: 0707 520 9717 Further information and images available Margaux Dodds (Charity Director) 020 7499 9196 (day) 07931 366352 (mobile) 020 7706 0715 (evening) 020 7409 2133 (fax) margaux@marineconnection.org (email) www.marineconnection.org

Notes for Editors The Marine Connection is a London-based charity, established in 1997. Over the last few years, the charity has progressed from a small voluntary organisation to one of the UK’s established international conservation charities, based on their ongoing commitment to the protection of these magnificent marine mammals. One of the charity’s main aims is empower future generations to recognize the fundamental importance of protecting the marine environment.

Through their educational website and quarterly magazine, Seventh Wave, the charity encourages supporters worldwide to participate in helping to protect dolphins and whales and support various projects to protect them and their natural habitat. In the UK, the Marine Connection carries out vital educational project work in the Moray Firth area of Scotland, which is home to the most northerly population of bottlenose dolphins in the world. Through the charity’s Adopt A Dolphin project, people learn more about how to help conserve and protect this fragile eco-system.

Picture of a bottlenose dolphin

This is a picture of a bottlenose dolphin, the same type as the ones in the articles (the carcass found by the Venice Police, the ones that died because of a fishery and the one that was barbecued by fishermen).

Venice Police discovered a carcass of bottlenose dolphin

Dolphin carcass found at Marker 12

Venice Police Department towed a young 125-pound dead bottlenose dolphin to Higel Park Thursday morning. The dolphin, picked up near Marker 12, is the latest in a string of dolphin deaths local officials attribute to the affects of red tide.

VPD marine patrol officer Phil Phillips and trainee Paul Joyce were on their morning rounds when they received a call from Venice Yacht Club members who reported the floating carcass.
Officers attached a rope to the tail of the dolphin and towed it to Higel Park in Venice, where Mote Marine specialists took possession. Mote will perform a necropsy to determine the cause of death.

"This is the aftermath of red tide," Phillips said. "It's the worst year for fish and marine mammal kills, definitely."

There were no propeller marks of other lacerations, said officers. Although you can't see signs of blunt trauma on a mammal (the death could have been caused by collision with a boat), said Phillips, he believes red tide is the culprit.

"There's been a lot of dead pinfish in the water lately," he said. "That's the first sign (of red tide). They die off, float to the top, then settle back down on the ocean floor. They go away. Often dolphins will detect this and leave the area as well.

"Three weeks ago we saw three sea turtles wash up ashore. Then there were dead manatees. Now it's the dolphins' turn."

One of several

Phillips estimated the floating mammal had been dead five to seven days due to its bloated, blackened condition. Live bottlenose dolphins are gray with a white underbelly.

It's the first dolphin death in Venice that Phillips has seen in a few years, and one of the few he has seen in his 16 years on the water.

Phllips said a dolphin death was reported in the Anna Maria area this week. Two dead dolphins were reported yesterday morning in the Sarasota area.

Victoria Socha, biologist for the Mote Stranding Investigations Program, took possession of the dolphin. Socha said Mote Marine will perform a streamlined necropsy. Mammal carcasses are transported to the St. Petersburg lab, which serves as the state's pathobiology facility.

"Normally we test for various causes. Because the carcass is so old and decomposed, we will take just a few organ samples and test only for red tide," Socha said.

Red tide on the rise

Statistics show the number of marine mammal kills this year far exceed previous years.
The annual average deaths reported for bottlenose dolphins since 1985 is 18. Back in 1982 83 sea turtle kills were reported.

From January to September, 25 bottlenose dolphins, four whales and 140 sea turtles have washed up in Sarasota County and parts of Manatee County and surrounding waterways.
Mote Marine plans to release necropsy findings for all the recently collected marine mammals within the next few months, Socha said.

"The hypothesis is red tide is causing a majority of the deaths. We're waiting for all the data and still testing," she said.

A red tide bloom first sighted in January continues in Southwest Florida from Pinellas County to Lee County. High concentrations of Karenia brevis, the Florida red tide organism, were found at several sampling sites along the coast of Sarasota County, including the Venice Municipal Pier, in the last week, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission Web site.

Two other dolphins saved by their trainers

Two Katrina dolphin victims saved

Two of the dolphins washed out to sea during Hurricane Katrina have been saved by their trainers.
Rescuers got dolphins Jackie, 30 and Toni, 16, to jump onto rubber mats, and the mammals have now been moved to a hotel swimming pool to recover.

Six dolphins are still at sea, and wildlife experts are racing to save them after they were swept out of their tanks during the storm on 29 August.

If they don't jump onto the mats, the dolphins will be rounded up in nets.

The mammals were spotted swimming off Mississippi on Saturday, after they were swept out to sea by a 12m high wave that crashed into their tank at the Marine Life Aquarium in Gulfport.
The eight tame bottlenose dolphins have lived most of their lives in captivity and have been out of their tanks since the hurricane hit several weeks ago.

Experts are worried they're not feeding in the wild, as they look very thin and some are injured.

Feared dead

Moby Solangi, owner of the Marine Life Aquarium, said she was pleased the dolphins had stuck together out at sea.

"Once we realised the dolphins had been swept out to sea during the hurricane, we feared that they had died, " said Ms Solangi.

"We are just thrilled that they have stayed together during the past couple of weeks."

Barbecued dolphin

The charred carcass of a male bottlenose dolphin, believed to have been dragged ashore by fishermen hoping to barbecue it, was found on Karon Beach on Tuesday.Kongkiat Kittiwattawong, a biologist at the Phuket Marine Biological Center (PMBC) at Cape Panwa, told the Gazette that the dolphin was about 20-25 years old. It was 2.5 meters long and weighed about 80 kilograms.The carcass was found by a beach guard.

It was lying on rocks and was wrapped in burnt coconut leaves, and had a nylon rope tied around its tail.K. Kongkiat said that he believes the dolphin died from an illness before being dragged ashore.“I believe this dolphin was sick, but we cannot conduct an autopsy because it has been dead for about five days,” he said. “The organs are too decomposed.

We will study the bones in order to learn more about this species.“I think that the fishermen found this dolphin already dead in the sea from its illness, and they used a nylon rope tied around its tail to drag it ashore before trying to barbecue it. Usually dolphin is not good to eat because the flesh is tough,” K. Kongkiat said.“More than 90% of this kind of dolphin that are found dead and washed ashore have died because of illness,” he added.

K. Kongkiat said that fishermen in Thailand did not hunt dolphins to eat, although there are many schools of bottlenose dolphins, usually in groups of between five and 15, in Phang Nga Bay and south of Phuket.

Operation Dolphins Rescue

Wildlife experts on Thursday began rescuing a group of eight bottlenose dolphins swept from their aquarium home into the Gulf of Mexico by Hurricane Katrina.

Moby Solangi, president of the Marine Life Oceanarium in Gulfport, Mississippi, said two of the dolphins, 30-year-old Jackie and her 16-year-old offspring, Toni, had been rescued.

Six others, including Jackie's 5-year-old son, Elijah, were still in the Gulf and would be rescued over the next few days.

"They all look good. They're coming right up to the boats," said Jeff Siegel, director of operations at the oceanarium.

Teams of oceanographers and Coast Guard officers used orange rafts equipped with mattresses to transport Jackie and Toni to shore where an air-conditioned van made the short trip to temporary quarters in a Holiday Inn swimming pool.

They will then be transported to other aquariums in the country in salt-water tanks that will be provided by the U.S. Navy.

A wave estimated to be 40 feet (12 metres) high swept the sea mammals from their tank at the oceanarium and into the Gulf when Katrina struck on Aug. 29, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries Service said.

The dolphins were spotted in the Gulf, off the Mississippi coast on Saturday and appeared to have survived the cataclysm but Solangi said some appeared to be underweight while others had scratches.

Because they lived in captivity and do not know how to forage for food, they are being fed several times a day from a boat by oceanarium workers.

Of 26 sea lions kept at the facility, five are dead, one is missing and the other 20 have gone to other aquariums, mostly in Florida. A seal is also was missing.

A crumpled support arch for the oceanarium's dome was all that was left standing amid a scene of coastal destruction.

Operation Dolphins Rescue

Wildlife experts on Thursday began rescuing a group of eight bottlenose dolphins swept from their aquarium home into the Gulf of Mexico by Hurricane Katrina.

Moby Solangi, president of the Marine Life Oceanarium in Gulfport, Mississippi, said two of the dolphins, 30-year-old Jackie and her 16-year-old offspring, Toni, had been rescued.

Six others, including Jackie's 5-year-old son, Elijah, were still in the Gulf and would be rescued over the next few days.

"They all look good. They're coming right up to the boats," said Jeff Siegel, director of operations at the oceanarium.

Teams of oceanographers and Coast Guard officers used orange rafts equipped with mattresses to transport Jackie and Toni to shore where an air-conditioned van made the short trip to temporary quarters in a Holiday Inn swimming pool.

They will then be transported to other aquariums in the country in salt-water tanks that will be provided by the U.S. Navy.

A wave estimated to be 40 feet (12 metres) high swept the sea mammals from their tank at the oceanarium and into the Gulf when Katrina struck on Aug. 29, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries Service said.

The dolphins were spotted in the Gulf, off the Mississippi coast on Saturday and appeared to have survived the cataclysm but Solangi said some appeared to be underweight while others had scratches.

Because they lived in captivity and do not know how to forage for food, they are being fed several times a day from a boat by oceanarium workers.

Of 26 sea lions kept at the facility, five are dead, one is missing and the other 20 have gone to other aquariums, mostly in Florida. A seal is also was missing.

A crumpled support arch for the oceanarium's dome was all that was left standing amid a scene of coastal destruction.

Dolphin statue put on hold

Public art in Henry C. Chambers Waterfront Park was put on hold for two weeks Tuesday as Beaufort City Council members said they need to decide where sculptures should be placed, what themes are appropriate for Beaufort, and how much the city is willing to spend.

Backpedaling from a 2003 resolution to spend 1 percent of capital project costs on public art, the council was hesitant Tuesday to pay a St. Augustine, Fla.,-artist $55,000 for a sculpture for the park -- 1 percent of an original $5.5 million estimate for a year's worth of park repairs and construction.

Mayor Bill Rauch said the resolution is a "guideline" for public art purchases and Councilman Gary Fordham said that it was unreasonable to spend so much for art, especially in the case of the city's proposed municipal complex at Boundary Street and Ribaut Road.

With repairs estimated to cost more than $10 million, Fordham said it "knocks his socks off" to spend $100,000 on art for the municipal site.

The council heard from a number of residents who both endorsed and criticized sculptures proposed for the park by artist Thomas Glover W. of fish, surf, sun, dolphin and mermaid.
"The mud is in my blood and this is not Beaufort," said Priscilla Trask, who disliked the mermaid statue that the city's Public Arts Commission endorsed for the park.

Former City Councilwoman Edie Rodgers said the sculptures were "borderline grotesque, because here are fish with human faces on them."

Penny Russell, who was a teacher for 26 years, said she found it harder and harder to elicit creativity in her students each year and realism contributes to that dearth of imagination.
"I'd like to see a mermaid," she said. "It's in the fairy tales, and we have so little of that anymore."
Offering no opinion was county councilman and developer Dick Stewart, who urged some type of public art be installed.

"The sad thing in America is when we sink to a level of no conflict and vanilla and chocolate and no flavors," said Stewart. "Please don't take the easy way out and abandon a program of great merit."
Rauch said the city will determine the placement of the sculpture in the next two weeks and contact the artist with the city's desires.

The council also unanimously approved final reading of a land swap with developer Bill Jones, giving a small piece of land at the corner of Carteret and Bay streets to Jones in exchange for the BB&T bank teller alley and a small strip of land running along BB&T parking spaces.

Dolphin statue put on hold

Public art in Henry C. Chambers Waterfront Park was put on hold for two weeks Tuesday as Beaufort City Council members said they need to decide where sculptures should be placed, what themes are appropriate for Beaufort, and how much the city is willing to spend.

Backpedaling from a 2003 resolution to spend 1 percent of capital project costs on public art, the council was hesitant Tuesday to pay a St. Augustine, Fla.,-artist $55,000 for a sculpture for the park -- 1 percent of an original $5.5 million estimate for a year's worth of park repairs and construction.

Mayor Bill Rauch said the resolution is a "guideline" for public art purchases and Councilman Gary Fordham said that it was unreasonable to spend so much for art, especially in the case of the city's proposed municipal complex at Boundary Street and Ribaut Road.

With repairs estimated to cost more than $10 million, Fordham said it "knocks his socks off" to spend $100,000 on art for the municipal site.

The council heard from a number of residents who both endorsed and criticized sculptures proposed for the park by artist Thomas Glover W. of fish, surf, sun, dolphin and mermaid.
"The mud is in my blood and this is not Beaufort," said Priscilla Trask, who disliked the mermaid statue that the city's Public Arts Commission endorsed for the park.

Former City Councilwoman Edie Rodgers said the sculptures were "borderline grotesque, because here are fish with human faces on them."

Penny Russell, who was a teacher for 26 years, said she found it harder and harder to elicit creativity in her students each year and realism contributes to that dearth of imagination.
"I'd like to see a mermaid," she said. "It's in the fairy tales, and we have so little of that anymore."
Offering no opinion was county councilman and developer Dick Stewart, who urged some type of public art be installed.

"The sad thing in America is when we sink to a level of no conflict and vanilla and chocolate and no flavors," said Stewart. "Please don't take the easy way out and abandon a program of great merit."
Rauch said the city will determine the placement of the sculpture in the next two weeks and contact the artist with the city's desires.

The council also unanimously approved final reading of a land swap with developer Bill Jones, giving a small piece of land at the corner of Carteret and Bay streets to Jones in exchange for the BB&T bank teller alley and a small strip of land running along BB&T parking spaces.

Industry not promising to stop dolphins from dying

South Australian Fisheries Minister Rory McEwen says dolphin deaths may still occur, despite the implementation of a new code of practice for the state's pilchard industry.

The new code will be tested this week and licence holders may be able to start fishing as soon as next week.

The Government closed the $28 million fishery in response to reports that 19 dolphins had been killed in pilchard nets.

Mr McEwen says the code aims to minimise dolphin interactions and to change practices when contact does occur. However, he says there are no guarantees.

"There are some circumstances where even the behaviour of the dolphins themselves is not totally manageable, so there will even in the future be some unfortunate interactions that could cause death, but obviously it is our role to absolutely minimise that, but we could never say never," he said.

Mr McEwen says two boats will go to sea with independent observers on board to ensure the new code works to minimise dolphin deaths.

"As soon as I can have it independently verified that the code is now 'implementable' as it were, then everybody can go back fishing, the whole 14 licence holders can go back to sea, but I must be convinced first that the new code of practice achieves the objective of minimising any level of interaction with dolphins," he said.

Dolphins are not always as well treated as people think!

CruiseMates.com editor Anne Campbell's dolphin epiphany came during a cruise-ship stop in Cozumel, Mexico.

"I wandered from my beach spot to the Dolphin Encounter and stopped in my tracks," she recalled in a recent newsletter.

"These highly intelligent, beautiful mammals were in cages as they pulled tourists through a small area of water."

She returned as the park was closing: "Tears filled my eyes as I saw one dolphin, his head raised above water, staring out to sea, held back by a link fence."

The reaction of travellers like Campbell notwithstanding, human-Flipper interactions are popular at cruise ports in Mexico, the Bahamas, Bermuda and the Caribbean. Nearly 20 programs operate there and another dozen are being planned, says Susan Sherwin of the World Society for the Protection of Animals.

At least 18 U.S. facilities offer swim or wade programs with captive dolphins, up from four a decade ago.

And in a Harris opinion poll in March, 72 per cent of respondents said they would be interested in swimming with dolphins in a "safe and legal environment" at a park or zoo.

But now, some travel purveyors are cutting back on dolphin programs.

In July, citing a new campaign by the World Society for the Protection of Animals, Radisson Seven Seas Cruises announced it would no longer offer dolphin-encounter shore excursions.

Dolphin calf saved from dangerous situation

The calf of Whyalla's favourite dolphin was saved from sure death on Saturday.
Metres of tangled fishing line were caught in its mouth.
Fortunately the Environment and Heritage Department were called on Friday and told that a dolphin calf in the Whyalla marina had fishing line trailing from either side of its mouth.
Investigations soon found that it was the four-month-old baby of the resident female dolphin, which often follows boats in the marina.
Staff from Port Lincoln's department office started a rescue operation control centre in Whyalla's Sea Rescue Squadron building early on Saturday morning.
A local net fisherman helped, as well as many local divers from Whyalla Dive Club .
"It was pleasing that at very short notice the Dive Club got about 10 to 15 divers to help out," local diver Rod Hayles said.
The operation went smoothly and the tangled fishing line was removed with little stress to the dolphins and the divers.
The calf was lucky to have the discarded 30lb fishing line removed from its mouth as it could have caused serious infections that would make feeding the calf nearly impossible.
Local marine researcher Jan Aldenhoven said that if the line became tangled around the calf's head it might not be able to suckle.
"They've got such small teeth that the line becomes easily caught.
"It would be really good if people can try and recover any line that is caught and not discard fishing line ... and if anyone is walking and sees fishing line could they pick it up and put it in the bin."
Jan would like to remind people that if they see a dolphin in distress they should call the Department for Environment and Heritage as they are the ones responsible in carrying out the rescue operations.
DEH would like to remind fishermen that their rubbish does have an impact on our marine environment and several meters of fishing line is all it takes to kill a dolphin.
: (from left) in the boat brothers Craig and George Edwards, in the water Richard Morris, Rod Hayles, Ron Hardman (partly obscured), Glen Caruthers holding the baby dolphin, Simon Clark and Mick Palmer, the mother under water, Peter Kaminski and Paul Mazourek

River dolphins dying at a dangerous pace!

Dibrugarh, Sept. 6: Picture this: the gentlest of animals trapped in nets laid for fishing, unable to surface for air and dying a slow, painful death.

The first-ever survey on river dolphins in Assam has thrown up disturbing facts — just about 240 of the mammals remain in the state, which once had thousands of them.

Conservationist Abdul Wakid conducted the comprehensive 10-month survey in the dolphin-breeding spots of the state under a project funded by British Petroleum. Armed with the data, he has now forced the forest department to act to save the dolphins.

Wakid has himself formed five monitoring groups with 15 to 20 members each for the last remaining dolphin sanctuaries at Saikhowa and Guijan in Tinsukia district, Janjimukh and Dikhowmukh in Sivasagar district and Neematighat in Jorhat district.

Though an aquatic mammal, dolphins need to come to the surface to breathe.

“During our field study, which began at Tengapanighat near the Assam-Arunachal Pradesh border and ended on the Indo-Bangladesh border, we found that ‘bi-catch’ is the major threat to dolphins. This needs to be addressed immediately or there may not be any dolphins left within the next four to five years,” Wakid, 30, said.

Bi-catch is a term used globally to define situations when aquatic creatures get caught in big fishing nets not meant for them. “Dolphins cannot stay under water for long and need to come up for fresh air. Fishing nets are giving them a cruel death,” he said.

The conservationist has joined hands with the NGO Aaranyak to launch a comprehensive save-the-dolphin campaign. “We are working on how to go about the mission,” he said.

Fishing nets are not the dolphin’s only enemy. The species is also killed for its meat and fat.
Alarmed by the data collected by Wakid, the forest department has finally taken a few steps to save the dolphin. “We have already restricted the passage of mechanised boats through the river system within the Dibru Saikhowa National Park,” said Aniruddha Dey, divisional forest officer (wildlife) of Tinsukia.

Apart from the Brahmaputra, dolphins have been spotted in the Kulsi, Jhanji, Dibru and Subansiri rivers.

Beloved dolphin dies in Marine World

uShaka Marine World has been dealt a major blow with the death of one of its dolphins.The staff are mourning the death of beloved Vukani, who died on Friday after a long illness. Kani, as he was popularly known, was one of the first dolphins born at Sea World and was the first son of the world-famous Gambit.The 16-year-old dolphin, whose name means "Arise", is believed to have died of natural causes.Judy Mann, Director of Sea World at uShaka, described Kani as a very gentle dolphin who was always eager to please. "Sea World is deeply saddened by the loss of this very special dolphin who enjoyed a strong bond with his trainers," she said.
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But Sea World spokesperson Ann Kunz reassured uShaka visitors that the dolphin performances would not be affected by Kani's death. "We have three sets of dolphins, so there will be no setbacks," she said. An autopsy was being done to determine the cause of his death. "Kani was always quick at taking the cue from his trainers. The dolphinarium staff are in mourning and it is a sad time for everyone," she said.One-and-a-half-year-old dolphin Ingelosi was likely to replace Kani.