Dying dolphins keep washing up on the Atlantic. Here’s what could be killing them

[n2doc]

By Gwynn Guilford

Since last month, scores of dolphins have washing up on Atlantic Ocean beaches, dying or already dead. Marine biologists are alarmed. Looking at the historical trend, you can see why:


The federal government has classified the situation as an “unusual mortality event” (UME), defined as a “a significant die-off of any marine mammal population” that “demands immediate response.”

UMEs happen a lot, it turns out. So far this year, we’ve had 600 manatees die in Florida and more than 400 sea lion pups in California. But despite fewer deaths so far, the bottlenose dolphin die-off is grabbing way more headlines. Perhaps it’s their mammalian familiarity—they name each other, have “the longest pure memory” of any animal (paywall), are self-aware, imitate humans, and the list goes on.

But there’s a better reason than empathy to care about mass dolphin-death: It may be telling us some scary things about the state of our seas.

“Dolphins are at the front lines of ocean health,” says Matt Huelsenbeck, a marine scientist at the non-profit Oceana. Dolphins are “the top predators—everything trickles [through them] … They’re more important than a lot of research buoys in terms of what’s going on.”

more

http://qz.com/115367/the-scary-potential-causes-behind-the-unusual-dolphin-mortality-events-on-us-shores/

[RC]

1. Are they still using the Atlantic as a dumping ground for their trash?

The upper and central East coast used to.

[n2doc]

2. I think so

I personally think this is related to Hurricane Sandy. That storm washed a lot of toxic crap into the ocean off NY and NJ, and I have to think it has had an effect. Kind of like how the Deepwater Horizon spill caused an increase in deaths down in the Gulf.

[kristopher]

5. The pattern matches the outflow from the Delaware Bay

The Delaware River (with its many refineries and chemical companies) exits the Delaware Bay. The northbound currents curl it along the Jersey coast, but the southbound currents carry most of the outflow out around the Delaware and Maryland shores with it curling back down along Virginia's Delmarva Atlantic shoreline.

That's from memory, so it might not be accurate. It would also be good to look at how NY and Chesapeake waters behave.

It could certainly be related to Sandy, but the pattern skipping Del and MD just seemed familiar.

[dixiegrrrrl]

9. Wonder if they are testing for radiation....

[happyslug]

4. Trash, per se, would NOT be a problem

Trash tend to be solids with few toxins among them (and most toxins in trash tends to leak out BEFORE the trash is put on barges to be dumped in the ocean). Thus I doubt it is from any trash being dumped into the ocean. After saying that, the question quickly becomes, who is dumping toxins into the Gulf Stream? The worse toxins tend to be liquid and given the Gulf Stream starts in the Caribbean, the more likely cause is the BP oil spill of 2010, which dumped a bunch of toxins into the waters of the Gulf of Mexico.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deepwater_Horizon_oil_spill

It does take time for such toxins to spread. The Gulf of Mexico is partially blocked by Florida, the Yucatan Peninsula and Cuba from the rest of the Caribbean, thus the spread of the toxins may take time. Furthermore Dolphins are fish eaters, thus fish may have taken in the toxins, but a a level that did not kill them, but then were eaten by the Dolphins. The Dolphins ate so many contaminated fish that it hit a fatal level and then died. This would explain why it has taken three years before we saw the mass die off.

Lets see what the autopsy shows as to what is killing these Dolphins, but I suspect the Gulf Oil Spill not trash being dumped.

[JayhawkSD]

3. I read the article...

And I think it's likely the lack of hurricaines this seasons that is killing dolphins. Or it could be likely that th debris washed into the ocean from Hurricaine Sandy is killing them. It's aslo likely that the alignment of the planets is killing them.

We can come up with any number of reasone that are likely to be killiung them and write an article without offering any actual evidence as to the reality of our suggestions, and them put a headline that says "Here's what might be killing dolphins."

[TheMightyFavog]

6. Could Hurricane Sandy have had something to do with this?

Perhaps the storm striied up a lot of crap in the Atlantic?

[NoOneMan]

7. Maybe they are depressed

[snagglepuss]

8. :(

[kristopher]

10. 6 more .. on southern NJ beaches ... viral pneumonia... precise cause ... unknown.

6 more dolphins found dead on southern NJ beaches
Aug. 18, 2013 7:35 AM
Written by Associated Press/Atlantic City Press

TRENTON — Six more dolphins have been found dead on New Jersey beaches in recent days, bringing the total to 52 since July 9.

Officials say severely decomposed dolphins washed up Saturday in Barnegat Light and Long Beach Township, both in Ocean County, and in Upper Township in Cape May County. That came one day after dolphins washed up in Seaside Heights in Ocean County, Longport in Atlantic County and Stone Harbor in Cape May County,

State officials have been working with the Marine Mammal Stranding Center in Brigantine to determine why so many dolphins are dying.

The federal government has also been investigating the cause of dolphin deaths up and down the Eastern Seaboard this summer, exploring many possible causes such as disease, changes in the environment and human activities.

Robert Schoelkopf, director of the Marine Mammal Stranding Center in Brigantine, said that the dolphins appear to be dying from a viral pneumonia, although the precise cause is still unknown...

http://www.delawareonline.com/viewart/20130818/NEWS/130818003/6-more-dolphins-found-dead-southern-NJ-beaches

[kristopher]

11. NOAA: Virus likely causing dolphin deaths

NOAA: Virus likely causing dolphin deaths
Federal officials say a virus is likely what's causing hundreds of dead bottlenose dolphins to wash ashore along the East Coast.


...NOAA says the tentative cause of the deaths is the cetacean morbillivirus. Dolphins with morbillivirus typically experience skin lesions, brain infections and pneumonia. The virus killed off more than 700 dolphins in the 1980s. Using that die-off as a guide, officials say the deaths could spread southward and last through spring 2014.

http://seattletimes.com/html/nationworld/2021694023_apusdolphindeaths.html