Wildfire smoke is made up of a range of gases, including carbon monoxide; nitrogen dioxide; polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs; and hazardous particulate matter, which has been shown to increase risks of respiratory and cardiovascular illnesses in humans.
It’s much harder to track the effects of the tens of thousands of chemicals that are dumped in the ocean every day, through sewage, agricultural runoff, and industrial waste—most of which have unknown effects on wild ecosystems. What we do know is that the bodies of marine animals act like magnets for these toxics, which accumulate in their fat and are amplified up the food chain.
Six dolphins — four dead and two alive — have washed up in Huntington, Newport and Laguna beaches. Two more were reported in Seal Beach but washed back out to sea.
The high number led PMMC officials on Monday, Feb. 25, to declare the strandings “drastic and unexpected.”
It comes as figures reveal 2017 as a ‘devastating year’ for dolphins and porpoises, with a total of 249 cetaceans recorded as Marine Strandings along the Cornish coastline – the highest recorded since 2003.
“We documented for first time marked changes in the pelagic food web length in response to various natural and anthropogenic related stressors,” said lead author Rocio I. Ruiz-Cooley, formerly of NOAA Fisheries’ Southwest Fisheries Science Center and now at Moss Landing Marine Laboratories. “This tells us that the food web is very dynamic, and reveals changes with the ecosystem around it.”
Also, it seems like every consecutive generation is called upon to once again Save the Whales (and Flipper). Donald Trump’s budget would also eliminate the only independent federal agency dedicated solely to protecting our fellow mammals who live and dwell in and on the sea including: whales, dolphins, porpoises, seals, sea lions, sea otters, manatees, walruses and polar bears.
Each year around 650,000 whales, dolphins and other marine mammals are unintentionally caught and killed in fishing gear worldwide. Under the new rule, foreign fishermen must meet the same marine mammal protection standards applied to U.S. fishermen or their fish will be banned from the lucrative American seafood market.
“The implications are obvious and severe,” said Jim Elliott, director of the Center for Birds of Prey, about the discovery of the repellents and retardants in all 27 birds sampled among eagles, hawks and owls. “Who’s next on the (food chain) ladder? It’s us.”
April 10, 2015. Rescuers were forced to abandon their efforts to save 149 dolphins that were stranded on a beach in Japan after working tirelessly all day to help the creatures. As darkness fell on the beach in Hokota, around… Read More ›
Dolphins are dying in great numbers in the northern Gulf of Mexico. Since February 2010, 1,308 dead or dying marine mammals — mostly bottlenose dolphins, including juveniles or aborted fetuses — have washed ashore on beaches and wetlands from Texas… Read More ›
Neptune 911! 