The news in the Sun Herald yesterday was bleak, 31 dead dolphin babies here within the past six weeks, and this is just the beginning of the ’calving season’.
http://www.sunherald.com/2011/02/26/2895604/5-more-dead-infant-dolphins-wash.html
Friday, February 18
I am reminded of stories I’ve seen in the past few years about family members anxiously searching for lost loved-ones whose bodies never surface. The newscasters always caution that the seas often claim the bodies… and I think that must also be true for the bodies of the tiny dolphins. The 31 calves that washed ashore are probably just a fraction of the number that actually perished.
Sunday, February 20
But I am particularly concerned about the emphasis on cross-contamination in the Sun Herald story, “It’s not just a sanitation issue or that dolphins and humans share some diseases…” and “Broadway returns to her office down the hall, before she leaves, hair wet from following a strict decontamination protocol.”
Scientists haven’t ruled out a new deadly virus or bacteria causing the horrifying increase in mortality rates, so why do these scientists leave the ‘contaminated’ bodies in the surf?
Tuesday, February 22
Quoting the Sun Herald, “They bag all the equipment, tie orange tape around the tail and leave the carcass. Two of the others are more than a mile away…”
And that’s exactly what they did here on the beach in Surfside, and for more than a week my neighbors and I
Friday, February 25
called and emailed in hopes of finding someone who could either remove the body, or give us permission to do so. And for a week the tiny carcass rotted in the sun and washed in and out with the tide shedding whatever bacteria/virus/toxin that might have caused its death.
Removing the tiny body
I personally called and/or emailed the Dauphin Island Sea Lab, Alabama’s Dept of Conservation and Natural Resources, the BP hotline, the Bon Secour Wildlife Sanctuary next door to us, the Institute for Marine Mammals in Biloxi, Baldwin County’s State Senator and Representative, and two of the television stations reporting on the investigation.
The only help we ever received was from Alabama State Representative Steve McMillan, and in the end he gave up. Even our Baldwin County legislator couldn’t get an answer. These are some of his emails from last week:
<<Checking to determine who to contact to report. Do u know if reported to proper authority?>>
<<Can you give me more detailed information about where the dolphin is located. What is the name of your subdivision? What is your phone number in case someone needs to contact you in reference to finding the dolphin?>>
<<I have put in a call for Dauphin Island Sea Lab to come and pick it up,
They are suppose to call my office and let me know when they have picked it up. Please let me know when they do in case they forget to call. I will continue to follow up with both you and them.>>
<<WKRG 5 is going to have a special on tonight about other dolphins in the area and they are supposed to have an explanation. You may want to watch and see if it is helpful.>>
<<I spoke with Dr. Shannon at theIMMS (Institute for Marine Mammal Studies) in Gulf Port Mississippi and she told me that they had already gotten samples from the dolphin on Friday, and she said that they don’t take the dolphin back with them to the lab unless it is fresh enough for them to get a good study from it. She has contacted other authorities in the area to see who is suppose to pick them up and will get back in touch with me to let me know. She thinks that there is a group in the Gulf Shores area that picks them up after the samples are collected. At this time they are uncertain as to what is causing the death of the baby dolphins but they are studying to find out the cause, when I hear anything else, I will let you know.>>
<<I just spoke to Dr. Shannon again, she has been unable to find anyone to pick up the dolphin.>>
and finally on Thursday
<<I will let you know if I should hear anything else.>>
I finally received an email from <<Major Chris Blankenship, Chief Enforcement Officer and Acting Director
,Alabama Marine Resources>> giving us permission to remove the body for burial, and we did so last nite.
These are both responses I received yesterday, a week after we began making calls and sendong emails:
<<Thank you for your email and concern. I apologize for the delay in responding to your email, but as you may know we have been extremely busy during the past several weeks. We responded to the deceased dolphin calf that you mention below a week ago as that is when it was reported to us. We collected the appropriate biological information from the carcass, given its state of decomposition, and then tagged it for disposal. Unfortunately, as biologists we do not have the means to dispose of every carcass that we respond to and investigate. We usually only bring carcasses back to our lab in Gulfport, Mississippi when they are fresh enough for us to do a more complete necropsy (which is an animal autopsy). Regretfully this calf’s carcass was not very fresh, so we obtained what information and biological specimens that we could to further investigate the circumstances surrounding its death.
We have been working with the government officials in the Fort Morgan, AL area to dispose of the carcass, so hopefully it will be removed from the beach soon if it has not already. If you ever see a live or dead stranded dolphin or whale in Mississippi or Alabama, please call us on our stranding hotline number: (888) SOS-DOLPHIN (888-767-3657).
Thank you again for your concern for the dolphins and their environment.
Sincerely,
Delphine Shannon, M.D.
Assistant Director of Research
Institute for Marine Mammal Studies
P.O. Box 207
Gulfport, MS 39502
(228) 896-9182, ext. 1755
(228) 701-1755 direct line
(228) 896-9183 (fax)
www.imms.org>>
and
<<Thank you for your email. I have been in meetings in New Orleans concerning the oil spill recovery. We have had several small dolphins that have washed ashore in Alabama and Mississippi this week. The Mammal Stranding Network personnel have been conducting studies on them. I do not know why they did not remove the carcass. Sometimes they just take samples. It is ok to dig a hole and bury it on the beach if it is still there. We hope to have information soon on what is causing the deaths.
Major Chris Blankenship
Chief Enforcement Officer and Acting Director
Alabama Marine Resources
office 251-861-2882
cell 251-709-5889>>
Carolyn 'bags' the body to take to the car
How many idiots does it take a screw up an environment?
