Dolphins Use Diplomacy in Their Communication, Biologists Find

A Spanish researcher and a Paraguayan scientist have presented the most complete and detailed European study into the repertoire of sounds used by bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) to communicate. The study reveals the complexity and our lack of understanding about the communication of these marine mammals.

Until now, the scientific community had thought that whistles were the main sounds made by these mammals, and were unaware of the importance and use of burst-pulsed sounds. Researchers from the Bottlenose Dolphin Research Institute (BDRI), based in Sardinia (Italy) have now shown that these sounds are vital to the animals' social life and mirror their behaviour.

"Burst-pulsed sounds are used in the life of bottlenose dolphins to socialise and maintain their position in the social hierarchy in order to prevent physical conflict, and this also represents a significant energy saving," Bruno Díaz, lead author of the study and a researcher at the BDRI, which he also manages, said.

The study, published by the publishing house Nova Science Publishers in the book Dolphins: Anatomy, Behaviour and Threats, presents the most complete repertoire ever of these burst-pulsed sounds and whistles, gathered using bioacoustics since 2005 in the waters off Sardinia (Italy).

According to the experts, the tonal whistle sounds (the most melodious ones) allow dolphins to stay in contact with each other (above all mothers and offspring), and to coordinate hunting strategies. The burst-pulsed sounds (which are more complex and varied than the whistles) are used "to avoid physical aggression in situations of high excitement, such as when they are competing for the same piece of food, for example," explains Díaz.

Sounds that mark out hierarchies

According to Díaz, bottlenose dolphins make longer burst-pulsed sounds when they are hunting and at times of high aggression: "These are what can be heard best and over the longest period of time," and make it possible for each individual to maintain its position in the hierarchy.

The dolphins emit these strident sounds when in the presence of other individuals moving towards the same prey. The "least dominant" one soon moves away in order to avoid confrontation. "The surprising thing about these sounds is that they have a high level of uni-directionality, unlike human sounds. One dolphin can send a sound to another that it sees as a competitor, and this one clearly knows it is being addressed," explains the Spanish scientist.

Plataforma SINC (2010, June 9). Dolphins use diplomacy in their communication, biologists find. ScienceDaily. Retrieved June 11, 2010, from http://www.sciencedaily.com­ /releases/2010/06/100609094355.htm

Molecular Data and Images from Space Used to Study Imperiled Coastal Dolphins

Using DNA samples and images from Earth-orbiting satellites, conservationists from Columbia University, the Wildlife Conservation Society, the American Museum of Natural History, and Fundación AquaMarina, are gathering new insights about the franciscana -- a poorly known coastal dolphin species of eastern South America -- in an effort to understand populations and conserve them.

The study, one of the first to combine molecular data along with range-wide environmental information for a marine species, is helping researchers to understand how seemingly monotonous marine environments actually contain significant habitat differences that are shaping populations of this threatened species, which averages between 5-6 feet in length and around 80-90 pounds in weight. According to findings published in the most recent edition of Molecular Ecology, genetic differences between dolphins from different sites correlate to measurable differences in water temperature, turbidity and chlorophyll levels, a tantalizing indication of how largely hidden oceanographic variables could drive population structure of marine animals.

The authors of the study are: Martin Mendez of Columbia University, the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH), and the Wildlife Conservation Society; Howard Rosenbaum of the Wildlife Conservation Society; Ajit Subramaniam of Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University; Charles Yackulic of Columbia University; and Pablo Bordino of Fundación AquaMarina and the Wildlife Trust Alliance.

"The availability of both genetic and environmental data provided us with a rare opportunity to examine how ecological factors affect population structure in a marine species," said Martin Mendez, the study's lead author. "In this instance, the study subject is possibly the most endangered cetacean in South America, so delineating populations and the factors that create them certainly plays an important role in conservation measures."

As a result of the study, the researchers recommend that the genetically distinct population of franciscanas to the north of Buenos Aires -- probably created in part by oceanographic conditions -- should be protected as part of a larger effort to save the species.

The research team started its investigation on the molecular level, one of the most efficient ways of determining the structure of marine animal populations. Working at the American Museum of Natural History's Sackler Institute for Comparative Genomics, researchers compared 275 genetic samples from dolphins that had been stranded, entangled in fishing gear, or captured and released in six locations along coastal Argentina (the southern portion of the animal's full range). Using genetic markers to statistically gauge the geneflow between dolphin groups at different sites, the scientists discovered that there are two -- and possibly three -- distinct populations of franciscanas in Argentina's coastal waters.

What really sets the study apart is the use of region-wide satellite data that shows how environmental differences -- temperature, turbidity, and chlorophyll levels -- are probably involved in creating those genetically distinct populations. The oceanographic data was provided by NASA's SeaWiFS and MODIS, two satellites designed to gather information on oceanic conditions.

The combination of genetic and environmental information allowed the scientists to examine the effects of detectable habitat differences on population structure in franciscanas. Specifically, researchers were able to test the role of two biological hypotheses on population formation, one based on the assumption that geneflow between two groups decreases with distance, and one based on decreased geneflow as a result of environmental barriers (the latter of which is easy to detect with terrestrial species separated by mountains, and usually undetectable in marine environments over wide areas).

In comparing both data sets, researchers were surprised to discover that dolphins in closely located sites in the northern portion of the study area were most genetically different; in particular, two closely located groups of dolphins near the mouth of the La Plata Estuary (some 35 kilometers--about 22 miles--apart) were the most genetically dissimilar in the study, a finding that coincided with detectable environmental discontinuities. By contrast, two sites separated by hundreds of kilometers to the south were found to be the most similar.

Other correlations hint at the possible role of behavioral patterns in population structure. An examination of both mitochondrial DNA (inherited through maternal lines) and nuclear DNA seems to reinforce current knowledge of cetacean behavior, with females remaining faithful to their natal location and males ranging more widely (except when oceanographic barriers impede their movement). More research on franciscana behavior could further illuminate the role of behavior in population structure.

"We're only beginning to understand the interactions between environmental factors and population patterns in marine environments," said Dr. Howard Rosenbaum, director of the Wildlife Conservation Society's Ocean Giants Program. "What this study shows is that marine systems are not homogeneous environments, but full of variations that could play important roles in shaping and reinforcing how animal populations use their habitat; these types of information are essential for developing strategies on how best to protect these coastal dolphins and broader marine spatial planning."

The franciscana, or La Plata dolphin, is found along the Atlantic coastal waters of South America, from southern Brazil to Península Valdes in Argentina. Although a member of the river dolphin family, the franciscana -- one of the world's smallest cetaceans -- actually lives in coastal waters and estuaries. The species is listed as "Vulnerable" by the World Conservation Union (IUCN), and is threatened by accidental capture in gill nets and other fishing gear.

Rising conservationists fight to save pink dolphins of Hong Kong

The triangle of busy, brackish water that separates Hong Kong from the industrial belt of southern China seems an unlikely place to look for rare wildlife. But every week conservationist Janet Walker brings tourists out among the tall ships and container terminals, the refineries and one of the world's busiest airports, to get a glimpse of some unique creatures: bubblegum-pink dolphins.Few in Hong Kong knew of their existence here till the early 1990s when the government started reclaiming land in the heart of their habitat for the new airport. It was too late to halt that project, but environmentalists began to campaign to preserve the dolphins – a subspecies of the Indo-Pacific humpback – and their habitat in the face of the region's development juggernaut."Anywhere else in the world if you had pink dolphins in the backyard, the government would be making a lot of noise and preserving it," says Ms. Walker, spokeswoman for Hong Kong Dolphinwatch. "But this is Hong Kong."The effort to save the pink dolphins of the Pearl River Delta is in many ways representative of a broader battle over conservation in an island city used to extracting maximum gain from its meager real estate.Residents of a former British colony long identified with pure capitalism are increasingly asserting a claim to its more intangible assets – a unique natural and urban heritage.In the past few years, civic groups have stopped several massive reclamation projects, campaigned to preserve old street markets, and just last month, successfully lobbied to halt redevelopment of a strip of tenements from the 1950s known as tong lau in the Central district."Officials in senior positions today had their idea of development shaped in the 1970s, when building hardware was what defined Hong Kong and their careers," says Christine Loh, a former legislator and a founder of the Society for the Protection of the Harbour. "Today, it's about the software, and they don't get it… People want a better city to live in from every point of view – politics, education, health, and environment, and even social justice."Calls for preservation buildThe conservation movement here stems from the civic activism that took root in the ferment of the run-up to 1997, the year Britain returned Hong Kong to China, and it has since gathered strength.A turning point came in 2005 with the demolition of the iconic Star Ferry pier, says art curator and heritage activist John Batten. For more than 50 years, the pier hosted the ferry service that connects Hong Kong island with its mainland, a choppy seven-minute ride memorialized in countless films. The proposed relocation of the piers brought thousands of residents out to sit-ins and candlelight vigils.The pier was not saved, but the uproar showed the government how much people cared about the city's public spaces and history. It was, as Hong Kong's Chief Executive Donald Tsang acknowledged, an "awakening," one that reflected a postcolonial shift in a city once described as a "borrowed time in a borrowed place." The phrase, popularized by a 1968 book on Hong Kong, indicates the sense of transience experienced by Chinese and expat communities uncertain of the city's fate after 1997.Now "this is home, and we are here," says Ms. Loh.That shift is also demographic. Those born here in the 1970s and 1980s are coming of age now, Loh points out. They are better educated and "hooked into issues" in a way their parents never were. They are also frustrated with a political system in which full direct representation is years away, though they are more optimistic about the impact of dissent on government decisionmaking. A recent survey shows that nearly half of those under 30 think the government would or might change its policies in respone to widespread public opposition.Small victoriesDespite its victories, the conservation battle has been uphill. Many of Hong Kong's public spaces have already been lost, and what is being saved – such as the tong lau of Wing Lee Street – is seen by some as minor concessions.Similarly, conservationists were able to help avert a natural gas terminal being built in dolphin waters, but they are now struggling to halt a proposed 26-mile bridge connecting Hong Kong, Macau, and China that could cut right through their habitat.How well the dolphins are doing today depends on whom you ask, and is hard to verify because of the lack of scientific research. Officials claim they're thriving, though data from the Marine Mammal Stranding Program show the number of stranded dolphins found every year rose during the 1990s. Walker says it is harder to find them now on her tours, which she has led since 1997. At best, she suggests, their numbers are holding steady.Still, activists like Loh remain optimistic. Social movements are here to stay, she says. "[T]hey are the zeitgeist! They are irresistible."

Post-Katrina Gulf Coast Baby Boom for the Bottlenose Dolphin

Nearly five years after Katrina, the region is still in recovery mode but the dolphin population appears to be doing great.The city of New Orleans and the wider Gulf Coast region continue the slow march of recovery nearly five years after the disastrous storm unleashed its fury on the coast and its inhabitants. Those who earn a living from the sea took an especially hard hit as the storm wiped out an estimated 87 percent of the commercial fishing fleet according to Discovery News, who reports of a small, silver lining to be found in the ongoing challenges faced by Gulf Coast residents: the marine life has fared pretty well, and in particular, the dolphins.Jessica Marshall, writing for Discovery, reports that a marine biological survey study initiated prior to the 2005 hurricane revealed some striking differences when additional surveys were conducted after the storm. Biologist Lance Miller of the San Diego Zoo, then a graduate student at the University of Mississippi, found that subsequent to the storm, births of bottlenose dolphins have risen dramatically.Explanations for the increase point to some obvious suggestions: the steep decrease in boat traffic and fishing activities have resulted in a diminished impact on the ecosystem as well as in a much richer bounty of available food. Also possibly in play are the variable fertility capabilities of the animal itself. Dolphins are known to become and remain fertile for extended periods of time following the loss of a calf. A broad loss of young dolphins to the storm and might have led to a higher population of fertile females."What's great about this study is that it shows us some potential effects of this hurricane, and indirectly, potentially, effects of human disturbance," Miller explains to Discovery. "I think this allows us to look at some more specific questions: How does decreasing commercial fisheries intake affect dolphin populations? How does the number of boats or density of boats affect populations?"It remains unknown if the bump in dolphin births since Katrina is likely to lead to an overall dolphin population increase, or if it represents a short-term spike unlikely to be sustained over time. The increase in available food will likely back down as fishing activity picks back up, and if the greater number of youngsters did result from a mortality-induced increase in fertility, that too would likely ultimately be shown to be a short-lived change.For now though, these highly intelligent marine mammals are finding themselves living large in a Gulf of Mexico that was dramatically impacted by a storm whose effects continue to be felt.

Rodeo bull goes head-to-head with zoo dolphins in a study of balance

This dolphin is carrying a device that measures the movement of its head as it swims.Dolphins, whales and porpoises have extraordinarily small balance organs, and scientists have long wondered why.Now a study at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis has contradicted a leading theory, which held that the animals moved their heads so vigorously that they had to have smaller, less responsive balance organs to avoid overwhelming their senses.Working with a Midwestern zoo and a local rancher, the researchers, led by Timothy E. Hullar, MD, a Washington University ear, nose and throat specialist at Barnes-Jewish and St. Louis Children's hospitals, directly measured the head movements of dolphins and compared them with those of a closely related land animal — a rodeo bull. Cattle have much larger balance organs than dolphins, yet the tests showed that both species had similar head motions.The findings will be published in the April issue of the Journal of Experimental Biology. Hullar says the results deepen our understanding of the role of balance systems, including those of people.Much of an animal's or person's balance is controlled by the semicircular canals located in the inner ear. Even though a bottlenose dolphin is about 8 feet long, its semicircular canals are as tiny as those of the average mouse, an animal that could comfortably ride on the tip of the dolphin's nose."About 35 million years ago, the ancestors of whales and dolphins went from a terrestrial habitat to an aquatic habitat," says Hullar, assistant professor of otolaryngology and of anatomy and neurobiology. "During this evolutionary process, their semicircular canals got smaller and smaller. The scientific thinking has been that since the canals measure head motion, something must have changed a lot in how these animals move their heads."Hullar points out that the general trend is for vertebrate semicircular canals to be proportional to body size. Since dolphin canals are so much smaller than the rule suggests they should be, perhaps, scientists thought, dolphins move so much that a large balance organ would be too sensitive to work properly.Dolphin trainers at the Indianapolis Zoo agreed to work with Hullar and Benjamin M. Kandel, a Yeshiva University undergraduate student conducting summer research in Hullar's lab, to measure dolphin head movement to test this hypothesis."They were glad to help because zoo dolphins aren't there just to entertain but also to help educate us about the species," says Hullar, who is also on the faculty of the Program in Audiology and Communication Sciences of the Central Institute for the Deaf at Washington University School of Medicine. "They trained their dolphins to carry in their mouths a plastic pipe that contained a gyroscope and recording device so we could precisely measure their motion. Our study is the first to directly measure the head motion of dolphins."Next, the researchers had to find a land animal to match the dolphins. Two-toed animals such as pigs, camels and hippopotamuses are closely related to dolphins. So are cattle. So when one of Hullar's patients turned out to be a rancher, Hullar asked him if he had any bulls he could work with. He didn't, but he put Hullar in touch with a neighbor who raised bulls for the rodeo circuit."I called him, and he said 'come on down' and directed me to his ranch in southeastern Missouri — part of the directions included making a left turn at the second chicken house," Hullar says. "He and his assistants duct-taped the gyroscope to the bull's horns and let him into the ring."As the bull bucked and trotted around the ring, the device recorded its head movements. When the researchers went back to the lab and analyzed their data, they found the speed of the bull's head motions while trotting was remarkably similar to that of the dolphins' while swimming. The speed of the bull's head motions during bucking was like the dolphins' when they spun in the water."A few years ago, our lab was the first to record the nerve signals in mouse balance systems, and we showed that the smaller an animal's semicircular canal, the less sensitive it is," Hullar says. "Smaller canals, such as dolphins', would provide the animal with less information about motion. A dolphin's head is certainly large enough to hold a larger balance system, and because we've found their small canals aren't related to head motion, the question as to why they are so small remains open."Hullar will continue to try to answer this question by looking at the nerves that are linked to balance systems to see if the explanation lies in some aspect of nerve transmission or brain processing. In addition, he is working to build experimental models of semicircular canals using computer programs so he can test the effect of various movements on their function.

Thrill-Seeking Holidaymakers May Be Putting Dolphins at Risk

Tourists wanting to watch and swim with dolphins are now being urged to keep their distance in a bid to protect both the animals and the local communities whose livelihoods depend on them.

A study of bottlenose dolphins living off the coast of Zanzibar has found that the many tourist boats operating in the area are harassing the animals, preventing them from resting, feeding and nurturing their young.
The research, led by Dr Per Berggren of Newcastle University, also highlights swimming with dolphins -- in particular where tourists swim in very close and try to touch the dolphins- as being incredibly stressful for the animals.
Printed March 16 in the academic journal Endangered Species Research, the authors say regulation of the dolphin tourism industry is "urgently needed" to minimize the potential long-term negative impact on the animals.
Dr Berggren, who joined Newcastle from Stockholm University earlier this month, explained: "The current situation in Zanzibar is unsustainable. The local community is dependent on tourism -- and therefore the dolphins -- but unless the activity is regulated the animals will leave.
"Our study found that whenever the tourist boats were present the dolphins were very unsettled and spent less time feeding, socialising or resting. This has a negative impact, not only on individual animals, but on the population as a whole and long term it could be devastating.
"The problem is that any change needs to be tourist-driven. Many visitors will pay drivers extra in tips to steer their boats in close, herding the dolphins so they can dive right in amongst them. Our message is, keep your distance and put the dolphins first."
Dolphin-watching was introduced off the South coast of Zanzibar in 1992. Today it is one of the few places in the world where tourism has completely replaced the traditional dolphin hunt -- an activity which threatened the local population of around 150 bottlenose dolphins.
"Abolishing the hunts was a major breakthrough and dolphin watching offered a humane, sustainable alternative," says Dr Berggren.
"Unfortunately, without regulation, dolphin tourism brings with it its own challenges."
Watching the dolphins over a period of 40 days, the research team found that in the presence of the tourist boats, the time the dolphins spent resting dropped from 38 per cent of the time to 10 per cent while the time they spent foraging and socialising dropped from 19 and 10 per cent to just 10 and 4 per cent, respectively.
Meanwhile, travelling behaviour more than doubled in proportion, from 33 to 77 per cent, becoming by far the most dominant activity state during interactions with tourist boats.
"Overall, the dolphins are using more energy than they are taking in because they aren't resting or feeding as much but are swimming more as they try to avoid the tourist boats," explains Dr Berggren, based in the School of Marine Science and Technology at Newcastle University.
"Zanzibar is a wonderful place, the dolphins are incredibly interesting and between July and October there are also breeding humpbacks in the area. I would recommend that anyone go there for a holiday and support the local community but act responsibly and ask operators to follow existing guidelines."

Dolphin Cognitive Abilities Raise Ethical Questions, Says Emory Neuroscientist

Emory University neuroscientist Lori Marino will speak on the anatomical basis of dolphin intelligence at the American Association for the Advancement of Science conference (AAAS) in San Diego, on Feb. 21, 2010.

"Many modern dolphin brains are significantly larger than our own and second in mass to the human brain when corrected for body size," Marino says.
A leading expert in the neuroanatomy of dolphins and whales, Marino will appear as part of a panel discussing these findings and their ethical and policy implications.
Some dolphin brains exhibit features correlated with complex intelligence, she says, including a large expanse of neocortical volume that is more convoluted than our own, extensive insular and cingulated regions, and highly differentiated cellular regions.
"Dolphins are sophisticated, self-aware, highly intelligent beings with individual personalities, autonomy and an inner life. They are vulnerable to tremendous suffering and psychological trauma," Marino says.
The growing industry of capturing and confining dolphins to perform in marine parks or to swim with tourists at resorts needs to be reconsidered, she says.
"Our current knowledge of dolphin brain complexity and intelligence suggests that these practices are potentially psychologically harmful to dolphins and present a misinformed picture of their natural intellectual capacities," Marino says.
Marino worked on a 2001 study that showed that dolphins can recognize themselves in a mirror -- a finding that indicates self-awareness similar to that seen in higher primates and elephants.

Call goes out to save the Ganges Dolphin

The Ganges River Dolphin was declared the national aquatic animal last month, but is still in urgent need of being saved from extinction, experts on the subject said. There are only about 2,000 left, down from tens of thousands just a few decades ago.Participating in a two-day seminar here on conservation of the Ganges River Dolphin, the experts said its numbers continue to dwindle alarmingly due to killing, pollution and the break-up of its habitat by building dams. "Conservation of the Ganges River Dolphin should be given priority by all," Wildlife Institute of India director P.R. Sinha told IANS. "It should be given the same importance as conserving tigers." He was one of the dozens of national and international experts who attended the workshop Monday and Tuesday. It was organised by the working group for action plan for dolphin conservation, set up by the central Ministry of Environment and Forests to finalise India's dolphin conservation plan. The group is likely to submit its report to the ministry by April. "Conservation of the Ganges River Dolphin must be initiated on a massive scale because freshwater dolphins are found only in some countries in South America and Asia," said Randall Reeves, chairman of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) cetacean (whales, dolphins and porpoises) specialist group. IUCN has classified the species as endangered. Reeves said one way to save the dolphins was to turn stretches of river where they were found into tourist spots, as had been done in South America. Well-known expert on Ganges River Dolphins R.K. Sinha said dolphins are the lifeline of the Ganga (Ganges). "If the dolphin numbers increase in the river, it will be a positive sign for a clean Ganga and if the numbers decrease, it is a negative sign of increasing pollution," he said. Experts discussed how to get Ganges River Dolphins the status of "indicator species" for gauging the success of Ganga cleaning mission. R.K. Sinha said that since dolphins were at the apex of the food chain in the river, their condition would help assess whether the steps taken to clean the river Ganges were working. R.K. Sinha, who has been researching on freshwater dolphins for over two decades, asserted that immersion of idols in rivers after Hindu festivals poses a grave threat to aquatic life. He suggested that "man-made water bodies" be used for immersing idols. "The Ganga is already highly polluted, and its ecosystem is under pressure. The immersed idols will create more trouble for dolphins and people dependent on the river for drinking water," said R.K. Sinha, a professor of zoology at Patna University. Untreated sewage, rotting carcasses and industrial effluents that find their way into the Ganga during its 2,500-km-long journey from the Himalayas to the Bay of Bengal have also affected the dolphins, he said. Bihar's Minister for Disaster Management Devesh Chand Thakur assured the experts that the state government was committed to conservation of Ganges River Dolphins. "The state government has decided to provide funds for conservation of the dolphins from the next fiscal year," Thakur told the experts during his address Monday. The minister said an awareness campaign would be launched among fishermen and boatmen in the state for conservation of Ganges River Dolphins. Experts at the conference estimated the current population of Ganges River Dolphins at around 2,000, with about half of these in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) says that in the 1980s, there were around 3,500 in the delta region alone. According to WWF, the range of the Ganges River Dolphin covers seven states - Assam, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal. The upper Ganga (in Uttar Pradesh), Chambal (Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh), Ghaghra and Gandak (Bihar and Uttar Pradesh), Ganga from Varanasi to Patna (Uttar Pradesh and Bihar), Sone and Kosi (Bihar), Brahmaputra from Sadia (foothills of Arunachal Pradesh) up to Dhubri (on the Bangladesh Border) and Kulsi River, a tributary of the Brahmaputra, form its ideal habitats. The Ganges River Dolphin is one of four freshwater dolphin species in the world. The other three are found in the Yangtze river in China, the Indus in Pakistan and the Amazon in South America. The Ganges River Dolphin (Platanista gangetica) is found in India, Bangladesh and Nepal. In appearance, it is identical to the Indus River Dolphin. WWF says Ganges River Dolphins prefer deep waters, in and around the confluence of two or more rivers. They share their habitat with crocodiles, fresh water turtles and wetland birds. It has a sturdy, yet flexible, body with large flippers and a low triangular dorsal fin. It weighs up to 150 kg. The calves are chocolate brown at birth and become greyish brown in adulthood with a smooth and hairless skin. Females are larger than males. The maximum length of a female is 2.67 metres and of a male 2.12 metres. Females attain sexual maturity at 10-12 years, while the males mature earlier. The gestation period is 9-11 months and a female gives birth to only one calf, once in 2-3 years. The Ganges River Dolphin is blind. It finds its way and and its prey in the turgid rivers waters through echo-location.

Dolphins Could Be Ideal Model to Study Human Cervical Cancer

After testing dozens of samples from marine mammals, University of Florida aquatic animal health experts say dolphins may be the ideal model for the study of cervical cancer in people.•U.S. "We discovered that dolphins get multiple infections of apillomaviruses, which are known to be linked with cervical cancer in women," said Hendrik Nollens, a marine mammal biologist and clinical assistant professor at UF's College of Veterinary Medicine Feb. 18 at the annual meeting of the American Academy for the Advancement of Science. "Dolphins are the only species besides humans that we know of that can harbor coinfections, or infections of multiple papillomavirus types, in the genital mucosa."There are approximately 100 types of human papillomaviruses, and multiple-type infections of up to eight HPV types have been reported in humans, he said."Even more surprisingly, some virus groups have shown the ability to cross the marine-terrestrial ecosystem boundary -- from sea to land," Nollens said. "We have demonstrated at least one case of genetic recombination between viruses of human and marine mammals. So while it's exciting that dolphins can provide a unique window into the role of coinfection in human cervical cancer, we can't rule out that the next high risk virus, such as SARS, or West Nile, might actually come from the marine environment."The presence of coinfections is believed to be one of the biggest risk factors for the development of cervical cancer in humans, Nollens said, although he added that there is no evidence that dolphins develop the disease."Why do people develop the disease, but dolphins don't? If we can figure out why, the human medical community might be very interested in how that information might be applied to human strategies for preventing the disease," he said.Of all creatures that inhabit the ocean, dolphins and other marine mammals are the closest relatives of humans, but scientific knowledge of infectious diseases, particularly viral diseases, affecting these animals is limited, researchers say. No animals are harmed during collection of cell and tissue samples, although some are obtained from animals that have died of natural causes in the wild.In hopes of shedding more light on the nature, prevalence and potential of such diseases to be passed to humans, Nollens and his colleagues at UF's Marine Animal Disease Laboratory have embarked on a large-scale collaborative research project to catalogue previously unrecognized and emerging viruses of marine mammals, both in collections and in the wild.Over a four-year period, some 1,500 blood, tissue and fecal samples from taken from dolphins have been analyzed at different laboratories across the United States, Nollens said."Some 90 percent of what we do in the laboratory is molecular analyses," Nollens said. "Because of advances in molecular medicine since January 2006, we've found more than 40 new viruses in dolphins alone. When the last textbook came out in 2003, only 19 were noted."All viruses found in the laboratory and suspected of having pathogenic potential are further evaluated to assess the impact each virus could have on the health of individual dolphins, he added. The potential impact on collection animals as well as free-ranging dolphin populations is assessed, with information then used to generate guidelines for disease outbreak management and prevention strategies."This process helps us understand disease and disease prevention," Nollens said, adding that for more than a decade, scientists have been looking for cures to human diseases, including cancer, among marine invertebrates."Maybe there will be a similar story with dolphin papilloma viruses and prevention of cervical cancer in humans," he said. "It wouldn't be the first time we've come up with useful information from looking at marine animals."

Dolphins' Health Shed Light on Human and Ocean Health

A panel of governmental, academic and non-profit scientists speaking at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) unveiled research suggesting that diseases found in dolphins are similar to human diseases and can provide clues into how human health might be affected by exposure to contaminated coastal water or seafood.

"Dolphins and humans are both mammals, and their diet includes much of the same seafood that we consume. Unlike us, however, they are exposed to potential ocean health threats such as toxic algae or poor water quality 24 hours a day," said Carolyn Sotka of the NOAA Oceans and Human Health Initiative and lead organizer of the session. "Our ecological and physiological similarities make dolphins an important 'sentinel species' to not only warn us of health risks, but also provide insight into how our health can benefit from new medical discoveries."
"Marine animal and ecosystem health are connected to public health and well-being," said Jane Lubchenco, Ph.D., under secretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere and NOAA administrator. "NOAA is committed to better understanding these connections and building the partnerships necessary to have healthy oceans, including healthy dolphins."
NOAA is the principal stewardship agency responsible for protecting dolphins in the wild and supports a network of national and international projects aimed at investigating health concerns. A few of these case studies highlighted February 18 at AAAS illustrate how studying disease processes, or pathologies in dolphins, could lead to future prevention or treatment of some diseases in humans. Equally important is the knowledge gained with regards to overall population health, which can lead to improved management and science-based guidelines to mitigate disease outbreak in both people and animals.
Unprecedented Contaminant Levels in Coastal Dolphins Warn of Potential Health Risks
Researchers from NOAA and its partner institutions recently discovered that bottlenose dolphins inhabiting estuaries along the Georgia coast have the highest levels of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) ever reported in marine wildlife. The term PCB encompasses a suite of persistent contaminants that have been banned in the United States since the late 1970s due to documented adverse health effects. The extraordinarily high levels of PCBs measured in the dolphins, a maximum concentration of 2900 parts per million, may be suppressing their immune function.
The unique signature of the PCB compounds found in these dolphins is consistent with contaminants of concern at a Superfund site near Brunswick, Ga. Scientists are equally concerned about the high PCB levels in dolphins sampled near a marine protected area approximately 30 miles from Brunswick. This suggests that the contaminants are moving along the coast through the marine food web.
"When we received the lab results for the Georgia dolphins, we were alarmed by the contaminant levels and set out to investigate how these heavy chemical burdens were affecting their health," states Lori Schwacke, Ph.D., with NOAA's Center for Oceans and Human Health at the Hollings Marine Lab and co-lead investigator on the team.
Last August, the team conducted a dolphin 'capture-release medical physical' on this population and found decreased levels of thyroid hormones, elevated liver enzymes and indications of suppressed immune function.
A pilot study is being undertaken by the National Center for Environmental Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), to examine potential environmental contaminants in residents of nearby coastal communities. The researchers are investigating whether coastal dolphin populations and human communities sharing the same seafood resources experience similar exposures.
Dolphins May Offer Clues to Treating Diabetes in Humans
Research conducted in part by the non-profit National Marine Mammal Foundation (NMMF) has uncovered evidence that bottlenose dolphins may be the first natural animal model for type II diabetes. Further study of their genome may elucidate a possible treatment for a disease that accounts for an estimated 5 percent of all human deaths globally, according to the World Health Organization.
These studies have found that healthy dolphins appear to readily turn on and off a diabetes-like state as needed. This "switch" mechanism is likely driven by the dolphins' very high-protein and very low-carbohydrate fish diet. Analyses have revealed that a fasting mechanism in dolphins may trigger a series of changes in serum chemistries that matches those seen in humans with diabetes.
"While some people may eat a high protein diet to help control diabetes, dolphins appear to have developed a diabetes-like state to support a high protein diet," according to Stephanie Venn-Watson, Ph.D., director of clinical research for NMMF. "Shared large brains that have high blood glucose demands may explain why two completely different species -- humans and dolphins -- have developed similar physiological mechanisms to handle sugar."
Additional evidence collected from this study shows that humans and dolphins may share similar chronic disease outcomes associated with diabetes such as insulin resistance, hemochromatosis (iron overload) and kidney stones.
Model for Epilepsy Discovered from Marine Exposure to Toxic Algae
NOAA researchers found that for the first time exposing laboratory animals to a toxin produced by blooms of microscopic ocean algae can induce seizures and eventually lead to epilepsy in almost all of the animals tested. Establishing this novel linkage of oceans and health offers a new perspective to researchers and clinicians studying human epilepsy.
Working with the Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito, Calif., and other partners, scientists initially suspected a marine environmental cause of epilepsy by studying marine mammals and other wildlife with seizures that washed up on California beaches over the past decade.
The seizures were found to be caused by exposure to domoic acid, a neurotoxin produced by the Pseudo-nitzschia australis alga. After realizing that some sea lions were stranded with seizures when there were no harmful algal blooms, researchers started to believe that domoic acid poisoning may have progressed to chronic epileptic disease.
Chief of Harmful Algal Blooms & Analytical Response at NOAA's National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science, John Ramsdell, Ph.D., conducted laboratory experiments to validate the field observations seen in sea lions. His research team exposed laboratory rats to domoic acid at levels similar to what a sea lion or dolphin might ingest in the wild by eating contaminated fish.
"Within six months of the initial exposure, 92 percent of laboratory rats tested developed epileptic disease that worsened over their lifetime," said Ramsdell. "The domoic acid itself is not directly causing the epilepsy, but triggers a brief period of seizures that leads to changes in the brain, resulting in spontaneous and reoccurring seizures, the hallmark of epilepsy."
The type of epilepsy in the rat model resembles human Temporal Lobe Epilepsy, as confirmed by at least one human case traced back to eating mussels contaminated with the domoic acid toxin.
This research could provide important insight into how dolphins and other species, including humans, respond to domoic acid poisoning. Stranded dolphins with high domoic acid levels do not survive long enough for treatment and study. It is possible that the acute initial poisoning may lead to sudden death; however, these new findings indicate those animals that survive an initial bout of seizures are likely to develop neurological disease with changes in behavior and increasing severity of spontaneous seizures. This new information can help guide future research and emergency response efforts during the next harmful algal bloom event.
Dolphin Viruses May Have Human Health Implications
A team of researchers and veterinarians from the Marine Animal Disease Lab at the University of Florida have discovered at least 50 new viruses in dolphins, the majority of which have yet to be reported in any other marine mammal species.
"We know that the ocean harbors a huge diversity of viruses; but we have very limited knowledge as to which viruses dolphins are susceptible to and how they develop the disease," said Hendrik H. Nollens, Ph.D., research lead of the UF team. "By studying dolphin viral ecology, we learned more about how viruses infect human and land animals. This research could lead to preventing outbreaks of disease."
One of these viruses, the human papillomavirus, was found to be common in bottlenose dolphins and likely represents the first natural model of papillomavirus outside the human species. Commonly known as HPV in humans, the virus has historically produced great health risks including cervical tumors or cancer in women, especially women with multiple types of the papillomavirus. This new study shows that while dolphins also host multiple types of papillomaviruses they don't appear to get cancer, only genital warts. Further research into the genome of this virus in dolphins may help understand, manage and prevent cervical cancer in humans.
Thirteen additional RNA-based viruses that cause intestinal disease and encephalitis in humans have also recently been discovered in dolphins, whales and other marine life. Much like West Nile, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and influenza, RNA-based viruses have the ability to quickly adapt, rapidly mutate and jump from animals to people, posing potential threats to public health. Another virus identified in the dolphins had incorporated part of a similar human virus into its DNA make-up, making it a very probable candidate to infect humans. Adapted from materials provided by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Dolphins have diabetes off switch

Dolphins appear to be resistant to insulin, say researchers A study in dolphins has revealed genetic clues that could help medical researchers to treat type 2 diabetes.Scientists from the US National Marine Mammal Foundation said that bottlenose dolphins are resistant to insulin - just like people with diabetes. But in dolphins, they say, this resistance is switched on and off. The researchers presented the findings at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in San Diego. They hope to collaborate with diabetes researchers to see if they can find and possibly even control an equivalent human "off switch". The team, based in San Diego, took blood samples from trained dolphins that "snack" continuously during the day and fast overnight. "The overnight changes in their blood chemistry match the changes in diabetic humans," explained Stephanie Venn-Watson, director of veterinary medicine at the foundation. This means that insulin - the hormone that reduces the level of glucose in the blood - has no effect on the dolphins when they fast. Big brainsIn the morning, when they have their breakfast, they simply switch back into a non-fasting state, said Dr Venn-Watson. In diabetic people, chronic insulin resistance means having to carefully control blood glucose, usually with a diet low in sugar, to avoid a variety of medical complications. But in dolphins, the resistance appears to be advantageous. Dr Venn-Watson explained that the mammals may have evolved this fasting-feeding switch to cope with a high-protein, low-carbohydrate diet of fish. "Bottlenose dolphins have large brains that need sugar," Dr Venn-Watson explained. Since their diet is very low in sugar, "it works to their advantage to have a condition that keeps blood sugar in the body… to keep the brain well fed". But other marine mammals, such as seals, do not have this switch, and Dr Venn-Watson thinks that the "big brain factor" could be what connects human and dolphin blood chemistry.There are several interesting diseases that you only see in humans and dolphins Lori SchwackeNOAA "We're really looking at two species that have big brains with high demands for blood glucose," she said. "And we have found changes in dolphins that suggest that [this insulin resistance] could get pushed into a disease state. "If we started feeding dolphins Twinkies, they would have diabetes." Genetic linkSince both the human genome and the dolphin genome have been sequenced, Dr Venn-Watson hopes to work with medical researchers to turn the discovery in dolphins into an eventual treatment for humans. "There is no desire to make a dolphin a lab animal," she said. "But the genome has been mapped - so we can compare those genes with human genes. Scientists at the Salk Institute in San Diego have already discovered a "fasting gene" that is abnormally turned on in people with diabetes, "so maybe this is a smoking gun for a key point to control human diabetes", Dr Venn-Watson said. If scientists can find out what switches the fasting gene on and off in dolphins, they may be able to do the same thing in people. Lori Schwacke, a scientist from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in Charleston, South Carolina, said that the work demonstrated that there are interesting similarities between dolphins and humans. Dr Schwacke, who is studying the effect of pollution on dolphins along the coast of the US state of Georgia, is also interested in the links between dolphin and human health. "There are several interesting diseases that you only see in humans and dolphins," she told BBC News. In this case, Dr Venn-Watson said, "the fundamental difference is that dolphins can switch it off and humans can't".

Fishing Industry Killing World's Toothed Whales, Dolphins

The Baiji dolphin, which used to live in the Yangtze River, is probably extinct, and the Vaquita porpoise from the northern Gulf of California is facing the same fate, with only 150 individuals remaining in the wild. Entanglement in fishing gear has claimed an unsustainably high number of both species, concludes a new United Nations report released today.
In fact, entanglement and death in gillnets, purse-seine nets, traps, weirs, longlines and trawls threatens 86 percent of all toothed whale species, finds the report, posted on the website of the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals, CMS, often called the Bonn Convention after its headquarters city.

his is a substantial increase in toothed whale species at risk of dying as fishing by-catch as compared to 2001, when by-catch was reported to affect 50 species or 70.4 percent of all toothed whales, says author Boris Culik.

Lack of food and forced changes in diet as a result of overfishing pose additional threats to 13 of the world's 72 toothed whale species, his report finds.

This peer-reviewed encyclopedia on all 72 species of toothed whales includes the most recent scientific findings on the distribution, migration, behavior and threats to this group of whales.

But for 41 of all toothed whales species, the assessment shows that human knowledge is too limited even to know if these species are threatened or not.

"During the International Year of Biodiversity, the Convention on Migratory Species continues to address major threats such as by-catch, ship strikes, ocean noise impacts and climate change to safeguard these charismatic marine mammals," said UNEP/CMS Executive Secretary Elizabeth Mrema.

"Governments need to enhance their efforts towards implementing targeted action plans under the Convention," she said.

The report includes the sperm whale as the only large toothed whale as well as the Australian snubfin dolphin and the Guiana dolphin as new species.

Toothed whales inhabit marine and freshwater habitats, from the Arctic to the tropics. Some species live in large river systems such as the Amazon, Ganges, Indus and Yangtze.
Many populations of toothed whales were at one point hunted almost to extinction and 50 species continue to be hunted, often at unsustainable levels, the report finds.

More recently, the ingestion of plastic debris or the effects of pollution by an ever-increasing cocktail of chemicals have been reported in 48 toothed whale species.

Pollution by persistent and bio-accumulating heavy metals, including mercury and butyltins used in anti-fouling paint for ships, as well as persistent chemicals such as PCB's, DDT and others, were found to affect 48 toothed whale species, as compared to 40 species in 2001.

Habitat degradation from dams and withdrawal of water from rivers and lakes threatens 18 species, the new report finds.

Ship strikes have a serious impact on 14 species, and noise caused by seismic explorations, marine construction projects and military sonar pose increasingly greater threats to these marine mammals.

At the same, time six species of toothed whales that are listed on Appendix I of the Convention are on the brink of extinction. They are:

Ganges river dolphin / Susu (Platanista gangetica gangetica)
Franciscana / La Plata dolphin (Pontoporia blainvillei)
Short-beaked common dolphin (Delphinus delphis) - only Mediterranean population
Common bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus ponticus) - Black Sea population
Irrawaddy dolphin (Orcaella brevirostris)
Atlantic humpback dolphin (Sousa teuszii)
A corresponding poster available online shows for the first time all toothed whale species sorted according to their conservation status as defined by the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Maps showing the currently known distribution of each species were provided by IUCN and the Global Mammal Assessment.
Among the small cetacean species, there have been three additions and several changes since 2001. Perrin's beaked whale (Mesoplodon perrini) was first described in 2002 on the basis of five animals stranded on the coast of California.

The Australian snubfin dolphin (Orcaella heinsohni), formerly included in the Irrawaddy dolphin (Orcaella brevirostris) and the Guiana dolphin (Sotalia guianensis), formerly included in the Tucuxi (Sotalia fluviatilis) have been recognized as new species.

Two species have been synonymized with others and re-assigned to subspecific status - the Arabian common dolphin (Delphinus tropicalis) is now included in the Long-beaked common dolphin (Delphinus capensis) and the account on the Indo-Pacific humpback dolphin (Sousa plumbea) was merged with that of the Chinese white dolphin (Sousa chinensis).

Report contributors include CMS, and treaty organizations covering cetaceans in the Black Sea, Mediterranean Sea and Atlantic Ocean, the Baltic and North Seas, and the Pacific Ocean, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, WWF-World Wide Fund For Nature, and the Loro Parque Foundation.

Being an official partner of the UN's International Year of Biodiversity, the Convention on Migratory Species has joined the Convention on Biological Diversity to raise awareness of the importance of biodiversity on a global scale.

Commercial Fishing Endangers Dolphin Populations, New Study Finds

Extensive commercial fishing endangers dolphin populations in the Mediterranean. This has been shown in a new study carried out at the University of Haifa's Department of Maritime Civilizations. "Unfortunately, we turn our backs to the sea and do not give much consideration to our marine neighbors," states researcher Dr. Aviad Scheinin.

The study, which was supervised by Prof. Ehud Spanier and Dr. Dan Kerem, examined the competition between the two top predators along the Mediterranean coast of Israel: the Common Bottlenose Dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) and bottom trawlers. (Trawling is the principal type of commercial fishing in Israel and involves dragging a large fishing net through the water, close to the sea floor, from the back of a boat.) These two predators off the coast of Israel trap similar types of fish near the sea floor, so the researchers decided to examine the nature of the competition between the two.

Commercial trawling in the Mediterranean off the coast of Israel targets codfish, red mullet and sole, three commercial and sought-after types of fish. The Department of Fisheries in Israel's Ministry of Agriculture has data showing that over the years the amount of fish from the sea floor looted by Israel's commercial trawling is larger than the amount of fish that nature provides, indicating that the sea floor fish population dropped between the years 1949 and 2006.

Would this decline in fish supply necessarily cause direct harm to the dolphins, seeing as their diet might also include other types of fish? In order to verify this, the researcher examined the contents of the stomachs of 26 dolphins that died and landed on the beach, or that had been caught by mistake. He also examined the behavior of living dolphins by carrying out 232 marine surveys over more than 3,000 km. along the central coast of Israel. The dolphins' stomachs contained mainly non-commercialized fish, suggesting that they perhaps do not compete directly with the commercial trawlers, and that the commercial fishing does not directly affect the dolphins' nutrition.

The living dolphins' behavior, on the other hand, draws an entirely different picture. According to Dr. Scheinin, most of the dolphins were observed around the trawling boats: the chances of observing a school of dolphins near a trawler is ten times higher than in the open sea. This is because the trawler serves as a "feeding station" for the dolphins: there they are not able to feed from the more expensive loot caught in the nets, but they are able to enjoy schools of other types of fish that swim around the trawler. "The problem is that this type of fishing endangers the dolphins. Eight dolphins die each year off the coast of Israel on average, and of those, four die after having been mistakenly caught in trawling nets. Seeing as many studies have proven the high intelligence of the dolphin, it is clear that these sea mammals are aware of this danger, but are left with little choice due to their need to search for food around the trawlers due to the scarcity of other food sources," Dr. Scheinin explains.

This conclusion is reinforced by the suckling female dolphins. These dolphins require larger quantities of food than usual, and despite the risk for the younger and much less experienced dolphins that swim by their side, all of the suckling dolphins have been observed significantly more frequently around the trawlers. This indicates that they could not obtain enough food in other places.

The dolphins off the coast of Israel spend most of their time in search of food while their mates in other areas in the world are far busier with social activities. This fact is yet another contributing factor to the assumption that they suffer a deficiency in food resources.

The present study illustrates, for the first time, the characteristics of the dolphins inhabiting the sea region off the Mediterranean coast of Israel. This dolphin population is stable and at any given time can be counted at about 350 dolphins. Of these, the researchers are personally familiar with 150 dolphins -- on a first name basis -- which can be identified by the dorsal fin, the dolphin's fingerprint. Forty of these are seen repeatedly and are permanent inhabitants of opposite the coast of Israel. "There is a stable dolphin population off the shores of Israel, and any resolution concerning the sea must also consider the dolphins. So as to preserve this population we must declare extensive marine nature reserves, so as to regulate fishing and bring an end to sea pollution. Regrettably, we are not considerate enough of the dolphins," concludes Dr. Scheinin

In Bats and Whales, Convergence in Echolocation Ability Runs Deep

Only some bats and toothed whales rely on sophisticated echolocation, in which they emit sonar pulses and process returning echoes, to detect and track down small prey. Now, two new studies in the January 26th issue of Current Biology, a Cell Press publication, show that bats' and whales' remarkable ability and the high-frequency hearing it depends on are shared at a much deeper level than anyone would have anticipated -- all the way down to the molecular level.

The discovery represents an unprecedented example of adaptive sequence convergence between two highly divergent groups and suggests that such convergence at the sequence level might be more common than scientists had suspected.

"The natural world is full of examples of species that have evolved similar characteristics independently, such as the tusks of elephants and walruses," said Stephen Rossiter of the University of London, an author on one of the studies. "However, it is generally assumed that most of these so-called convergent traits have arisen by different genes or different mutations. Our study shows that a complex trait -- echolocation -- has in fact evolved by identical genetic changes in bats and dolphins."

A hearing gene known as prestin in both bats and dolphins (a toothed whale) has picked up many of the same mutations over time, the studies show. As a result, if you draw a phylogenetic tree of bats, whales, and a few other mammals based on similarities in the prestin sequence alone, the echolocating bats and whales come out together rather than with their rightful evolutionary cousins.

Both research teams also have evidence showing that those changes to prestin were selected for, suggesting that they must be critical for the animals' echolocation for reasons the researchers don't yet fully understand.

"The results imply that there are very limited ways, if not only one way, for a mammal to hear high-frequency sounds," said Jianzhi Zhang of the University of Michigan, who led the other study. "The sequence convergence occurred because the amino acid changes in prestin that result in high-frequency selection and sensitivity were strongly favored in echolocating mammals and because there are [apparently] very limited ways in which prestin can acquire this ability." Prestin is found in outer hair cells that serve as an amplifier in the inner ear, refining the sensitivity and frequency selectivity of the mechanical vibrations of the cochlea, Zhang explained.

Rossiter's team, including Shuyi Zhang of East China Normal University, showed previously that the prestin gene has undergone sequence convergence among unrelated lineages of echolocating bats. These authors, along with Zhang's team at Michigan, now show that convergence extends to echolocating dolphins.

"We were surprised by the strength of support for convergence between these two groups of mammals and, related to this, by the sheer number of convergent changes in the coding DNA that we found," Rossiter said. "We were especially excited to discover that these changes are likely to be adaptive, and also that nonecholocating whales do not group with the bats but instead remain with their true relatives, the even-toed ungulates."

Although they rely on a similar ability, in fact "bats and whales vary greatly in echolocation," Michigan's Zhang pointed out. "For example, bats use echolocation for ranges up to 3𔃂 meters, whereas whales use for ranges up to >100 meters. More importantly, the speed of sound in air is about one-fifth that in water, making the information transfer during sonar transmission much slower for bats than for whales. Despite these gross differences, our findings suggest that the high-frequency acoustic sensitivities and selectivities of bat and whale echolocation appear to rely on a common molecular design of prestin."

Ganges river dolphin declared national aquatic animal

The critically endangered Ganges river dolphin has been declared India's national aquatic animal, a government spokesperson said here Tuesday. The India chapter of World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) estimates only about 2,000 of these dolphins remain.
The spokesperson of the Ministry of Environment and Forests said the main reasons for the decline in the dolphin numbers to a critically low level were "poaching and habitat degradation due to declining flow, heavy siltation and construction of barrages causing physical barrier for this migratory species".

The decision to declare the Ganges river dolphin India's national aquatic animal was taken Oct 5 last year during the first meeting of the newly-constituted National Ganga River Basin Authority, the spokesperson added.

According to the WWF, the dolphins are to be found in rivers of seven states — Assam, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal. Their ideal habitats are in the Ganga, Chambal, Ghaghra, Gandak, Sone, Kosi, the Brahmaputra and Kulsi rivers.

The spokesperson said Ganges river dolphins have been included in the Schedule-I of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, "thereby affording them the highest degree of protection". The WWF said despite this, "the absence of a coordinated conservation plan, lack of awareness and continuing human pressure are posing an incessant threat to the existing dolphin population".

Now their important habitats have been declared protected areas, the spokesperson said, adding: "Financial and technical assistance is (being) provided to the state governments under centrally sponsored schemes for conservation and protection of wildlife including dolphins and their habitat."

"Financial assistance is (being) provided for conducting scientific research on the habitat, behaviour, population status of river dolphins," he added.

The Ganges river dolphin has a sturdy, yet flexible, body with large flippers and a low triangular dorsal fin. It weighs up to 150 kg. The calves are chocolate brown at birth and become greyish brown in adulthood with a smooth and hairless skin. Females are larger than males.

The maximum recorded size of a female is 2.67 metre and of a male 2.12 metre. Females attain sexual maturity at an age of 10-12 years, while the males mature earlier. The gestation period is 9-11 months and a female gives birth to only one calf, once in 2-3 years.

Dolphins are among one of the oldest creatures in the world along with some species of turtles, crocodiles and sharks. Ganges river dolphins are generally blind and catch their prey in a unique manner. They emit an ultrasonic sound which reaches the prey. The dolphin then registers this image in its mind and subsequently catches hold of its prey.

Whale dies trying to save her baby

IT has been revealed that a whale found beached on the Yorke Peninsula has died two days after its baby.

Deb Kelly from the Department of Environment and Heritage said fisheries were unable to save the whale - believed to be a beaked whale - found beached in shallow waters near Point Turton this morning.

She said a baby whale was found dead after it beached itself on Tuesday and an adult whale was seen in water very close to the beach on the inside of the reef.

"Whales don't give up on their babies very easily and there is a good chance the adult was there because it wanted to help it,'' she said.

A fisheries officer had herded the adult whale to the outside of the reef, in the hope it would swim out to sea and not come back in.

Dr Kelly said the whale had sustained lacerations on its belly after trying to "climb over the reef' to get back to the baby.

Jim Harris from Glenelg who is holidaying in the area, earlier told AdelaideNow that the whale - believed to be a beak whale was stranded on a reef at Parsons Beach yesterday, but was found beached in shallow waters at Point Turton this morning.

It is understood the whale's baby died after being beached at Parsons Beach yesterday.

Parsons Beach is about 30km from Point Turton.

"There were two beached whales in the area yesterday and Fisheries officers managed to get this whale off the reef yesterday and they thought it was fine and now it has beached itself again this morning," Mr Harris said.

"It's a bit sad.

"There are about 30 people at the beach looking at it."

Mr Harris said the whale is about 4.5m in length.

Authorities from PIRSA are heading to the beach to determine why the whale died

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By-catch a problem for "dolphin-safe tuna"

A dolphin-loving American consumer would have to look awfully hard these days to find a can of tuna that was not technically "dolphin safe." In fact, less than 2 percent of of all canned tuna sold in the US is caught by chasing and intentionally netting combined groups of yellowfin tuna and dolphins. The bad news is that the main "dolphin-safe" fishing method is responsible for killing a lot of other sea life—as well as at least a few dolphins.What Exactly Is Safe About it?BY PAUL GUERNSEYIt has been a habit of mine for years: Whenever I buy a can of tuna in the supermarket, I conscientiously search the label for the "dolphin-safe" logo. Upon locating the emblemized image of the world's most popular sea mammal and its accompanying handful of reassuring words, I invariably feel a little flash of relief followed by a brief glow of virtue. Then it's on to the dressing aisle to get that jar of mayonnaise. . . .Unfortunately, in the wake of some recent research into what the term "dolphin-safe" actually means, my enjoyment of a tuna sandwich—I like mine on rye, with lettuce and sliced Spanish olives—is now surrounded by a great deal more ambiguity than it used to be. This is not because I think the large, multi-national tuna fleet that operates off the western coasts of the Americas is still killing 130,000 dolphins every year the way it did before widespread public horror and a US consumer tuna boycott in the late 1980's led to sweeping changes in the fishery. By all accounts, it's not—although some dolphins do continue to suffer unintentional drownings in purse-seine fishing nets.Rather, most of my reservations now have to do with the "dolphin-safe" part of the tuna industry. And while it is possible that fishermen using "dolphin-safe" methods off the coasts of western North and South America may be under-reporting the number of dolphins they kill—most "dolphin-safe" boats are too small to require observers aboard—it is not even primarily dolphins that I and many other conservationists are concerned about.What bothers me—and should concern every environmentally conscious US consumer of canned tuna—is the tremendous number of fish, including sharks and other marine species, that are killed and discarded as "by-catch" by fishermen using the most widely employed "dolphin-safe" fishing technique—a collateral-damage problem that, ironically, the still-sizable contingent of non-dolphin-safe fishermen manages for the most part to avoid.According to an estimate by the Environmental Justice Foundation, each dolphin spared by switching from "non-dolphin-safe" fishing techniques to the most widely employed alternative costs the lives of 25,824 small tuna (these are discarded, not kept and utilized), 27 sharks and rays, 382 mahi mahi (also known as "dolphin fish"), 188 wahoo, 82 yellowtail and other large fish, 1 billfish such as a marlin or sailfish and 1,193 triggerfish and other small fish.Dr. Martin Hall, principal scientist for the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC)—the regulatory body that oversees tuna fishing on the American side of the Pacific—offers estimates that, while still horrific, are somewhat lower, most notably, in the number of small tuna inadvertently killed per dolphin spared (15,620) as well as a smaller number of triggerfish and other small fish.Of special concern to conservationists is the number of sharks caught as by-catch, because many species of these marine predators are under intense fishing pressure worldwide, and an increasing number of them have been appearing on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species.US consumers have been purchasing tuna labeled as dolphin-safe since 1990.What Is—And Is Not—'Dolphin-Safe' Fishing?The most popular, and deadliest, "dolphin-safe" method involves netting tuna that have been attracted to a "floating object"—either a natural one such as a log, or a manmade Fish Aggregating Device (FAD). For reasons that are not completely understood, tuna like to school beneath debris they find floating in the ocean. It's a fairly easy matter for the crew of a fishing boat to throw a purse-seine around such an object, and then gather in all the tuna that are swimming beneath it.The problem is that fishermen haul in all the other marine life that has also been attracted to the floating object. This "by-catch," comprised of undersize tuna, sharks and "non-target" fish species, often die and are discarded.The use of FAD's began to explode worldwide during the 1990's after US consumers had begun to demand "dolphin-safe" tuna.A much more environmentally friendly, though far less utilized, "dolphin-safe" tuna-fishing method involves finding and netting free-swimming schools of tuna. The tricky part is finding them: IATTC's Dr. Martin Hall told All About Wildlife.com that, while electronic fish-finder devices can pinpoint fish swimming near or beneath a boat, technology to find schools of fish that are kilometers away has yet to be developed. As a result, much of the tuna captured this way are taken by fishermen who are lucky enough to happen upon them as they are preparing to employ one of the more productive—as well as more destructive—methods of harvesting the fish."Non-dolphin-safe" fishing techniques involve taking advantage of yet another poorly understood wildlife phenomenon: The tendency of dolphin herds and schools of yellowfin tuna to travel together in the Eastern Pacific Ocean off the west coasts of the Americas. Fishermen use the dolphins, which swim at the surface of the ocean in order to breathe, as animated "locator devices" for the tuna swimming below.Although dolphins and yellowfin school together in a few other, scattered locations around the globe, the Eastern Pacific is the primary region where this odd behavior occurs. Scientists do not yet know why this is so. But because dolphins and tuna don't swim together in all the waters they share, "dolphin-safe" techniques account for more than 90 percent of the world's annual tuna harvest—not for the sake of dolphins, but because "dolphin fishing" does not work in most places.Tuna Fishing In the Eastern Pacific Ocean. Map: Courtesy IATTCAccording to numbers provided by both the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations and the IATTC, in 2007 (the last year for which figures are available) around 17 percent of the world's yellowfin tuna—and around 12 percent of the global combined harvest of yellowfin, skipjack and bigeye tuna—were caught in the Eastern Pacific. During that same year, nearly 60 percent of yellowfin tuna taken in the Eastern Pacific were caught "on dolphins," with the remainder captured using dolphin-safe methods. Almost all non-dolphin-safe tuna goes to countries that don't use the US dolphin-safe labeling system; as a result, most of the tuna consumed by Americans comes from the naturally "dolphin-safe" Western Pacific and other regions.Increasingly, throughout the world's oceans, dolphin-safe fishermen are using FAD's rather than targeting hard-to-locate free-swimming schools of tuna. And with each FAD added to the fishery, the amount of by-catch goes up. More sharks, billfish, juvenile tunas, occasional sea-turtles and, yes, sometimes even dolphins are netted, drowned and discarded.Of additional concern to conservationists is the fact that most dolphin, fish and turtle by-catch mortality caused by floating-object fishing is self-reported by the fishermen, since unlike most of the large boats that dolphin-fish in the Eastern Pacific, boats that set their nets on objects are usually too small for fisheries regulators to require them to carry an observer aboard.In the words of a 2001 report by Consumers Union of the US (publisher of Consumer Reports), "Some tuna-fishing methods can injure or kill dolphins. The `dolphin safe' logo indicates that those methods weren't used or that dolphins weren't harmed in the process. However, because independent verification of such claims—by observers who board fishing boats or make surprise visits to canneries to inspect captain's logs—is not universal, the logo is not an ironclad guarantee that the tuna in any given can was caught according to the standard."When I asked Sarah Wilkin, a fishery biologist with the US National Marine Fisheries Service, how we could be certain we were getting accurate by-catch information from the smaller, observerless fishing boats in the Eastern Pacific fleet, she said, "I don't think we have a good way of knowing that."Here's How `Dolphin Fishing' WorksIn the words of Dr. Martin Hall, in his 1998 analysis, An Ecological View of the Tuna-Dolphin Problem: Impacts and Tradeoffs :"When the fishers detect a group of dolphins, of one or more of the species known to be associated with tunas (from the Fam. Delphinidae: spotted dolphin, Stenella attenuata, spinner dolphin, S. longirostris, common dolphin, Delphinus delphis, or, less frequently, striped dolphin, S. coeruleoalba), they attempt to confirm the presence of tuna either with the aid of the helicopter, or from the vessel."When fish are present, they launch four or five speedboats that chase the dolphin herd, making a wide arc typically at a distance of (between 100 and 200 meters) to the side and behind the herd. The chase usually lasts about 20 to 30 minutes, and when it finishes, the dolphin herd has slowed down, or stopped. During this process, part or the whole dolphin herd may evade the chase and/or encirclement, or, if it is not carrying tuna, may be deliberately excluded from the encirclement area through the actions of the speedboats."At this point, the seiner begins to surround them with the net, while the speedboats maneuver in such a way as to keep them inside the encircled area. Then, the net is "pursed," and both the dolphins and the tunas that were associated with them are captured. The technique is called dolphin fishing, and the sets are called dolphin sets. At this point, the fishers wish to release the dolphins and then bring the tunas aboard the vessel. The average size of the dolphin group captured is about 400 to 500 dolphins, but it is common to see groups of more than 1,000 dolphins in the net."During the 1960's, '70's and '80's, "dolphin fishing" resulted in the drowning deaths of as many as 8 million dolphins. Then came publicity in the form of some shocking videotape of drowned dolphins being removed from fishing nets and discarded. The ensuing public outrage and a US consumer boycott led by the Earth Island Institute and other conservation organizations had three main results:1) A growing number of fishermen in the Eastern Pacific began using "dolphin-safe" methods as a way of appeasing US tuna-eaters. And increasingly, rather than searching the ocean for natural floating objects to put their nets around, they began launching their own floating objects—FAD's.2) Fishermen who used dolphins to catch tuna, rather than fading away, began to develop techniques for releasing dolphins alive from their purse seines. They continued selling their tuna just as they had before—but they sold it in non-US markets.3) FAD fishing, because it is so efficient, spread like wildfire through the world's tuna fisheries.The main technique for releasing captured dolphins is called "backing down" by the fishermen and their regulators. It involves a 15- 30-minute pause in the fishing operation once the schools of dolphins and tuna have been taken into the net. During that pause, the fishing boat stops drawing in the purse seine and slowly "backs down" on it, causing part of the net to sink, thereby creating a "backdown channel" through which the dolphins can escape. Further precautions include covering the top portion of the purse seine with a skirt of mesh that prevents dolphins from catching their beaks or heads in the net, as well as fielding a team of divers that herds the dolphins through the backdown channel and aids any that are entangled or otherwise in trouble.These measures have been highly effective by almost all accounts. According to IATTC, in 2008, fewer than 1,200 dolphins were killed in purse seines in the entire Eastern Pacific—a number that is generally regarded as reliable because of the fact that almost all fishing vessels that use dolphins to catch tuna are large enough—over 363 tons—to be required to carry an IATTC observer aboard.The National Marine Fisheries Service's Sarah Wilkin adds, "You also have to give a little bit of the credit to the dolphins for learning how to behave. (During the backdown process) they know it's time to go, and they are basically orderly."However, one organization that casts doubts on the reduced mortality figures is the Earth Island Institute, which from the beginning has been a major promoter of dolphin-safe fishing, going so far as to permit the use of its own "dolphin-safe" logo on some brands of tuna.According to Mark Berman of Earth Island institute's International Marine Mammal Project, IATTC is heavily influenced by the Mexican tuna industry, and therefore may not be fully trustworthy in its reporting of dolphin fatalities.In addition, Berman told All About Wildlife.com, "Observers are sometimes known to be under pressure to look the other way when dolphin mortality may be occurring. They can be forced or bribed to go below decks," when nets are being drawn in, Berman said.Berman added that his organization believes there is a higher "cryptic kill" of dolphins—deaths that occur after their release—than IATTC's observers have been reporting. He attributes this cryptic mortality to injuries or stress suffered during the fishing process, as well to the deaths of dolphin calves that have been separated from their mothers."If (observers) don't see dolphins floating in the nets, they don't count them as killed," Berman said.But IATTC's Dr. Martin Hall countered that dolphin populations have been rebounding ever since fishermen learned to release them alive. "To me, abundance is the ultimate test, and the numbers are going up," he said.Hall added that there is little evidence calves stay separated from their mothers for significant lengths of time. He said adult dolphins were accustomed to waiting for the slower calves to catch up with them in open water, and that the herd does not abandon calves once it had been freed from the fishing nets."These guys are used to finding each other," he asserted.In spite of their differences, both men agree that by-catch of species other than dolphins is much greater in floating-object fishing than it is when tuna are caught "on dolphins." But they differ greatly on the implications of this fact.While Hall believes the US and the world at large should perhaps give the 21st century version of "dolphin fishing" some further consideration, Berman and his group are vehemently opposed, as are virtually all other conservation organizations."There can be no encirclement or chasing of dolphins, period," Berman said. "You do not chase and harass dolphins to the point of exhaustion."Berman said that while he believes further research needs to be done to reduce floating-object by-catch, he admits that non-mammalian species are not his organization's primary concern. "Dolphins are our main deal. The Project was founded to stop tuna from being caught on dolphins."Other conservation organizations, however, while not in favor of a return to dolphin fishing, are taking a more active approach toward the relative destruciveness of floating-object fishing.For instance, John Hocevar, director of Greenpeace's Ocean Campaign, told All About Wildlife.com that, "Greenpeace is calling for a ban on fishing with FAD's, which have serious by-catch problems. Of particular concern is the by-catch of juvenile bigeye tuna, but many other species—including turtles and sharks—are taken as well."Hocevar adds, however, that "Setting nets around dolphins is clearly unacceptable."So, What's a Tuna Lover To Do?I began researching this article with the apprehension that I might discover dolphin-safe tuna labels were a sham, and that dolphins might still be dying by the tens of thousands in tuna-fishing nets. That apprehension has been largely laid to rest.In its place, however, have risen several new worries about all the various tuna-fishing methods and what they are doing to our ocean environments. Along with the serious by-catch problem associated with floating-object fishing, there are several other fish-harvesting techniques that kill non-target species.For example, longline fishing—in which thousands of yards of baited hooks are strung across the ocean—is especially hard on non-target species including seabirds; in fact longlines kill far more endangered sea turtles than do purse seines.And, according to Greenpeace's John Hocevar, the real problem with tuna fishing has nothing to do with any particular fishing method. Rather, it's the fact that tunas overall are being seriously overfished.Hocevar told us, "Today, the greater problem is overfishing of tuna. Bluefin populations have plummeted to the point where aninternational ban on trade is necessary to save these spectacular fish. Bigeye are overfished as well, but instead of rebuilding their populations, policy makers are allowing overfishing to continue. Several stocks of yellowfin and albacore tuna are overfished as well. In every ocean, policy makers are failing to adhere to the advice of their own scientists. Short-term economic interests continue to win out over science and sustainability, and both tuna and fishing jobs are rapidly disappearing."Some fisheries researchers have been responding to the problems by trying to come up with ways to reduce by-catch mortality. For instance, according to IATTC's Dr. Hall, FAD fishermen could develop techniques for quickly sorting out and setting free sharks they have caught before the animals drown in their nets.But, without observers aboard those boats, how would anybody know how well those techniques actually were working, and whether the fishermen were really employing them?Another proposal has been to bring back the pole-and-line fishery that was the predominant method of catching tuna before the industry became mechanized during the 1950's. However, one problem with pole-and-line fishing—aside from the fact that it is not very efficient—is the fact that it requires the use of large amounts of baitfish, and those baitfish would have to be regarded as another form of by-catch.So, should we just stop eating tuna?Hall had some interesting thoughts on the idea of another widespread boycott by US consumers. He told us, "If you are a society that is interested in conservation, you have two choices. You can reject the product, or you can accept the product with conditions."If you reject the product—if you shut down the market—you have lost your leverage. You have lost the ability to influence the fishery, because the fishermen are just going to sell their product somewhere else. So, what have you gained?"It may be far better, suggested Dr. Hall, to keep buying the product—while at the same time constantly and publicly pressuring the fishing industry to clean up its act.In the end, every consumer must make his or her own choice. For my part, I'm not ready to give up on eating tuna. But what I do plan to do is to pay more attention to what conservation organizations are saying about the issues concerning tuna and other ocean fisheries. Following are links to some of the ones I'll be listening to:EARTH ISLAND INSTITUTETHE ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE FOUNDATIONGREENPEACE