09 March 2012

Dolphin beaching... and unbeaching


Via everywhere.  This is almost certainly not a "TYWK," because every blogger seems to find it so uplifting.  The location is a beach at Arraial do Cabo, Brazil.

12 comments:

  1. this is incredible !

    why has nobody else commented on this.
    wish i was there to have saved a few

    B

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    Replies
    1. "why has nobody else commented" - perhaps because you commented 11 minutes after I posted it.

      :.)

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  2. ALSO, i cant believe there are people watching ?

    get stuck in ! and save a dolph.

    B

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  3. I'm wondering how many of that pod actually survived. While you can see the whole pod swimming in, there's much less evidence of them swimming out. Yeah, they're not on the beach, but did they make it out to deep water or did they drown just beyond the beach? And why did they swim straight in in the first place? They had to have known the shallows were there...

    (Maybe they've secretly invented underwater internet and just wanted to be on YouTube?)

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    Replies
    1. I would think it's because they aren't all swimming out in a dense pod or on the surface as they were when coming into the shore. Since they were beached for such a brief period it seems very unlikely that any would suffer more than scratches and cuts from the ordeal. Dolphins are like any animal, including humans, and when they are following the leader of a large group there can be blind confusion and too little time to react (ex: stampedes, any walmart on black friday, birds flying into windows, etc.) From my understanding the occurrence of pod beachings are common.

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    2. Cetacean beachings are a mystery; this guy theorizes that this phenomenon is a result of barosinusitis, sinus damage caused by rapid underwater pressure fluctuations resulting from undersea earthquakes,offshore oil exploration, and navy research. It's a bit on the woo side of things, especially when he delves into a supposed conspiracy to cover this up, but the theory itself does make some sense...

      http://www.deafwhale.com/seaquake_solution/2012/brazil_dolphins_march.htm

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    3. Thanks for the link, Jeff. I've been wanting to write a post about dolphins and sonar for a while, but haven't had the time to put one together. Here are some links I have bookmarked that you might want to browse -

      http://www.zerobar.org/underwater-news/2008/7/18/ultra-low-frequency-sonar-ulf-hurts-marine-creatures.html

      http://www.startribune.com/nation/34369899.html?elr=KArksLckD8EQDUoaEyqyP4O:DW3ckUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUUF

      http://conservationreport.com/2008/11/12/marine-mammals-supreme-court-delivers-blow-to-marine-mammals-and-environmentalists/

      http://hamptonroads.com/2008/12/navys-sonar-study-lists-four-options

      http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/shortsharpscience/2009/04/military-sonar-blamed-for-caus.html

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    4. Thanks. Link 2 is suffering from link rot. The other links don't seem to contradict Capt David Williams rather alarming theories, which I failed to link to above.

      http://www.deafwhale.com/seaquake_solution/

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    5. Oops, yeah. That's the problem with newspaper links - it's "use 'em or lose 'em. I need to become more efficient.

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  4. Looks like they were swimming away from something...

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  5. This is awesome.....Great Job...evry 1.....Great Job!!!

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