Environmental News

[SoNotHer]

Over 600 Dolphins Found Dead



Jake Richardson
April 4, 2012

On beaches in Peru well over 600 dead dolphins have been found by conservationists from an organization called BlueVoice.org. The head of this group was quoted in MSNBC as saying the deceased dolphin count is 615, but on the the Blue Voice blog, the number was said to be potentially much higher by a marine mammal rescue director in Peru. In fact the Blue Voice blog says the stranding could be the largest dolphin mortality event yet recorded.

“I was stunned to hear we’d counted over 200 dolphins. We hit a length of beach no more than 100 yards long in which we found ten dolphins of varying levels of decomposition. The numbers continued to mount. By the time the rising tide forced us off the beach the count had reached 615, counted over 135 kilometers,” said a Blue Voice employee who visited Peru. It sounds like there could be many more. It isn’t clear yet exactly what caused the deaths. One speculation is sonic testing conducted by oil companies, because it is believed the very loud noises can cause internal bleeding in dolphins. (Sound travels faster in water, than in air.)

“We have been noting that the animals were suffering from acute decompression syndrome – that is to say, a violent death produced by an acoustic boom that disorients the animal and produces haemorrhages which cause the animal to end up dying on the beach,” said ORCA director Dr Carlos Yaipen. (Source: 3news) Another speculation is that a disease caused an epidemic. In the United States an increase in deadly dolphin strandings in the Gulf has been tied to habitat damage due to the huge oil catastrophe, a situation which is ongoing because there is still some oil in the Gulf.

BlueVoice.org is an ocean conservation organization founded by Hardy Jones and Ted Danson. They have been working to help save marine mammals and protect habitats for about twelve years.

Read more: http://www.care2.com/greenliving/ove...#ixzz1rJRySQf9

[Hollylane]

Originally Posted by SoNotHer

Over 600 Dolphins Found Dead



Jake Richardson
April 4, 2012

On beaches in Peru well over 600 dead dolphins have been found by conservationists from an organization called BlueVoice.org. The head of this group was quoted in MSNBC as saying the deceased dolphin count is 615, but on the the Blue Voice blog, the number was said to be potentially much higher by a marine mammal rescue director in Peru. In fact the Blue Voice blog says the stranding could be the largest dolphin mortality event yet recorded.

“I was stunned to hear we’d counted over 200 dolphins. We hit a length of beach no more than 100 yards long in which we found ten dolphins of varying levels of decomposition. The numbers continued to mount. By the time the rising tide forced us off the beach the count had reached 615, counted over 135 kilometers,” said a Blue Voice employee who visited Peru. It sounds like there could be many more. It isn’t clear yet exactly what caused the deaths. One speculation is sonic testing conducted by oil companies, because it is believed the very loud noises can cause internal bleeding in dolphins. (Sound travels faster in water, than in air.)

“We have been noting that the animals were suffering from acute decompression syndrome – that is to say, a violent death produced by an acoustic boom that disorients the animal and produces haemorrhages which cause the animal to end up dying on the beach,” said ORCA director Dr Carlos Yaipen. (Source: 3news) Another speculation is that a disease caused an epidemic. In the United States an increase in deadly dolphin strandings in the Gulf has been tied to habitat damage due to the huge oil catastrophe, a situation which is ongoing because there is still some oil in the Gulf.

BlueVoice.org is an ocean conservation organization founded by Hardy Jones and Ted Danson. They have been working to help save marine mammals and protect habitats for about twelve years.

Read more: http://www.care2.com/greenliving/ove...#ixzz1rJRySQf9

I hope hell exists for the jackasses who knew this would happen and continue to do it. Fuckwads. Pardon my moment of uncouth, or don't, because I mean it.

[Hollylane]

Next week, the USDA will decide whether to allow Monsanto and Dow to introduce one half of the chemical mixture Agent Orange into our food supply. Widescale use of Roundup has led to a new generation of resistant weeds, and the next step in the pesticide arms race is 2,4-D -- a chemical linked to cancer, Parkinson's and reproductive problems.

Farmers that sign up to use genetically-engineered 2,4-D-resistant corn will be required to spray down their fields with both 2,4-D and Roundup, double-dosing our food, our soil and our waterways with the toxins. Some experts estimate this will increase the use of 2,4-D 50-fold, even though the EPA says the chemical is already our seventh-largest source of dioxins -- nasty, highly toxic chemicals that bioaccumulate as they move up the food chain and cause cancer, developmental damage, and birth defects.

We can stop this. The use of 2,4-D is banned entirely in parts of Canada and Europe, and right now the US Department of Agriculture is accepting public comments on 2,4-D to decide whether or not to approve the widespread industrial use of the toxin.

Add your name to our letter to the USDA urging them to deny approval for Dow's 2,4-D-resistant GMO corn.

This is part of a growing problem, an escalating herbicide war going on across America’s heartland. From 1996 to 2008, herbicide usage increased by 383 million pounds. Nearly half of this took place between 2007 and 2008 after the introduction of another strain of herbicide-resistant plant pushed by Dow. Like Roundup before it, 2,4-D is only a temporary solution that will require more and more tons of toxins and more and more potent chemicals leaching into our food supply.

2,4-D is nasty stuff and has been linked to a number of health problems, such as tripling the rates of non-Hodgkins lymphoma in Nebraska farmworkers exposed to it and causing reproductive problems -- birth defects and high rates of miscarriage -- in both mice and men exposed to it in the lab and field.

Tell the USDA - we don’t want Monsanto’s toxic pesticide.

-Kaytee, Claiborne Taren and the rest of the team

[SoNotHer]

The film was commissioned by the Planet Under Pressure conference, London 26-29 March, a major international conference focusing on solutions.
planetunderpressure2012.net

[SoNotHer]

Thanks to my dear friend Hollylane and the original poster of this information. Please let me know if you know or hear anything more about this. I live uncomfortably close to the target area.

http://naturalsociety.com/indiana-ra...-stays-silent/

[Hollylane]

Good News for Baby Sea Turtles

The Sierra Club's Puerto Rico Chapter notched a huge victory when the island's governor signed a bill protecting nearly 2,000 acres of the Northeast Ecological Corridor from development. For more than 15 years, a proposal to build two megaresorts loomed over the Corridor, which includes one of the most important nesting grounds on Earth for the endangered leatherback sea turtle.

"Golf courses and baby sea turtles don't mix," says Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune. Find out how the Sierra Club Puerto Rico Chapter and other grassroots groups kept this wondrous place from being turned into condos and putting greens.