Dead baby dolphins in Gulf of Mexico/Clean-up Ineffective/Effects will show for years

Deaths of baby dolphins worry scientists

Full article here : http://edition.cnn.com/2011/US/02/24/gulf.dolphins/index.html?hpt=C1

Baby bottlenose dolphins are washing up dead in record numbers on the shores of Alabama and Mississippi, alarming scientists and a federal agency charged with monitoring the health of the Gulf of Mexico.

Moby Solangi, the executive director of the Institute for Marine Mammal Studies (IMMS) in Gulfport, Mississippi, said Thursday he’s never seen such high death numbers.

"I’ve worked with marine mammals for 30 years, and this is the first time we’ve seen such a high number of calves," he said. "It’s alarming."

Dolphin Calves Dying in the Gulf

http://news.discovery.com/animals/dolphin-calves-dying-in-the-gulf-110223.html

Although the cause of the deaths remains unclear, the bodies of the deceased infant dolphins are in the region of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill that released an estimated 205.8 million gallons of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico.

Many of the dead dolphins are barely 3 feet in length, indicating both mother and infant dolphins are in physical distress.

"For some reason, they’ve started aborting or they were dead before they were born," Moby Solangi, director of the IMMS in Gulfport, told Reuters. "The average is one or two a month."

Gulf spill’s (full) effects ‘may not be seen for a decade’

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12520630

Studies using a submersible found a layer, as much as 10cm thick in places, of dead animals and oil, said Samantha Joye of the University of Georgia.

Knocking these animals out of the food chain will, in time, affect species relevant to fisheries.

She disputed an assessment by BP’s compensation fund that the Gulf of Mexico will recover by the end of 2012.

 

Guy in Alabama videos oil still washing up on beaches