By Christina M. Russo8 April 2015 (The Dodo) – The recent death of one of the remaining six Irrawaddy river dolphins in the Mekong River in Laos highlights the desperate situation for the already critically endangered animal. Villagers in Cambodia discovered the female dolphin carcass on April 1, according to news reports in Phnom Penh. […]
1 April 2015 (Polar Bears International) – Scientists have known for years that polar bears forced ashore in summer by melting sea ice may feed on foods like bird eggs, berries, and small mammals. But would polar bears be able to survive in a warming Arctic by eating land-based foods? The short answer: no. A […]
25 March 2015 (Desdemona Despair) – The Pew Charitable Trusts support excellent ongoing research on the state of the oceans, and recently Pew’s Paul Shively wrote a good story on the current mass-starvation event among California sea lions (“Starving pups: It’s more than a sea lion problem”). Mr. Shively observes that in addition to sardines, […]
By Dave Schwab26 March 2015 (SD News) – A surprising influx of malnourished and dehydrated sea lions has SeaWorld San Diego and its trainers working overtime to nurse them back to health before returning them to the wild. More than 550 marine mammals have been rescued so far in 2015, which is more than double […]
By Paul Shively23 March 2015 (Pew Charitable Trusts) – Here on the West Coast, sea lions evoke plenty of emotions. Some people love them, while others see them as a nuisance. Whatever your view, it’s unsettling to see hundreds of emaciated sea lion pups turning up along the California coast in what could be one […]
22 March 2015 (Desdemona Despair) – You may have noticed the ongoing mass-starvation event among California sea lions. (“Why are California sea lion pups starving?”; “Sick sea lions flood shelters in California – Pups wash ashore all along the coast amid what scientists say are strains on the ocean”) The sea lions are starving because […]
By Antonia Juhasz 12 March 2015 (Rolling Stone) – On January 27th, as the U.S. Justice Department expounded upon the catastrophic harms of offshore oil drilling in the trial against BP for the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill, President Obama reneged on a 2008 campaign pledge by proposing to open up a vast stretch […]
By Ben Enticknap23 February 2015 (Oceana.org) – Recent national news stories have shown emaciated California sea lion pups being rescued and admitted to marine mammal rehabilitation centers. The sight of hundreds of withered sea lions is reminiscent of the all-too-recent California sea lion “unusual mortality event” in 2013 followed by a significant number of stranded […]
By Ben Farmer, Defence Correspondent6 Feb 2015 (The Telegraph) – The secretive hunt for a suspected Russian submarine of the Scottish coast may have led to a spate of whale and dolphin deaths, conservationists have alleged. Dozens of whales and dolphins have been washed up dead on the coasts of Scotland and Ireland in the […]
SEATTLE, 24 January 2015 (AP) — A 32-foot gray whale that turned up dead under the Washington state ferry terminal in downtown Seattle died earlier this week because it was struck by the propeller of a large vessel, according to the initial results of a necropsy completed Saturday. The necropsy found large, deep gashes on […]
