Dead Dolphins

[Johnjo]

Read in the local rag today.
four dead dolphins washed up on Tregantle beach in Cornwall, 31 dead dolphins
washed ashore in December, What the hell is going on????????
Apparently on average one dead dolphin is washed ashore a day,
Not a lot is it!! until you remember there is 352 days in a year, This is
in Cornwall alone!
How many for the country as a whole??????? How long can this carnage go on
before there is no more to wash ashore??
The sheer joy of seeing dolphins when we are out sailing, will my son be
able to see them? will his children???
Does this government care, Appears not to give a toss for the fishing industry,
why should it care for a few dead dolphins!!!!!
Was going to ban fox hunting, Yet all that has happened is that it is going
to be licenced, That should please the fox no end!!!!!!!!
My apologies for the tone of this post, But it makes me bloody angry!!!

regards mike

 

[Forbsie]

I totally agree with you. I love seeing dolphins while out at sea.

The only saving grace is that this is happenning is off Cornwall as opposed to another UK coastline where there are 365/366 days in the year.

<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.seafin.co.uk>Tender to...</A>

 

[david_e]

What is the reason for their demise? Is there a common cause or a variety of different reasons?

 

[Johnjo]

Forbsie
of course you are correct 365 not 352 think I would get it right
after living through so many!!!! brain still not recovered from Christmas yet!

mike

 

[snowleopard]

not a lot of dolphin cemetaries out there

perhaps they just die of old age and the bodies wash ashore?

 

[Johnjo]

Re: not a lot of dolphin cemetaries out there

Perhaps some do die a natural death, But by far the majority have signs
of damage to their beaks, A sure sign that they have been in contact
with fishing gear.
It is thought that pair trawling is reasponsable for most of the deaths,
Large shoals of Bass congragate off the Cornish coast, this apparently is
what they are after. The fishermen that is!
But really , something has to be done.

mike

 

[Cornishman]

Reckon we must read the same daily rag which has been trying to mount some sort of campaign, but the trouble has been identifying the fishermen concerned - probably from the other side of the water.

The common cause of death is by drowning because they get stuck in the mesh of illegally sized nets and are then released - dead.

 

[AndrewB]

Almost certainly caught in trawls. There has been something of an international outcry about this recently, SW England is a particular problem area: see http://www.observer.co.uk/Print/0,3858,4430017,00.html

I've heard an alternative theory, that they have been eating pufferfish, which can be toxic. Pufferfish are not a normal part of their diet, but have been appearing in the Channel recently presumably as an effect of global warming.

What with that and the phocine distemper virus that has been wiping out the seals there will be few mammals left around our shores.

 

[Magic_Sailor]

Gaia

As you read this, please bear in mind that I love the little animals (as Monty Python once said). Joking (slightly) aside, I find the diversity and beauty breath taking. But…

It strikes me that most peoples posts here are based almost entirely on conjecture – it could be nets, it could be puffer fish, it could be global warming (which is a kind of conjecture about a conjecture) etc etc.

It might just be that they are dying. It might just be that they are meant to die by whatever means for reasons that we mere 21st Century mortals cannot understand. For instance; personally I’m quite pleased that the dinosaurs all died. Were it not for that, I (we) wouldn’t be here. Certainly, it’d be no fun dodging the T Rex’s marching in herds across the New Forest on my way to work.

My point is, we don’t know and things have a way (overall) of balancing out. I would suggest that to blindly keep species alive, constantly trying to maintain the status quo is probably a cosmic mistake. Like re-introducing species to islands or killing all the hedge hogs etc – things are what they are.

Some interesting reading on the subject is “Gaia – a new look at life on earth” by Prof. Jim Lovelock. It says (if I remember correctly) that the “earth organism” will always continue and protect itself from any parasite on it – including man. That, sounds plausible to me. (Remember parasites and hosts need to co-exist to be successful)

OK, having said all that – if I found a dying dolphin/whale washed up on the beach, I’d be the first trying to save it – there’s a difference between individuals and whole species! Nor, I would stress, am I condoning the wholesale slaughter of animals just to suit our own ends - although even that could be sentimentality getting in the way of cosmic reality.

IMHO.

Magic

 

[gary_yank]

I am to understand by earlier posts on this forum that the your local fishing industry is failing. Is that not the same food the dolphins use as their staple food?

In the Pacific Northwest of the US the orca " killer" whale population is also in decline, one of the suspected reasons is over fishing.

Gary the Yank

 

[Cornishman]

Re: Gaia

I agree with some of what you say...with the exception of your point about conjecture. Post mortem examinations have revealed that many of the creatures which have been washed up on our beaches actually drowned. Drowning does not occur naturally to dolphins, and the marks on the bodies suggest that they have been trapped in nets, and when they are hauled aboard the fishing vessels the bodies are simply cut free to float away and be carried along by wind and tide until they appear on our shores.

Where do I get this information? Mainly from the 'regional newspaper of the year' for the last 3 years, the Western Morning News. Maybe they are using conjecture, but I don't think so. Their reports are supported by marine biological scientists.

 

[Metabarca]

Re: Gaia

In other words, 'It is written'?? Come on! I appreciate the cosmic scale of your argument and suspect you may be right about 'planet earth' defending itself on a macro scale and in a somewhat fuzzy manner, but we're not talking about macro events outside our control like ice ages or meteorites. What is happening is not 'the will of Allah' or Gaia shaking a leg, but our short-term greed destroying our long-term happiness, safety and, yes, economic return. We can and must do something about it.

 

[Magic_Sailor]

Metabarca and Cornishman

Note - I did say I loved 'em and that I would do all I could to save them. Furthermore, I said that I did not include large scale slaughter in my arguement (although this could legitimately be included by those of a harder disposition).

When talking about conjecture, I meant some of the posts in this thread - I don't think any of them mention data sources. Cornishman, you mention the detail of envidence of a number being caught in nets etc from the local papers - I accept that aboslutely (bear in mind we don't see regular evidence in the papers etc in Hamshire). That is the sort of occuence that I clearly said I'd stand against.

I've noticed a tendency to a sort of "shrill" outcry on some environmental matters - not just on this forum, and I was just councilling a little caution thats all. Questions like; How many die naturally this way? How many extra are dying due to "fishing damage"? spring to mind - hence, how big is the problem really?. I'm not sure whether anyone could come up with that data.

As a point of interest, a mate of mine runs the Coastguard over at Deal in Kent. He was called out because a large, young whale was beached at Sandwich - not dead but dying. There was no discernable reason. It did die while he was there - he said it was a very sad and eerie experience. (He had to stand guard over it all night until the men from the ministry came to take it away for a PM). I have not had any feedback as to the reason for death.

All the best

Magic

 

[FlyingSpud]

Re: Gaia

Actually, Lovelock hypothesised that man, far from being a virus, is more of an antibody that protects the planet, - for example – the increase in pollution is necessary because without it the oxygen content of the air would be increasing to the point where fires would become far too dangerous.
I am not saying he is right or wrong, but those environmentalists who often quote him in support of their own views only refer to selective parts of his works.

 

[Magic_Sailor]

Re: Gaia

Spud

I was merely referring to his over view, i.e. "the biosphere will survive come what may" - not any particular detail.

I would have thought that any organism which lives on another and relies upon it for sustainance was a parasite. We fit that bill admirably I would have thought.

Magic

 

[Metabarca]

Re: Metabarca and Cornishman

You're quite right about 'shrillness', and I'm sorry if I sounded holier than thou. Sorry!
I must learn to express myself better.
I must learn to express myself better.
I must learn to express myself better.
I must learn to express myself better.
I must learn to express myself better.
I must learn to express myself better.
I must learn to express myself better.
I must learn to express myself better.
I must learn to express myself better.

 

[Magic_Sailor]

Re: Metabarca and Cornishman

Absolutely no problem M.

In fact my "shrill" comment was referring to not just this thread but other as well.

Magic

 

[summerwind]

Re: Better news

On a somewhat lighter note, saw a school of dolphins in Torbay this week-end. There were quite a few, at least 20 but probably more.

They were very active, sometimes leaping completely clear of the water. (Do dolphins leap?) I think they must have been feeding because they were accompanied by a large flock of gulls.

This is the largest school I have seen in the UK.

 

[Johnjo]

Largest shoal of dolphins I seen was about six years ago off the Dodman on
south coast of Cornwall, We were about eight miles off shore under sail
making a couple of knots, slight sea, We saw some ahead of us and the numbers
just kept on increasing until we were completly surrounded, as far as you could see, no matter where you looked dolphins leaping, all sizes, small to some
very large!! they seemed to enjoy our company as much as we enjoyed theirs!
At times you could almost touch them if you wished,so close to the boat, but we
just watched enthralled, IF I had to estimate numbers I would certainly say
in the hundreds, but impossible to be more precise as there was so many.
A truely memorable sight! but will the likes of it be seen again????

mike

 

[Gordon]

I aggree with you all the way.....all people seem to care about today
is geting on the next £1 flight to Alicanti....thereby messing up the upper atmosphere......humans are generally shafting
everything in sight....