http://blog.al.com/press-register-commentary/2011/02/editorial_dolphin_deaths_let_s.html

Published: Friday, February 25, 2011, 6:00 AM
By Press-Register Editorial Board

GULF COAST residents are saddened by the recent deaths of baby bottlenose dolphins in the Gulf of Mexico. Since the beginning of the year, 53 dead dolphins have washed ashore in four states, including Alabama. Most of them are calves.

Researchers are examining the dead dolphins, but it could be weeks – maybe months – before their results are fully known.

In the meantime, it’s crucial that everyone allow the science to run its course rather than speculate about what caused the baby dolphins’ untimely deaths. Too much is still unknown.

Understandably, scientists are alarmed – and puzzled. They are calling the deaths “unusual” and “unprecedented” as they ponder various theories.

The cause, they say, could be infectious disease, environmental factors such as cold water or natural cyclical changes in population. Or, the cause might be related to last April’s oil spill, which occurred within a month or so of the calves’ conception.

If oil were a factor, that would raise even more questions. For instance, might oil have entered the food chain, which would have implications for fish, shrimp and humans? Or might the oily sheen on northern Gulf waters have stressed pregnant dolphins as they surfaced for air?

Naturally, coastal residents want answers, and soon. The Gulf’s health is vitally important to Alabama and to the region for a myriad of reasons. If something’s wrong, we’re all affected.

But that is precisely why we cannot allow the dolphin deaths to become part of some politically charged debate. Scientists from NOAA are already involved in the investigation, and environmental groups are sure to weigh in on the issue, too.

These are the facts so far: An estimated 3,000 to 5,000 bottlenose dolphins live in the waters off Alabama and Mississippi. Their young calves are dying at or around birth and are washing up on the shorelines. No other species appears to be affected.

We all want to know more, of course. In the midst of the chaos, though, let’s hold fast to the facts and wait for solid, scientific conclusions.

_____________________________________________________

http://www.wbur.org/npr/134053912/gulf-spill-investigated-as-cause-of-dolphin-deaths

NPR

All Things Considered
Gulf Spill Investigated As Cause Of Dolphin Deaths

* By Elizabeth Shogren
* February 25, 2011, 4:01 PM

LISTEN NOW

Scientists are trying to determine whether there’s a link between last year’s Gulf of Mexico oil spill and a spike in dolphin deaths along the Gulf Coast. Sixty-seven bottlenose dolphins have washed up on Gulf beaches over the past few weeks. More than half – 35 – are babies.

Researchers are looking at other possible causes, including infectious disease or the abnormally cold winter, but the large numbers of dead calves are particularly unusual and alarming, researchers say.

Dolphins have an 11- or 12-month gestation period. These dead baby dolphins were conceived just before the Deepwater Horizon offshore drilling rig leased by BP blew up April 20, triggering a massive oil spill.

“So, these animals were undergoing development during the height of the oil spill,” says Teri Rowles, the top marine mammal scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

She says it’s very worrisome to see such a large number of marine mammals die. “The oil spill is definitely on our list of potential causes, but we’re certainly not ruling in or out any causes at this point,” Rowles says.

At least two of the dead calves found over the past few days had what looked like oil on their faces.

Mandy Tumlin, the marine mammal coordinator for the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, says those calves were discovered by cleanup crews surveying the beach of Grand Terre Island in southeast Louisiana.

“We’re concerned but we really can’t speculate. There’s a lot of factors that could play a role in an animal’s death,” she says.

Tumlin doesn’t expect to be able to confirm any cause of death until all the samples from the animals come back from labs. Most of the dead dolphin calves were found on the beaches of Alabama and Mississippi. Staff from the Institute for Marine Mammal Studies in Gulfport, Miss., collected them.

“It is very, very strange,” says Moby Solangi, the institute’s director. “Usually we see one or two calves, but this year it’s just a very, very large number.”

He says some of the calves were stillborn, some were premature and some died shortly after birth. His staff took samples from the decomposed carcasses and is doing autopsies on the dead dolphins that were still intact.

“We’re doing a forensic study and we’re trying to put all the pieces of the puzzle together,” Solangi says.

One of Solangi’s working theories is that these dolphins’ mothers ate fish contaminated with oil from the BP spill, and those contaminants passed through the mothers’ bloodstreams to the fetuses.

But there are other possibilities. Researchers are looking for signs of an infectious disease. They’ll also investigate whether the unusually cold winter played a role. A toxic algal bloom is another suspect.

Even if the oil spill did not directly cause these deaths, it still could be a factor.

Veterinary pathologist Greg Bossart, a dolphin expert at the Georgia Aquarium, says researchers are still trying to determine all the ways BP oil affected the Gulf’s ecosystem.

“When those interactions become unbalanced from the oil, then you’re prone to seeing new diseases emerge, predator-prey relationships change, temperatures change, [and] chemistry of the ocean change. All those indirectly affect the health of organisms,” Bossart says.

Experts say since dolphins are at the top of the food chain, they reflect what has happened to their environment.

“What we do know is that dolphins can be very good sentinels for what’s happening in our oceans and even what’s happening in our bodies,” Bossart adds.

Dead dolphins keep washing up day after day. Scientists say they’ll investigate every animal they find.

Special thanks to Richard Charter

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/25/dead-dolphins-death-gulf_n_828153.html

by Steve Gorman
Posted: 02/25/11 10:35 AM

BILOXI, Mississippi (Reuters/Leigh Coleman) – The death toll of dolphins found washed ashore along the U.S. Gulf Coast since last month climbed to nearly 60 on Thursday, as puzzled scientists clamored to determine what was killing the marine mammals.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration declared the alarming cluster of recent dolphin deaths “an unusual mortality event,” agency spokeswoman Blair Mase told Reuters.

“Because of this declaration, many resources are expected to be allocated to investigating this phenomenon,” she said.

Although none of the carcasses bore outward signs of oil contamination, all were being examined as possible casualties of petrochemicals that fouled the Gulf of Mexico after a BP drilling platform exploded in April 2010, rupturing a wellhead on the sea floor, officials said.

Eleven workers were killed in the blast, and an estimated 5 million barrels (205.8 million gallons) of crude oil spilled into the Gulf over more than three months.

As of Thursday, the remains of 59 dolphins, roughly half of them newly born or stillborn calves, have been discovered since January 15, on islands, in marshes and on beaches along 200 miles of coastline from Louisiana east across Mississippi to Gulf Shores, Alabama, officials said.

That tally is about 12 times the number normally found washed up dead along those states during this time of the year, which is calving season for some 2,000 to 5,000 dolphins in the region.

“We are on high alert here,” said Moby Solangi, director of the private Institute of Marine Mammal Studies in Gulfport, Mississippi. “When we see something strange like this happen to a large group of dolphins, which are at the top of the food chain, it tells us the rest of the food chain is affected.”

At least 29 of the specimens recovered in recent weeks have been positively identified as bottlenose dolphins.

Solangi said that scientists from his organization have performed full necropsies, the animal equivalent of autopsies, on about a third of the roughly two dozen dead calves.

“The majority of the calves were too decomposed to conduct a full necropsy, but tissue samples were collected for analysis,” he said.

The latest wave follows an earlier tally of 89 dead dolphins — virtually all of them adults — reported to have washed ashore in 2010 after the Gulf oil spill.

Results from an examination of those remains, conducted as part of the government’s oil spill damage assessment, have not been released, though scientists concluded those dolphins “died from something environmental during the last year,” Mase said.

“The number of baby dolphins washing ashore now is new and something we are very concerned about,” she added.

Special thanks to Richard Charter

http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/politics/2011/02/24/urged-engage-energy-cooperation-cuba/

Published February 24, 2011

Washington – The United States should begin a direct dialogue with Cuba to promote energy and environmental cooperation and reduce the island’s dependence on Venezuela, according to a report released Thursday by the Center for Democracy in the Americas.

The independent, non-profit organization, which advocates for an easing of the U.S. embargo on Cuba, outlined in its 59-page report 10 changes that Washington should adopt to promote energy cooperation with the Communist-ruled island as Havana prepares to start tapping offshore oil deposits.

“After living through the BP spill, we can’t maintain the illusion that the embargo will stop Cuba from drilling and must instead adopt policies that protect U.S. economic, environmental, and foreign policy interests,” CDA Executive Director Sarah Stephens said.

Citing the U.S. Geological Survey, the CDA said approximately 5 billion barrels of oil and 9 trillion cubic feet of natural gas lie beneath the Gulf of Mexico in land belonging to Cuba.

The discovery of commercially viable amounts of oil would transform and provide stability to the Cuban economy and is “likely to significantly alter” the island’s relations with oil-rich, leftist-led Venezuela and the rest of Latin America, Asia and other leading energy producing and consuming nations, the report said.

At present, Cuban energy production falls short of daily domestic demand and leaves the island dependent on Venezuela for roughly two-thirds of its energy supply.

The CDA calls the U.S. embargo a Cold War remnant that prohibits U.S. companies from “joining Cuba in efforts to extract its offshore resources” and leaves the United States without a viable action plan in the event of a potential oil spill such as the recent BP oil disaster.

The report, which encourages direct dialogue to ensure protection of the countries’ mutual interests, proposes that Washington permit an exchange of scientific information and allow U.S. firms to work with Cuba on “efforts to protect drilling safety.”

The CDA also calls on the U.S. Congress to support a bipartisan measure introduced last year by Rep. Jeff Flake (R-Arizona) and Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Mary Landrieu (D-La.) that would allow U.S. companies “to participate in oil exploration and effective crisis planning with Cuba.”

The report comes amid expectation that Cuba will drill 20 wells by the end of 2011, mainly in the area between Havana and Varadero. Exploratory drilling led by foreign companies, meanwhile, will continue with the aim of locating new deposits and ascertaining the full potential of Cuba’s offshore Economic Exclusive Zone in the Gulf of Mexico.

Cuba’s EEZ covers a 112,000-kilometer (43,243-mile) area that has been divided into 59 blocks; the island’s partners in its offshore drilling plans include Spain’s Repsol-YPF, Venezuela’s PDVSA and Vietnam’s PetroVietnam.

Read more: http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/politics/2011/02/24/urged-engage-energy-cooperation-cuba/#ixzz1Ew8Daywx

BUSINESS
FEBRUARY 24, 2011, 4:16 P.M. ET

by GUY CHAZAN
A High Court judge in the U.K. has decided to hear a legal challenge by environmental group Greenpeace to the British government’s decision to allow new deepwater drilling in British waters, potentially hampering efforts by international energy companies to explore for oil in the U.K. North Sea.

The move reflects growing concerns about the potential environmental impact of offshore oil exploration in the wake of last year’s explosion of the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico, which triggered the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history.

Greenpeace has been waging a campaign in recent months to obstruct new deepwater drilling, especially in relatively unexplored areas like the coastal waters of Greenland and the Atlantic Ocean west of the Shetland Islands-a region thought to contain the bulk of the U.K.’s untapped oil and gas resources.

Last September, the organization’s activists surrounded a Chevron Corp. rig which was en route to drill an exploration well west of Shetland. A similar protest last year off Greenland forcedCairn Energy PLC to suspend drilling operations.

Greenpeace is not alone. Last year, Germany pushed to impose a moratorium on deepwater drilling in European waters-a move that was blocked by a number of EU member states, including the U.K.

Also, British lawmakers have raised doubts about the oil industry’s preparedness for dealing with a large-scale spill in the rough Atlantic waters west of Shetland. In a report published last month, Parliament’s Energy and Climate Change Committee called on the government and regulators to compel companies to improve their spill response plans, install extra failsafe equipment on rigs and increase financial provisions for spill costs.

As part of its campaign against deepwater drilling, Greenpeace applied for a judicial review of the U.K. government’s continuing issuance of licenses for deepwater exploration. The organization argued ministers had acted unlawfully, because they had failed to carry out an appropriate assessment of the risks that new drilling poses to protected habitats and species in the light of last year’s Gulf of Mexico disaster. Thursday Greenpeace was told it had been given permission for a hearing.

The U.K.’s Department of Energy and Climate Change, or DECC, now has 35 days to prepare a legal defense of its decision to grant drilling licenses and present it to the judge. In a statement, DECC said it had responded to Greenpeace’s application and would “robustly defend its actions in the hearing.” It stressed that “normal licensing work continues.”

Oil & Gas UK, the main trade body for North Sea oil producers, dismissed Greenpeace’s claim as “frankly ludicrous and completely unjustified.”

“Oil and gas operations in the U.K. are carried out under a robust and fit-for-purpose regulatory regime which is widely recognised as one of the most stringent in the world,” said Malcolm Webb, Oil & Gas UK’s chief executive, in a statement.

Greenpeace said the U.K. government was ignoring the lessons from Deepwater Horizon. “The BP spill was a game-changer, highlighting the very real risks of dangerous deep sea drilling for both important widllife and the economy,” executive director John Sauven said.

Special thanks to Richard Charter

Hi Coral Listers,

We could use your help at CORALINA, Seaflower MPA, on the threat of oil exploration inside the MPA. See the announcement below – if you wish, feel free to send to anyone concerned with issues of ocean conservation, indigenous rights, etc; and sign the petition of a local grassroots NGO (link at the end).

Any relevant studies, papers, or contacts folks could send would be appreciated.

Thank you.

Marion W. Howard
Senior Lecturer in Sustainable International Development
The Heller School for Social Policy and Management
Brandeis University
Waltham, Massachusetts 02454 USA
E-mail mwhoward@brandeis.edu
Tel. 781-736-3794 Fax 781-736-8366

Environmental Advisor
CORALINA
San Luis Road, The Bight
San Andres Island
Colombia
__________________________________________________________________________________________________

CORALINA takes legal action to block proposed oil exploration in the
Seaflower Biosphere Reserve and Marine Protected Area, Colombia

The regional Colombian government agency, CORALINA, that established
and manages the Seaflower Biosphere Reserve and Marine Protected Area
(MPA), has submitted an “Accion Popular” against Colombia’s National
Agency of Hydrocarbons (ANH) to halt leases to Reposol-YPF and
Ecopetrol to begin oil exploration inside the borders of the Seaflower
MPA.

An “Accion Popular” is a legal instrument granted to citizens by
Colombia’s National Constitution (Art. 88) that allows them to seek
protection of collective rights and interests related to their
homelands, environment, public safety, health, etc. The legal action
was presented to the High Tribunal by CORALINA’s general director,
Elizabeth Taylor-Jay on Wednesday, February 16.

Seaflower — located in the Archipelago of San Andres, Old Providence,
and Santa Catalina in the Southwestern Caribbean — has been a member
of the UNESCO World Network of Biosphere Reserves since 2000 and is on
the tentative list of proposed World Heritage Sites.

The largest MPA in the Caribbean and among the largest in the world,
it spreads over 65,000 square kilometers (6.5 million hectares) and
encompasses 76 percent of Colombia’s coral reefs and the most
extensive open ocean reef systems in the Caribbean; more than 2,000
km2 of productive coral reef ecosystems with atolls, barrier reefs,
fringing reefs, mangroves, seagrass beds, and lagoons.

The MPA is known to be exceptionally rich in marine biodiversity for
the region — to date more than 407 species of fish, 48 hard corals,
54 soft corals, 130 sponges, 157 birds, and many other significant
species have been identified, along with 192 IUCN red-listed species
including sea turtles, marine mammals, hydrocorals, and others. The
archipelago was declared a Significant Bird Area by BirdLife
International in 2004 and is part of the western Caribbean
biodiversity “hotspot.”

Besides its unique environment, San Andres also has a long social
history distinct from that of Colombia. The descendants of the
original inhabitants, now called raizales, are recognized as an
indigenous people internationally and protected as an ethnic minority
nationally. The Seaflower MPA was established in 2005, with support
from the Global Environment Facility (GEF), and resulted from a
uniquely participatory process between CORALINA and the local
community. This innovative MPA protects the livelihoods and tenure of
the indigenous people, integrating conservation with sustainable
fishing, harvesting, and locally run tourism.

CORALINA’s work in establishing Seaflower was recognized in 2008 by
IUCN as one of the 60 most significant approaches to conservation that
will influence the environment in the coming century. Last October the
Seaflower MPA took top honors as the initiative that best realized the
goals of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) at the
Conference of the Parties (COP 10) in Nagoya, Japan, beating out more
than 1,100 other organizations around the world, both governmental and
non-governmental, for its ground-breaking efforts in sustainability.

In addition to conserving marine biodiversity and ecosystems, “the
intention is to open an umbrella of possibilities of livelihoods,
including low-impact aquaculture, and some alternatives on land such
as iguana farming which is done by the fishers in some places, and
also creating interpretation trails [for tourism],” Taylor-Jay, told
the BBC at COP 10 after the award was announced.

The Popular Action claims that the oil leases violate the Convention
on Biological Diversity, which the Colombian Congress ratified in the
National Law 165 of 1994, as well as the rights of the indigenous
people of the archipelago, whose rights are protected by the National
Constitution (Art. 310) and by international instruments including ILO
Convention 169 that protects tribal and indigenous people, ratified by
Colombia in National Law 21 of 1991, and the recent United Nations
Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, approved by Colombia
in April 2009. The participatory process to establish the Seaflower
MPA was presented by invitation last year at the UN Ninth Permanent
Forum on Indigenous Issues in New York City.

Most residents of the islands are strongly opposed to the oil
exploration, along with local and national non-governmental
organizations that have publicly rejected the leases, including the
archipelago’s Old Providence Foundation and Colombia’s Fundacion ICRI
(International Coral Reef Initiative).

To sign the Old Providence Foundation’s petition against the oil
exploration, go to:
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/stop-oil-exploration-seaflower-biosphere-reserve-colombia-western-caribbean/
________________________

Additional info posted February 26, 2011 on Coral-list:

To add to the recent information about the oil exploration leases
inside the Seaflower MPA, southwestern Caribbean, awarded to
Reposol-YPF and Ecopetrol by Colombia’s National Agency of
Hydrocarbons (ANH), a number of blocks (78) were auctioned in June
2010 for exploration in Colombian waters, of which two are located
inside the Seaflower MPA.

The MPA is internally divided into three contiguous management
sections, creating a regional MPA system. The MPA’s total area is
65,000 km2, with 20,213 km2 included in the two leased blocks (known
in the leases as Cayos 1 and Cayos 5).

Cayos 1 covers 944,012-hectares (9,440 km2) in the MPA Northern
Section and includes Quitasueño Bank (traditional name Queena), the
largest coral structure in the San Andres Archipelago at 60 km long
and 10 to 20 km wide with a 40-km reef wall, 496 km2 of live coral
coverage, and a reef shelf area of 1,276 km2; along with ocean area
that has never been studied. This lease grants exploration rights.

Cayos 5 is in the MPA Central and Northern Sections and covers
1,077,350-hectares (10,773.5 km2). The lease for this block allows
exploration, to be followed by a “hydrocarbon development or
production stage.” Cayos 5 includes the entire Old Providence barrier
reef, which is 32 km long with an area of 255 km2; Old Providence
(Isla de Providencia) and Santa Catalina coastal waters, with an
insular shelf of 298 km2; and substantial open ocean that has been
little researched to date but is known to contain grouper spawning
aggregation sites and sea mounts.

Two days after CORALINA submitted the Accion Popular, ANH suspended
exploration until they have met with representatives of the island
communities to communicate how the exploration will be done and
explain about the environmental safeguards that will be in place.

Understanding that the temporary suspension does not suggest revoking
the licenses or banning oil exploration in the MPA, CORALINA has not
withdrawn the Accion Popular against the ANH.

Marion W. Howard
Senior Lecturer in Sustainable International Development
The Heller School for Social Policy and Management
Brandeis University
Waltham, Massachusetts 02454 USA
E-mail mwhoward@brandeis.edu
Tel. 781-736-3794 Fax 781-736-8366

Environmental Advisor
CORALINA
San Luis Road, The Bight
San Andres Island
Colombia

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