Dead Infant Dolphins Begin Washing Up On Gulf Coast Shores: More Devastation from the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Rig Explosion

Yeah, most people believe that this is all over. Well, don’t be as dumb as the average person. Of course it’s not over! Crude oil is not supposed to be floating in ocean water and of course it will kill life.

What else can I say?

Article:

Baby Dolphins Found Dead on Gulf Coast

Two Dozen Washed Ashore on Alabama and Mississippi Coastlines

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/dead-dolphins-found-washed-ashore-gulf-coast/story?id=12980701

MIAMI, Feb. 23, 2011

A tide of dead infant dolphins has washed ashore

along a 100-mile stretch of the Alabama and

Mississippi coastlines in the past two weeks, and

marine experts today said they believe last summer's

Gulf oil spill may be to blame.

A total of 24 of the young dolphins been found dead

in the last couple weeks, including five in the past 24

hours. Marine mammal researchers fear it will only

get worse.

"I believe this is very very unusual what we're dealing

with. It's a tenfold increase in calves that are dying,"

Moby Solangi, the head of the Mississippi based

Institute for Marine Mammal Research, told ABC News.

"Every year, we get one or two babies that die. Now,

we're seeing stillborn, or preemies dying."

"With some, we're not sure if they actually took a

breath," said Dr. Delphine Shannon, also of the IMMR.

The gestation period for bottlenose dolphins is

between 11 and 12 months. "That means the mothers

would have conceived between March and May. If the

mothers are delivering their calves now and many are

dying, that is significant," Solangi said.

The Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded on April 20,

unleashing a torrent of 200 million gallons of oil into

the Gulf of Mexico -- the largest spill in American

history. At one point the spill covered about 70,000

square miles.

Solangi couldn't directly link the two events but fears

that the animals could have "ingested something that

may have affected their reproduction."

Solangi and his team say there's a chance this could

be an anomaly. "But in my 30 years of studying

dolphins I have never seen anything like this. This is

highly unusual."