topic: Dolphins

topic: Dolphins

Social media activity version | Lean version

Education & research bring Rio’s dolphins back from the brink of extinction
- The Guiana dolphin (Sotalia guianensis) is one of the most common cetaceans in Brazil but also one of the most vulnerable, with numbers dwindling by up to 93% in the last 40 years.
- One of the worst affected regions is Guanabara Bay, in Rio de Janeiro, where Guiana dolphins face daily industrial contamination, sewage and noise pollution, causing chronic stress that leads to weakened immune systems and reproduction difficulties.
- A recently published study found high toxin concentrations in Guiana dolphins in neighboring Sepetiba Bay, which has significantly impacted the health of the population, the researchers found.
- Environmentalists are banking on research and education to help protect the species and consequently the marine environment. So far, a protected environment in Sepetiba Bay has helped stem dolphin mortality, and efforts are being made in Guanabara to clean up the bay, but more is required to restore and save the population.

Ancient giant river dolphin species found in the Peruvian Amazon
- Paleontologists discovered a fossilized skull of a newly described species of giant freshwater dolphin in the Peruvian Amazon, which lived around 16 million years ago and is considered the largest-known river dolphin ever found.
- The ancient creature, measuring 3-3.5 meters (9.8-11.5 feet), was surprisingly related to South Asian river dolphins rather than the local, living Amazon river pink dolphin and shared highly developed facial crests used for echolocation.
- The discovery comes at a time when the six existing species of modern river dolphins face unprecedented threats, with their combined populations decreasing by 73% since the 1980s due to unsustainable fishing practices, climate change, pollution, illegal mining and infrastructure development.
- Conservation efforts are underway, including the signing of the Global Declaration for River Dolphins by nine countries and successful initiatives in China and Indonesia, highlighting the importance of protecting these critical species that serve as indicators of river ecosystem health.

Irrawaddy dolphin death in Thailand’s Songkhla Lake underscores conservation needs
- As few as 14 critically endangered Irrawaddy dolphins remain in the world’s smallest freshwater population of the species, in southern Thailand’s Songkhla Lake.
- The recent death of one of the remaining few raised the alarm among cetacean specialists, who say more must be done to save the imperiled population.
- Teetering on the brink of extinction, the dolphins face a slew of threats from entanglement in fishing nets, depletion of fish populations, and deteriorating lake conditions due to increasing pressures from agriculture, industry and infrastructure development.
- Experts say a “once-in-a-lifetime” opportunity to reverse the dolphin’s trajectory of decline is on the horizon in the form of major funding for dolphin conservation linked to a road bridge megaproject, but they warn it will only be successful if government agencies can put aside their competing agendas.

Report: Rising slaughter of small whales and dolphins threatens ocean balance
- Killings of small whales, porpoises and dolphins are rising, with more than 100,000 of these marine mammals slaughtered each year, according to a new report from German and British NGOs.
- Many regions report increased catches driven by demand for dolphin meat as food and shark bait in areas impacted by economic crisis and dwindling fish stocks.
- Failure to address unsustainable exploitation of small cetaceans exacerbates ecological imbalance and heavy metal toxicity risks to humans who eat them, according to the report.
- Insufficient legislation and enforcement remain critical issues, according to the report, which calls for international collaboration and stronger protection measures.

Indus River dolphins’ survival is our responsibility (commentary)
- Indus River dolphins are distinguished by their elongated noses and small, nearly vestigial eyes.
- Once thriving in the lower parts of the Indus and its tributaries, their numbers have dwindled due to various environmental stresses.
- “Their story is not just about their survival but also about our responsibility to safeguard our planet’s diverse and increasingly vulnerable wildlife for future generations,” a new op-ed argues.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.

Nine countries sign global pact to protect endangered river dolphins
- Since the 1980s, the combined populations of river dolphin species have plummeted by 73%.
- With the Global Declaration for River Dolphins, 14 countries (six of them in Latin America) are expected to join forces to protect the six surviving species of this aquatic mammal that inhabit the world’s rivers and are under some category of threat. So far, nine of the governments involved have signed the declaration.
- The declaration comes at a critical moment for these animals. In September 2023, the death of more than 150 river dolphins in one of the most important lakes in Brazil raised international concern.

Fishing ban extension raises hopes for iconic Amazon pink river dolphin
- The Amazon river dolphin, or boto, is an integral feature of the rainforest’s biodiversity and culture, and is central to several Indigenous tales.
- Even though the dolphin isn’t fished for human consumption, it’s become endangered over the decades because fishers use its flesh as bait for catching piracatinga catfish.
- The Brazilian government earlier this year renewed a moratorium on fishing of piracatinga, first imposed in 2014, in the hope of saving the dolphin, but experts say fishers have just been ignoring the rule.
- The measure became even more relevant in October following the detection of more than 100 dead dolphins in an Amazon lake — experts suspect that the deaths are directly linked to the extreme drought affecting the region.

AI unlocks secrets of Amazon river dolphins’ behavior, no tagging required
- Freshwater dolphins in the Amazon Basin navigate through flooded forests during the wet season using their flexible bodies and echolocation clicks.
- Researchers have combined advanced acoustic monitoring and AI to study the habits of endangered pink river dolphins (boto) and tucuxi in seasonally flooded habitats.
- They used hydrophones to record sounds in various habitats and employed convolutional neural networks (CNN) to classify the sounds as either echolocation clicks, boat engine noises, or rain — with high accuracy.
- Understanding the dolphins’ movements and behaviors can aid conservation efforts to protect these endangered species, as they face various threats such as fishing entanglement, dam construction, mining, agriculture and cattle ranching.

Fishing, dams and dredging close in on Peru’s river dolphins, study shows
- Amazon river dolphins in Peru are facing increasing threats from human activity, including fishing, proposed construction of dams, and dredging operations
- A study tracked the movements of dolphins in relation to fishing areas, dams and dredging sites, and found that 89% of their home range is subject to fishing activity.
- The research team observed that the dolphins in the study were, on average, located roughly 252 kilometers (157 miles) from the nearest proposed dam and 125 km (78 mi) from the closest proposed dredging site.
- The construction of the Amazon Waterway, aimed at improving navigability along waterways in Peru, involves dredging sites across four main rivers in the basin and could lead to ship collisions with dolphins, increased underwater noise, and habitat degradation.

Expedition catches Amazon river dolphins to help save this iconic pink species
- In December, researchers gathered extensive data on a population of Amazon river dolphins in the Amanã Sustainable Development Reserve in the Brazilian state of Amazonas.
- They fitted some of the dolphins with radio transmitters to help map their preferred zones and identify priority regions for species protection.
- At the top of the food chain, the river dolphins play important roles as regulators of Amazonian river life and as environmental indicators for potential zoonoses.
- Hydroelectric dams, fishing, and contamination from mining pose the greatest threats to the species across its range.

Top French court orders closure of fisheries amid mass dolphin deaths
- France’s Council of State has ordered the closure of certain fisheries during specific times of the year in a bid to lower the rising number of dolphin deaths.
- A separate European Commission-ordered phaseout of non-selective fishing methods, including bottom trawling, could further help restore marine ecosystems.
- The number of dead dolphins washing ashore on France’s Atlantic coast during winter has worried environmental groups for years, finally prompting the EC to set up new marine life protection targets.
- Complaints to the French government have multiplied over time, demanding that it takes measures to minimize unwanted catches and also sparking fears within the fishing industry, which warns of impacts to food security and jobs.

Scientists and fishers team up to protect Bolivian river dolphin
- Hunting, fishing, pollution and degradation and loss of habitat are the main threats facing the Bolivian river dolphin, a species of river dolphin that is found in 10 protected areas in the country.
- For almost three decades, scientists have involved local commercial fishers in an effort to document and monitor the landlocked country’s sole cetacean.
- A team of reporters joined them in sailing 450 kilometers (280 miles) upriver during the most recent population census.

Potential impact on whales overlooked as deep-sea mining looks set to start, experts say
- Scientists say future deep-sea mining activities could impact cetaceans through noise pollution, which could interfere with their communication processes.
- According to an opinion piece, a team of experts say assessments of deep-sea mining impact have focused on species associated with the seabed rather than transitory megafauna that inhabit the proposed mining areas, and that urgent research is needed to understand the potential impact on cetaceans.
- However, a mining company says it is evaluating the potential impact of its proposed operations on cetaceans through the gathering of acoustic data during its recent mining test in the CCZ, which it will combine with three years of environmental baseline data.
- Deep-sea mining in international waters may begin later this year after the Pacific island nation of Nauru, which sponsors a subsidiary of a Canadian mining firm, requested accelerated approval of its mining operation.

Banned but abundant, gillnets pose main threat to Bangladesh’s river dolphins
- Bangladesh is home to around 2,000 Ganga River dolphins and 6,000 Irrawaddy dolphins, found mostly in the Sundarbans, the world’s largest mangrove forest.
- Both species, considered threatened on the IUCN Red List, run a high risk of entanglement in the gillnets used by local fishers.
- Gillnets are banned in Bangladesh, but remain popular among local fishers, with the government unable to crack down on their use.
- To conserve the freshwater dolphins, the government has embarked on a 10-year action plan that includes declaring more areas as dolphin sanctuaries and raising awareness among fishers.

Unsustainable fishing to be banned in Irrawaddy dolphin’s Bornean sanctuary
- Indonesia’s fisheries ministry is working with a conservation NGO to draw up plans prohibiting fishing gear considered dangerous to critically endangered Irrawaddy dolphins in the Mahakam River in Borneo.
- The prohibition will apply to a stretch of the Mahakam that was designated a conservation area earlier this year and that’s home to 90% of the estimated 80 Irrawaddy dolphins in the Mahakam.
- Among the practices they’re seeking to ban are fishing with a type of gill net known as rengge, electrofishing, poison fishing, and fixed-net fishing known as sawaran and kombongan.
- Local fishers are said to be supportive of the plan: “They want to continue fisheries but they also want to get rid of unsustainable fishing … because they care about the dolphins as well.”

Black Sea dolphin deaths prompt ecocide allegations against Russia
- On Dec. 7, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russia of ecocide during COP15, the U.N. biodiversity summit in Montreal, following unprecedented reports of dead dolphins and porpoises washing up on Black Sea beaches since Russia invaded Ukraine.
- On Dec. 2, researchers reported the first scientific analysis of changes in cetacean deaths and movement patterns since the war began in February.
- Mounting evidence is slowly painting a clearer picture of the mass mortality of Black Sea cetaceans.
- But estimates of the death toll vary and scientists diverge on whether research has progressed far enough to scientifically conclude the war’s effect.

Podcast: New whale calls and dolphin behaviors discovered with bioacoustics
- On today’s episode of the Mongabay Newscast, we take a look at two stories that show how bioacoustics research is helping us better understand the lives of marine mammals — and we take a listen to some of the recordings informing that research.
- Our first guest is Erin Ross-Marsh, the lead researcher behind a study of humpback whales at the Vema Seamount in the South Atlantic Ocean off the coast of South Africa. Ross-Marsh tells us about the study’s finding that these humpbacks were making gunshot calls, a type of non-song call that was previously unknown in these particular whales, and plays some humpback songs, non-song calls, and gunshot calls for us to listen to.
- We also speak today with Sarah Trabue, a research assistant with the Wildlife Conservation Society who is the lead author of a recently published paper detailing the findings of a bioacoustic study of bottlenose dolphins in and around New York Harbor. Trabue tells us what the study reveals about dolphin behavior in the highly trafficked waters around New York City and plays for us some of the dolphin vocalizations recorded as part of the study.

Noise pollution spooks whales the way predators would, study finds
- Whales appear to react to human-made noise in the ocean, such as naval sonar, in a similar way to which they respond to the sounds of their predators like killer whales, according to recent research.
- The authors of the study played the sounds of sonar and killer whales when whales from four species were present.
- The whales responded by breaking off their feeding forays, leading scientists to conclude that noise pollution in the ocean could leave them weaker and more vulnerable to predation.
- The researchers also suggest that marine mammals in the Arctic may be especially at risk as climate change alters their environment in ways that may make them more vulnerable.

Death of last river dolphin in Laos rings alarm bells for Mekong population
- Earlier this year, the last Irrawaddy river dolphin in a transboundary pool between Cambodia and Laos became entangled in fishing gear and died, signifying the extinction of the species in Laos.
- The transboundary subpopulation had dwindled from 17 individuals in 1993, with experts blaming a range of factors — from the use of gill nets and other illegal fishing practices, to overfishing, genetic isolation, and the effects of upstream dams on river flow and prey availability.
- With the loss, there are now just an estimated 89 Irrawaddy dolphins left in the Mekong River, all within a 180-km (110-mi) stretch in Cambodia, where they face the same range of threats that wiped out the transboundary group.
- Authorities and conservationists say they are now resolved to strengthen protections and improve public awareness of the dolphins’ vulnerability to ensure the species has a future in the Mekong.

Stretch of Borneo’s Mahakam River eyed for protection to save Irrawaddy dolphins
- Conservationists in Indonesian Borneo are working to establish a protected area along the Mahakam River to save the remaining population of the nearly extinct Irrawaddy dolphin.
- The proposed conservation area is expected to alleviate the threats to the population of the freshwater dolphins, including river degradation and ship traffic.
- The latest population estimates suggest only around 80 of the endangered dolphins remain in the Mahakam.

Pingers on fishing nets found to save river dolphins in Indonesian Borneo
- A trial has demonstrated that underwater acoustic pingers can keep river dolphins at a safe distance from fishing nets, preventing fatal entanglements.
- Fishers in the Mahakam River in Indonesian Borneo collaborated with researchers to test the devices that emit a high-frequency sound that acts as a deterrent to the local population of freshwater Irrawaddy dolphins.
- Aside from protecting the dolphins, the devices were also found to increase fishers’ catches and reduce costly repairs to nets; experts describe this as a “win-win” solution.
- International river dolphin initiatives are now testing the devices in locations such as the Amazon, the Ganges and the Indus rivers to find out if they can be implemented at a much larger scale to safeguard dwindling river dolphin species worldwide.

Project maps soundscape of human noise in northern Adriatic and impact on marine life
- The bottlenose dolphin population of Croatia’s Lošinj archipelago is increasingly faced with problems from noise disturbance produced by boats, particularly in the summer tourist season.
- Noise pollution is known to impact a wide range of marine species, from turtles to tuna to cetaceans, but its long-term effects are still little-understood.
- The SOUNDSCAPE project that started in 2019 in the northern Adriatic Sea, between Italy and Croatia, is trying to better understand the problem at the regional level and identify solutions.

Faroe Islands to evaluate traditional hunt after slaughter of 1,400 dolphins
- The killing of 1,428 Atlantic white-sided dolphins in the Faroe Islands has sparked outrage among local people and attracted international criticism over the legitimacy of such hunts.
- The hunt was reportedly unauthorized and in violation of local Faroese law.
- In response, the Faroese prime minister announced that the government will evaluate the recent dolphin hunt as well as the tradition’s place in society.

Can whales and dolphins catch COVID-19 from wastewater? It’s murky
- A new study identifies 15 marine mammal species, including whales, dolphins, seals and sea otters, that could be susceptible to the SARS-CoV-2 virus through contact with wastewater.
- According to the researchers, vulnerable populations of marine animals that congregate near wastewater discharge sites face elevated risks.
- To minimize these risks, the researchers suggest closely monitoring vulnerable populations for possible infection and vaccinating if necessary, and also restricting access to at-risk captive marine mammals.
- However, other experts say it is implausible for marine animals to get sick through contact with wastewater since virus transmission through water is unlikely.

Dolphins face growing pressure as development eats into Borneo’s interior
- The ecosystems of East Kalimantan province in Indonesian Borneo face increasing pressure due to mining, logging, industrial agriculture, infrastructure projects, and a plan to establish a new administrative capital city.
- One of the species imperiled by this rapid transformation is the Irrawaddy dolphin.
- Estuarine populations of the species already face severely negative impacts from increasing shipping traffic and coastal development in Balikpapan Bay.
- A critically endangered population of freshwater Irrawaddy dolphins living in the middle reaches of the Mahakam River are also under increasing pressure due to climate change, oil palm cultivation, coal mining and transport.

Mauritians take to the street over oil spill and dolphin and whale deaths
- People gathered in the thousands in Mauritius’s capital, Port Louis, to protest the government’s response to a recent oil spill.
- The Japanese-owned freighter M.V. Wakashio crashed into the coral reef barrier off the island’s southeastern coast on July 25 and leaked about 1,000 tons of fuel oil into the sea near ecologically sensitive areas, before breaking in half a few weeks later.
- The stranding of at least 39 dolphins and whales near the site has sparked an outcry, though a link between the Wakashio shipwreck and the beachings has not yet been established.
- In a controversial move, the Mauritian government decided to sink the front half of the ship several kilometers away from the crash site in open waters, which some experts say could have impacted the dolphin and whale populations.

Podcast: Singing and whistling cetaceans of southern Africa revealed by bioacoustics
- On today’s episode of the Mongabay Newscast we’re taking a look at two examples of how bioacoustics studies have discovered things we never knew before about marine life.
- Dr. Tess Gridley joins us to talk about the recent discovery of singing humpback whales in South Africa’s False Bay. Gridley plays us some of the recordings she and her team made documenting humpback songs in False Bay for the first time ever, and discusses the African Bioacoustics Community’s upcoming conference, which she hopes will help inspire even more bioacoustic research focused on African wildlife.
- We’re also joined by Sasha Dines, a PhD student at the University of Stellenbosch who is studying humpback dolphins. Dines’ work is focused on determining whether or not Indian Ocean humpback dolphins make signature whistle calls, which could be used to monitor the dolphins’ via passive acoustic monitoring arrays. She plays us some whistle calls of a humpback dolphin named Herme, and explains how bioacoustic monitoring could help improve not just monitoring but also conservation efforts for these endangered dolphins.

To flourish, Sri Lanka’s whale-watching industry must operate responsibly (commentary)
- Whale watching in Sri Lanka picked up in 2005, and the end of the civil war in 2009 ensured wider access to some of the finest coastal beaches in the Indian Ocean island.
- Expeditions that highlighted Sri Lanka as one of the top whale-watching destinations sparked an ever-expanding industry, giving rise to concerns about irresponsible public conduct and the need to minimize harm to marine mammals.
- In response, awareness-raising initiatives are being taken by various groups with emphasis on responsible whale watching according to existing guidelines and codes of conduct.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.

Brazil could dynamite Amazon dolphin, turtle habitat for industrial waterway
- Brazil plans to excavate and dredge many millions of cubic meters of material, including the ecologically sensitive Lourencão Rocks, to create an industrial shipping channel on the Tocantins River in the Amazon. This article includes rarely seen video images of some of the endemic and threatened fish living in the Tocantins River rapids.
- Citing cost considerations, São Paulo-based DTA Engenharia plans to dump more than 5.6 million cubic meters of sand inside the Tocantins riverbanks, where Amazonian turtles now lay their eggs. The endangered Araguaian river dolphin would also be impacted.
- In September 2019, IBAMA, Brazil’s environmental agency, identified dozens of mistakes in DTA Engenharia’s environmental impact studies, which failed to list a dozen endangered fish, ignored the specialized riverine rock environment, and didn’t study turtles in most affected areas.
- IBAMA ordered DTA to redo fish and turtle studies, with new studies conducted on local traditional fisherfolk’s fishing practices. Six fisherfolk village associations near the Lourencão Rocks (35 kilometers of which are due to be dynamited and dredged) warn that the fishery and the unique traditional culture it supports are in peril.

Amazon river dolphin risks extinction if Brazil moratorium not renewed
- The Amazon river dolphin (also known as the pink river dolphin, or boto) is the largest of the world’s freshwater dolphins. It lives in the Amazon and Orinoco river systems.
- For years, the dolphin’s populations, though protected in Brazil, trended downward, halving every decade there, as poachers hunted the animals, using their fatty blubber as bait to catch a carnivorous catfish known as the piracatinga, which is drawn to the scent of rotting flesh.
- In 2015, the government of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff tried to curb this chronic criminal behavior and protect the dolphins by introducing a five-year moratorium on catching piracatinga.
- Early in 2020 that moratorium lapsed and scientists urged its quick renewal to prevent the Amazon river dolphin from going extinct. UPDATE: Within days of this Mongabay story being published, Brazil’s Ministry of Agriculture announced that the piracatinga moratorium will be extended for one year starting 1 July.

Decade after BP Deepwater Horizon spill, oil drilling is as dangerous as ever
- Ten years ago, the BP Deepwater Horizon exploratory rig exploded, killing 11 people and initiating the largest oil spill in the history of the United States.
- Nearly 5 million barrels of oil spilled into the Gulf of Mexico, causing catastrophic damage to the ecosystem and economy of the region.
- A newly published report by the nonprofit Oceana looks back at how this spill happened, the resulting ecological and economic impacts, and if this catastrophe has changed government or oil industry approaches to offshore drilling.
- Poor government oversight and inadequate safety culture paved the way for the BP Deepwater Horizon explosion. Now, a decade later, it appears these conditions, the prerequisites for disaster, have not improved.

In Sri Lanka, gillnets targeting tuna claim dolphin lives
- Tuna fishers using gillnets in the Indian Ocean caught 4.1 million dolphins and other cetaceans between 1950 and 2018, a new study estimates.
- Gillnets are a mainstay of the tuna fishery in the Indian Ocean, accounting for nearly 34% of the region’s total tuna catch.
- Sri Lanka, one of the countries studied, is home to 15 dolphin species, but just one — the spinner dolphin — accounted for more than half of the recorded cetacean catch in gillnets.
- Experts have called for phasing out destructive fishing methods such as gillnets, while local authorities are offering incentives to fishers for every non-target species released alive from their nets.

Key cetacean site in Philippines sees drop in dolphin, whale sightings
- A recent survey has confirmed a declining trend in sightings of dolphins and whales in the Tañon Strait in the central Philippines, a waterway declared an Important Marine Mammal Area by the IUCN.
- The strait is a migratory route for at least 11 cetacean species, including the vulnerable Gray’s spinner dolphin and the endangered false killer whale, but four surveys carried out since 1999 have shown a sharp decline in population and species sightings.
- One bright spot in the latest survey was the sighting of rose-bellied dwarf spinner dolphins, only the second time that the species has ever been spotted in Philippine waters.
- The strait is one of the country’s busiest sea lanes, encountering heavy fishing and tourism activities, which researchers say may be a factor for the downward trend. They call for further collaboration to enact stringent measures on fishing and tourism activities to protect the area.

Audio: The best animal calls featured on the Mongabay Newscast in 2019
- This is our last episode of 2019, so we took a look back at the bioacoustic recordings we featured here on the Mongabay Newscast over the past year and today we will be playing some of our favorites for you.
- As regular listeners to the Mongabay Newscast already know, bioacoustics is the study of how animals use and perceive sound, and how their acoustical adaptations reflect their behaviors and their relationships with their habitats and surroundings. Bioacoustics is still a fairly young field of study, but it is currently being used to study everything from how wildlife populations respond to the impacts of climate change to how entire ecosystems are impacted by human activities.
- On today’s episode, we listen to recordings of stitchbirds in New Zealand, river dolphins in Brazil, humpback whales in the Pacific, right whales in the Atlantic, and gibbons in Indonesia.

India’s Ganga River dolphins are being shouted down by noisy boats
- India’s Ganga River is getting noisier with increased ship traffic and dredging, and that’s stressing the river’s iconic dolphins and changing how they communicate, a new study has found.
- When fewer than five vessels moving on the river per hour, the dolphins seem to enhance their vocal activities to compensate for the high-frequency noise generated by the propellers.
- But as vessel traffic increases and water levels fall during the dry season, leading to more intense and sustained noise pollution, the dolphins don’t seem to alter their clicks much compared to baseline levels, the researchers found.
- This is likely because having to continuously emit clicks in a persistently noisy world can be physically taxing, forcing the endangered mammals to “either call at baseline levels or shut up,” according to the researchers.

Canada passes ‘Free Willy’ bill to ban captivity of all whales, dolphins
- On June 10, Canada’s House of Commons passed a bill that bans the practice of keeping cetaceans (whales, dolphins and porpoises) in captivity in the country.
- Bill S-203 also prohibits breeding of the animals and collecting reproductive materials from them. The only exceptions to these provisions will be in cases of rescues and rehabilitation, licensed scientific research, or “in the best interests of the cetacean’s welfare.”
- The legislation, also known as the “Free Willy” bill, allows Vancouver Aquarium and Marineland in Niagara Falls, the only two facilities in Canada that still house cetaceans, to continue to keep their animals as long as they do not breed or bring in any new individuals.

Audio: Chatty river dolphins in Brazil might help us understand evolution of marine mammal communication
- On today’s episode of the Mongabay Newscast, we speak with Gabriel Melo-Santos, whose study of Araguaian river dolphins in Brazil has revealed that the species is much chattier than we’d previously known — and could potentially help us better understand the evolution of underwater communication in marine mammals.
- The Araguaian river dolphin was only described to science in 2014, and there’s a lot we don’t yet know about the freshwater cetacean species. It was believed that the solitary nature of the dolphins meant that they wouldn’t have much use for communication, but Gabriel Melo-Santos led a team of researchers that recorded 20 hours of vocalizations and documented 237 distinct types of sounds made by the dolphins.
- In this Field Notes segment, Melo-Santos plays some of the recordings he’s made of Araguaian river dolphins, explains how he managed to study the elusive creatures thanks to their fondness for a certain fish market in Brazil, and discusses how the study of Araguaian river dolphin vocalizations could yield insights into how their sea-faring relatives use their own calls to maintain social cohesion.

Recently discovered Brazilian river dolphin’s calls could help us understand evolution of marine mammal communication
- Until recently it was believed that the solitary nature of Araguaian dolphins meant that they wouldn’t have much use for communication. But scientists have now documented hundreds of sounds made by the dolphins — and they say that these vocalizations could help us better understand the evolution of underwater communication among marine mammals.
- Using underwater cameras and microphones to record interactions between the dolphins, researchers recorded 20 hours of vocalizations, which they classified into 13 different types of “tonal sounds” and 66 types of “pulsed calls.” In total, they identified 237 distinct types of calls.
- The most common sounds the dolphins made were “short two-component calls,” the researchers report in the study. About 35 percent of these calls were made by calves while reuniting with their mothers, which suggests that the calls are an important component of mother-calf communication.

Audio: What underwater sounds can tell us about Indian Ocean humpback dolphins
- On today’s episode, we speak with marine biologist Isha Bopardikar, an independent researcher who is using bioacoustics to study humpback dolphins off the west coast of India.
- Last month, Mongabay’s India bureau published an article with the headline “What underwater sounds tell us about marine life.” As Mongabay contributor Sejal Mehta notes in the piece, the world beneath the ocean’s surface is a noisy place, with animals sounding off for a number of purposes. Now, of course, humanity is interjecting more and more frequently, intruding on the underwater soundscape.
- As Isha Bopardikar tells Mehta in the Mongabay India piece, in order to understand how marine animals use the underwater space and how human activities affect their behavior, we need hard data. That’s where her current work off the west coast of India comes in. In this Fields Notes segment, Bopardikar plays for us some of her dolphin recordings and explains how they are informing her research.

Plastics found in dolphins, seals, and whales in UK waters
- In a paper published in the journal Scientific Reports last month, a research team from the UK’s University of Exeter and Plymouth Marine Laboratory detailed their findings after studying the digestive tracts of 50 individuals from 10 species of dolphins, seals, and whales that had been stranded on the coast of Britain.
- “Microplastics were ubiquitous with particles detected in every animal examined,” the authors of the study write.
- Just 5.5 microplastic particles were found in each animal, on average, which suggests that the particles might be simply passing through the marine mammals’ bodies, the researchers said. But the animals’ stomachs were found to contain more microplastics than their intestines, pointing to “a potential site of temporary retention,” they added.

Latam Eco Review: Seeing red over pink dolphins and flamingos

The most popular stories published recently by our Spanish-language news service, Mongabay Latam, featured endangered pink Amazon river dolphins, the world’s rarest flamingos, palm oil plantations in Nicaragua, impunity in Peru, and mansions in Colombia. Mercury and accidental capture endanger Amazon river dolphins The Amazon river dolphin (Inia geoffrensis) was recently categorized as endangered in […]
A monitoring network in the Amazon captures a flood of data
- Cameras and microphones are capturing images and sounds of the world’s largest rainforest to monitor the Amazon’s species and environmental dynamics in an unprecedented way.
- The Providence Project’s series of networked sensors is aimed at complementing remote-sensing data on forest cover change by revealing ecological interactions beneath the forest canopy.
- Capable of continuously recording, processing and transmitting information to a database in real time, this high-tech experiment involves research institutions from three countries and the skills of biologists, engineers, computer scientists and other experts.
- The monitoring system will connect to a website to disseminate the forest biodiversity data interactively, which the researchers hope will contribute to more effective biodiversity conservation strategies.

Latam Eco Review: Microbial memories of Venezuela’s lost glaciers

Microbiomes of Venezuela’s lost glaciers, mile-high Andean lizards, and starving baby seals are among the recent top stories from Mongabay Latam, our Spanish-language service. The abandoned microbes of Venezuela’s last glaciers Venezuela will be the first country where glaciers disappear. In 30 years, from 1978 to 2008, its glaciers lost 9 vertical meters a year […]
Myanmar expands protected area for rare Irrawaddy dolphin
- The Myanmar government has expanded the Irrawaddy Dolphin Protected Area, initially spanning 74 kilometers (46 miles) of the Irrawaddy River, to include a 100-kilometer (62-mile) stretch of the river.
- Use of gillnets is restricted within the new protected area, and damaging activities such as electric or dynamite fishing and gold mining are strictly prohibited.
- An additional 100-kilometer stretch has been designated as a buffer zone, with milder restrictions.
- A survey this year put the number of critically endangered Irrawaddy dolphins in the Irrawaddy River at 78.

On an island in the sun, coal power is king over abundant solar
- Locals and environmentalists have opposed a plan to expand a coal-fired power plan in northern Bali, Indonesia.
- They are worried that the expansion will exacerbate the existing impact of the plant on the environment and locals’ health and livelihoods.
- A particular concern focuses on the survival of dolphins and endemic species living in close proximity to the plant, with Greenpeace saying the dolphins have particularly been affected since the plant came on line in 2015.
- Another major worry is air pollution, with many locals complaining of respiratory ailments as a result of the fumes and coal dust emitted from the plant.

Ice-free passage for ships through the Arctic could cause problems for marine mammals
- A new study suggests that increased ship traffic in the Arctic, as ice there melts due to climate change, could disturb marine mammal species.
- In their assessment of 80 subpopulations living along the Northwest Passage and Russia’s Northern Sea Route, 42 are likely to be affected by a greater number of commercial ships, researchers found.
- The team suggests that mitigation measures, such as those employed in other parts of the world to protect North Atlantic right whales, could be effective.

And then there were 12: Why don’t we hear about extinction until it’s too late? (commentary)
- Species threatened with extinction often don’t get the public’s attention until they no longer exist.
- The author, zoologist Sam Turvey, argues that more attention to these critical cases is required.
- Ahead of International Save the Vaquita Day on July 7, Turvey points out that the world’s most endangered marine mammal is dangerously close to extinction, and it’s not alone.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.

Shark fisheries hunting dolphins, other marine mammals as bait: Study
- Global shark fisheries have for decades engaged in the deliberate catch of dolphins, seals and other marine mammals to use as bait for sharks, a new study has found.
- The researchers found the practice picked up when prices for shark fin, a prized delicacy in Chinese cuisine, went up from the late 1990s onward.
- The researchers have warned that the targeting of these species could hit unsustainable levels, and have called for more studies into the species in question as well as better enforcement of existing law protecting marine mammals.

Hunting, fishing causing dramatic decline in Amazon river dolphins
- Both species of Amazon river dolphin appear to be in deep decline, according to a recent study. Boto (Inia geoffrensis) populations fell by 94 percent and Tucuxi (Sotalia fluviatilis) numbers fell by 97 percent in the Mamirauá Reserve in Amazonas state, Brazil between 1994 and 2017, according to researchers.
- Difficult to detect in the Amazon’s murky waters, both species are listed as “Data Deficient” by the IUCN. But researchers maintain that if region-wide surveys were conducted both species would end up being listed as Critically Endangered.
- The team noticed scars from harpoon and machete injuries on the dolphins they caught. Interviews with fishermen confirmed the team’s suspicions: dolphins were being hunted for use as bait. The mammals also get entangled in nets and other fishing gear, are hunted as food, eliminated as pests, and suffer mercury poisoning.
- Researchers believe the passage and enforcement of new conservation laws could save Amazon river dolphins, and halt their plunge toward extinction. But a lack of political will, drastic draconian cuts to the Brazilian environmental ministry budget, and continued illegal dolphin hunting and fishing make action unlikely for now.

Latam Eco Review: More than 100 new species in Bolivian park

Among the top articles from our Spanish language service, Mongabay Latam, for the week of May 23 – June 3 is one about researchers who were surprised to find more than 100 possible new species in Bolivia’s Madidi National Park. In other news, given the possibility of an oil concession on their territory, the Waorani are […]
Venezuela’s hungry hunt wildlife, zoo animals, as economic crisis grows
- Venezuela is suffering a disastrous economic crisis. With inflation expected to hit 13,000 percent in 2018, there has been a collapse of agricultural productivity, commercial transportation and other services, which has resulted in severe food shortages. As people starve, they are increasingly hunting wildlife, and sometimes zoo animals.
- Reports from the nation’s zoos say that animals are emaciated, with keepers sometimes forced to feed one form of wildlife to another, just to keep some animals alive. There have also been reports of mammals and birds being stolen from zoo collections. Zoos have reached out to Venezuelans, seeking donations to help feed their wild animals.
- The economic crisis makes scientific data gathering difficult, but a significant uptick in the harvesting of Guiana dolphin, known locally as tonina, has been observed. The dolphin is protected from commercial trade under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).
- The grisly remains of hunted pink flamingos have been found repeatedly on Lake Maracaibo. Also within the estuary, there has also been a rise in the harvesting of sea turtle species, including the vulnerable leatherback (Dermochelys coriacea), and the critically endangered hawksbill (Eretmochelys imbricata).

First increase in Mekong River Irrawaddy dolphins in 20 years
- Numbers of the endangered Irrawaddy dolphin in the Mekong River have risen from 80 in 2015 to 92 in 2017, according to WWF-Cambodia.
- The WWF team has found other signs of improvements in the Mekong dolphin population, including more dolphins surviving into adulthood, increase in the number of dolphin calves, and a drop in dolphin deaths.
- These improvements are largely due to more effective patrolling by river guards, and increasing awareness about the dolphins among local communities, WWF said.

Animal trainers are teaching wildlife to conserve themselves
- Positive training helps pets and their owners bond. But animal trainers working to conserve wildlife often have the opposite goal: teaching animals in the wild to avoid human beings — people often being the most dangerous creatures in the jungle.
- Wildlife kept in zoos have been trained with rewards to accept unnatural processes, procedures that previously might have required restraint or even anesthesia: allowing tooth brushing, hoof trimming, injections and blood draws — turning once alien actions into positive experiences for the captive animals.
- Animal trainers decades ago learned to train dolphins without having physical contact with the animals. More recently, a chimpanzee troop in Sierra Leone was taught to scream alarm in unison when poachers approached, alerting nearby rangers to come to the rescue — achieving an 80 percent decrease in poaching.
- Trainers have taught captive bred condors how to be more like wild condors, seeking food within their natural habitat and not congregating in towns. They’ve also taught polar bears to avoid anything associated with humans, preventing the bears from raiding trash cans and significantly decreasing wildlife conflicts.

NOAA publishes global list of fisheries and their risks to marine mammals
- The list, published in draft form in late 2017 as part of requirements laid out by the Marine Mammal Protection Act, includes nearly 4,000 fisheries across some 135 countries.
- NOAA says the list represents ‘a strong step forward’ in developing sustainable fisheries.
- These fisheries have until 2022 to demonstrate that the methods they use to catch fish and other marine animals either pose little risk to marine mammals or employ comparable methods to similar operations in the United States.

Extreme seasonal changes in Amazon river levels threaten forest conservation by indigenous people
- The Amazon has experienced intense floods and droughts for the past 10 years, a likely effect of climate change.
- Surveys taken of animals between 2009 and 2015 showed terrestrial mammal populations dropped by 95 percent during intense floods, whereas aquatic animals suffered dramatic declines during an extreme drought.
- Scientists fear these seasonal extremes will drive the Cocama people of Peru out of the forest, depriving it of its primary conservationists.

From friends to strangers: The decline of the Irrawaddy dolphin (commentary)
- Now critically endangered, the last of the Irrawaddy dolphins (Orcaella brevirostris) are concentrated in nine deep-water pools over a 190-kilometer stretch of the Mekong between Cambodia’s Sambor district and Khone Falls on the Lao border.
- Today the Mekong’s dolphins face a new threat. The proposed Sambor Dam on the river’s mainstream would catalyze the extinction of the remaining dolphin population and have disastrous consequences for many other fish species, as well as the communities that depend on them.
- Can Cambodia bring this river dolphin back from the brink of extinction?
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.

Biodiversity of Indian Sunderbans recorded in one compendium for first time
- Zoological Survey of India has, for the first time, published a detailed record of the animal and protozoa species of the Sunderban of West Bengal.
- Sunderbans forests, locally known as Badabon, are one of the richest biodiversity hotspots in India. This UNESCO World Heritage site is known for its mangroves, coastal forests that serve as a biological buffer between the land and sea.
- This unique ecosystem is famous for the royal Bengal tiger, Gangetic dolphin, and estuarine crocodile.

Second Irrawaddy dolphin death in Borneo linked to fishing nets
- A second rare Irrawaddy dolphin has washed up dead on a beach in eastern Borneo this year.
- Injuries believed to have been inflicted by a fishing net are the most likely cause of death, a biologist says.
- An NGO has called on authorities to educate fishermen about minimizing bycatch and to map out dolphin migratory paths and habitats in the area.

‘Ships, sonar and surveys’: Film explores impacts of a noisy ocean
- Sonar, air gun charges for oil and gas exploration, and ship traffic in the ocean can interfere with marine mammal communication, cause physiological problems and drive animals to strand on beaches.
- A new film, “Sonic Sea,” traces the risks of an increasingly noisy ocean to whales, dolphins and porpoises.
- The film is a finalist for the Best Science in Nature prize at the 2017 Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival in Jackson, Wyoming.
- The winners will be announced Sept. 28.

The “dolphin who became man”: will the boto survive the catfish trade?
- Fernando Trujillo has spent more than 30 years studying the Amazon’s elusive river dolphin, under threat by the fishing trade.
- Twelve years ago, locals started killing river dolphins to attract a lucrative fish to the carcasses, causing the animals to become endangered.
- A new film, A River Below, explores the story of the river dolphin and how it relates to the larger tale of the millions of people who call the Amazon home.

Surprisingly, Indonesia’s most famous dive site is also a playground for whales and dolphins (commentary)
- Raja Ampat — an island chain in Indonesia’s West Papua province — is world renowned for its beautiful and unique marine biodiversity. But its marine mammals have not received as much attention.
- Half of the 31 whale and dolphin species found in all of Indonesia — 16 different types — have been regularly observed there.
- However, a designated long-term study of the behavior of whales and dolphins there has yet to be conducted. We don’t know much about them; more to the point, we don’t know how to effectively protect them.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.

‘The ones we named are all dead now’: dolphins and fishers struggle to survive in Myanmar
- Irrawaddy dolphins and traditional fishermen hunt cooperatively along the Irrawaddy River in Myanmar.
- Electro-fishermen are threatening this tradition by illegally overfishing the river.
- The government of Myanmar and the Wildlife Conservation Society have responded by working together to implement ecotourism programs and conservation policies.

Vaquita survival hinges on stopping international swim bladder trade
- Recent investigations by the Elephant Action League and WWF have uncovered the complicated trade in fish swim bladders from the Gulf of California that is pushing a porpoise known as the vaquita toward extinction.
- A two-year-old gillnet ban so far has not yet stemmed the declining numbers of vaquita, which are down 50 percent since 2015 and 90 percent since 2011.
- Not more than 30 vaquita remain in the wild, making it the most endangered cetacean on the planet.
- The swim bladders can sell for as much as $20,000 per kilogram.

Gabon pledges ‘massive’ protected network for oceans
- The network of marine protected areas covers some 53,000 square kilometers (20,463 square miles) of ocean, an area larger than Costa Rica.
- The marine parks and reserves could also draw tourists eager to catch a glimpse of the humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae), olive ridley sea turtles (Lepidochelys olivacea) and leatherback sea turtles (Dermochelys coriacea) that all shuttle through Gabonese waters.
- Government officials are in the process of overhauling how they manage fisheries, and they hope the move to protect Gabon’s territorial waters will improve the country’s food security and give its citizens a better chance to earn a living from fishing.

Underwater cameras let scientists dive beneath the surface with dolphins
- Using custom-made, noninvasive underwater cameras that they attached directly to the dolphins’ bodies, researchers with the University of Sydney and the University of Alaska Southeast captured more than 500 minutes of footage, allowing them to observe behaviors that humans rarely have the privilege of witnessing.
- The study’s lead author, Heidi Pearson, a dolphin specialist and assistant professor of marine biology at the University of Alaska Southeast, said that the cameras provide such a fine degree of information that they could open up whole new avenues of research for protecting endangered species.
- While the cameras themselves may represent the cutting-edge in technology, Pearson and team attached them to eight wild dusky dolphins off the coast of New Zealand with the aid of decidedly low-tech implements: a long pole and some Velcro pads.

Protected species in Gulf of Mexico could take decades to recover from Deepwater Horizon oil spill
- The Deepwater Horizon oil spill killed thousands of marine mammals and sea turtles in the Gulf, according to findings detailed in a special issue of the journal Endangered Species Research, published in January, comprised of 20 studies that collectively represent more than five years’-worth of data collection and analysis by scientists with the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and their partners.
- The research was performed as part of a Natural Resource Damage Assessment (NRDA), a process required under the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 in which NOAA investigates the types of injuries to wildlife caused by an oil spill, determines the number of animals that were harmed, and develops a restoration plan designed to address the primary threats to impacted species.
- In a statement, NOAA offered this succinct summation of the results of the studies: “The research indicates that populations of several marine mammal and sea turtle species will take decades to rebound. Significant habitat restoration in the region will also be needed.”

Protests against Bangladesh power plant begin in Dhaka and Cambridge
- On November 24, activists in Bangladesh began a ‘March towards Dhaka’, demanding the cancellation of the proposed coal-fired Rampal power plant, slated to be built very close to the Sundarbans.
- Members of Bangladesh’s National Committee to Protect Oil, Gas and Mineral Resources, Power and Ports will reach Dhaka on Saturday where they are expected to hold a grand rally at the Central Shaheed Minar.
- In solidarity with the protests in Bangladesh, students from Cambridge University in the U.K. will also hold a rally tomorrow.

Only 3 Irrawaddy dolphins remain in Laos
- The small population of Irrawaddy dolphins in Laos is now functionally extinct, the World Wildlife Fund announced yesterday.
- Only three Irrawaddy dolphins survive in Laos now, down from six individuals surveyed earlier this year, a recent survey by a WWF team found.
- The biggest threat to these dolphins is gill net fishing, and WWF urges Laos to extend the ban on gill nets to all parts of the Irrawaddy dolphin’s range.

UNESCO urges Bangladesh to cancel or relocate Sundarbans coal plant
- The Rampal power plant, slated to be built very close to the Sundarbans in Bangladesh, has been heavily criticized for its potential environmental risks.
- A UNESCO mission visited the site of the Rampal power plant, locations of several of the most recent ship accidents in the region, and met with several experts, and identified four major concerns related to the plant’s construction.
- The report concludes that the Rampal project will damage the Sundarbans and should be “cancelled and relocated to a more suitable location.”

NOAA establishes final rule on marine mammal bycatch for seafood imports
- The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries issued a final rule earlier this month to implement import provisions of the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA), which was enacted in 1972.
- The rule aims to prohibit seafood imports from countries where fisheries kill more marine mammals such as whales and dolphins than U.S. standards allow.
- Bycatch is the greatest direct cause of marine mammal injury and death in the United States and around the world, according to the U.S. Marine Mammal Commission.

New species of extinct dolphin discovered in museum collection
- The fossil, an incomplete skull about nine inches long, was discovered by geologist Donald J Miller in 1951 in Alaska.
- For the next six decades, the skull remained in Smithsonian’s collection, until researchers decided to examine it.
- The researchers have found that the dolphin skull is among the oldest fossils from Platanistoidea, a group that once included a large, diverse family of marine mammals, but is now represented by a single freshwater river species, the South Asian river dolphin Platanista gangetica.

Hundreds of baby dolphin deaths linked to BP oil spill
- Between 2010 and 2014, more than a thousand common bottle-nosed dolphins washed ashore in the Gulf of Mexico.
- A large proportion of the dead dolphins were perinates: late-term dolphins that had died inside the womb or very young newborns.
- Exposure to the 2010 BP oil spill could have caused late-term abortions of in-utero dolphins, or early death of newborns, researchers conclude in a new paper published in Diseases of Aquatic Organisms.

Another catastrophe: Ship carrying 1,235 metric tons of coal sinks in Sundarbans
- On Saturday, “MV Sea Horse-1”, a cargo vessel carrying 1,235 metric tons of coal, sank in the Shela River in Sundarbans.
- The incident occurred near Tambulbunia, a critical habitat for the threatened Irrawaddy dolphin and the endangered Gangetic dolphin, researcher said.
- Following Saturday’s incident, the government has suspended other ships from plying the Shela River.

Getting SMART about Wildlife Crime
- SMART technology has helped wildlife rangers and managers in various countries improve their efficiency by tracking and analyzing signs of noteworthy or illegal activities observed during patrols.
- Using this data, SMART lets managers assess current threats, locate crime hotspots, focus limited resources and adapt enforcement approaches, making frontline conservation more effective.
- It empowers rangers, managers and law enforcement to improve governance and help conserve threatened species such as saolas, okapis, elephants, dolphins and tigers.

Hong Kong’s pink dolphins could disappear due to airport expansion and bridge construction
- Proposed expansion of the Hong Kong airport and ongoing construction of bridge from Hong Kong to Macau could severely threaten pink dolphin populations in Hong Kong waters, conservationists say.
- Pink dolphin (or Chinese white dolphin) numbers in Hong Kong waters have dropped from 158 in 2003 to around 60 now, according to experts.
- To offset impacts of the construction projects, Hong Kong government plans to create a marine park for the dolphins, but conservationists think that such a reactive approach may not be effective.

Preservatives from cosmetics build up in the bodies of far-flung marine mammals
- Scientists have detected parabens, a common cosmetic preservative, in marine mammals from coastal areas of the United States.
- The chemical concentrations were highest in coastal animals like dolphins and sea otters, but also showed up in polar bears in remote regions.
- Researchers don’t yet know how toxic these chemicals are, but parabens can disrupt hormones in the body.

After the NGOs: can Wakatobi National Park survive on its own?
- The island paradise of Wakatobi is a trailblazer among Indonesia’s 23 national marine parks.
- Park guards and local communities have been well-trained to protect the park, and they have the backing of the local regent.
- The scaling back of NGO seed funding for the park, however, raises questions about its well-being going forward.

BP oil spill may be causing failed pregnancies in dolphins
- During a health assessment of bottlenose dolphins in 2011 following BP oil spill, researchers found that 10 of 32 sampled dolphins were pregnant.
- Researchers monitored the dolphins for next four years and found that only two produced viable calves.
- Researchers even observed one female dolphin pushing her dead baby in the water.

Dolphins caught in fishing nets: to eat or not to eat?
- Small-scale fishermen and women in West African fishing communities commonly treat accidentally caught dolphins as an opportunistic source of food, according to a recent study
- Cultural differences often govern consumption patterns of dolphin meat, the study found.
- Protecting dolphins in the region would require protection of fish stocks in the West African waters and prevention of overfishing by industrial fishing vessels from developed countries, researchers said.

Sundarbans still reeling from effects of December oil spill

Emergency research finds devastating impacts of oil spill in the world’s largest mangrove forest A crocodile wades into oil-tainted waters in the Sundarbans. Photo by: Arati Kumar-Rao. Last month, an estimated 350,000 liters of fuel oil spilled into the Sundarbans delta on the Bay of Bengal. An oil tanker that had collided with a cargo […]
Gold mining expanding rapidly along Guiana Shield, threatening forests, water, wildlife

Land cleared for mines spotted by innovative mapping technology Gold mining is on the rise in the Guiana Shield, a geographic region of South America that holds one of the world’s largest undisturbed tract of rainforest. Mining is a key driver of forest cover change, and while deforestation rates from mining remain lower overall in […]
Saving the survivor: China scrambles to keep the finless porpoise from extinction

On the morning of July 14, 2002 Qi Qi ate breakfast as he always did. As the world’s only captive baiji – or Yangtze river dolphin (Lipotes vexillifer) – Qi Qi was something of a celebrity in China and his caretakers kept a close eye on his health. That care may explain why, after being […]
Photos: Japanese fishermen slaughter 41 dolphins, capture 52 in ‘The Cove’

Taiji fisherman capturing a bottlenose dolphin. Photo courtesy of Sea Shepherd The annual dolphin hunt in Taiji, Japan ended on Monday with dozens being slaughtered for meat and captured for sale to amusement parks, reports Sea Shepherd, an ocean activist group that campaigns against the practice and released photos documenting the weekend’s harvest. Last week […]
Dolphins, bats and the evolution of echolocation

A dolphin swimming through the world’s oceans after fish, and a bat flying through the air with its membranous wings to catch insects or eat fruit: at first glance, it looks like no two creatures could be more different. But it turns out they share a superpower – they hunt prey by emitting high-pitched sounds […]
DNA tests reveal new dolphin species (photos)

With the help of DNA tests, scientists have declared a new dolphin species that dwells off the coast of northern Australia. The discovery was made after a team of researchers looked at the world’s humpback dolphins (in the genus Sousa), which sport telltale humps just behind their dorsal fins. While long-known to science, the new, […]
Fishermen illegally killing dolphins for shark-bait in Peru (video)

Peruvian fishermen slaughtered dolphins to use as bait for shark fishing, an undercover investigation has revealed. Footage showed infant and adult dolphins being harpooned then stabbed and clubbed before, in some cases, being cut open and butchered while still alive. The slaughtered dolphins were cut up and used as bait. Dolphins are also killed for […]
Photo: Pod of 100,000 dolphins spotted off California coast

Photo of the ‘super mega-pod’ by Antonio Ramirez, a passenger aboard the Hornblower Cruise that spotted the dolphins last Thursday. A ‘super mega-pod’ of some 100,000 dolphins was spotted off the coast of San Diego last week, according to a report from NBC San Diego. The giant pod of common dolphins (Delphinus delphis) was sighted […]
Save Lolita: new film urges release of captive killer whale

The 3rd Annual New York Wildlife Conservation Film Festival (WFCC.org) runs from January 30 – February 2, 2013. Ahead of the event, Mongabay.com is running a series of Q&As with filmmakers and presenters. For more interviews, please see our WCFF feed. Through his new 90-second PSA, Save Lolita, filmmaker Daniel Azarian wanted to connect people […]
Photos: emperor penguins take first place in renowned wildlife photo contest

This was the image Paul had been so hoping to get: a sunlit mass of emperor penguins charging upwards, leaving in their wake a crisscross of bubble trails. The location was near the emperor colony at the edge of the frozen area of the Ross Sea, Antarctica. It was into the only likely exit hole […]
Maui’s dolphins still in danger of extinction despite New Zealand’s protective measures

Hector’s dolphin, the parent species of the Maui’s dolphin. Photo by: James Shook. The New Zealand government’s recent efforts to protect the world’s smallest dolphin have come under scrutiny from various conservation organizations at the 64th meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC). There are only 55 Maui dolphins (Cephalorhynchus hectori maui) now found on […]
Indonesia green news roundup: Indonesia’s dolphin circuses are haven for abuse

Fires rage in Indonesia’s Tesso Nilo National Park. Indonesia is a haven for dolphin abuse The Jakarta Animal Aid Network (JAAN) asked the government to shut down a dolphin traveling circus because they are abusing animals. JAAN said that when traveling from one city to another, the dolphins often only covered with Vaseline or a […]
Deepwater Horizon oil spill may have played role in dolphin deaths

Researcher with dead dolphin calf. Photo courtesy of the University of Central Florida. In the first four months of 2011, 186 bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) were found dead in the Gulf of Mexico, nearly half of them dolphin calves many of whom were perinatal, or near birth. Researchers now believe a number of factors may […]
BP Deepwater Horizon deformities: eyeless shrimp, clawless crabs

BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill as seen from space. Photo by: NASA’s Terra Satellite. Two years after the BP-leased Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, killing eleven and causing an oil spill that lasted three months, scientists say the impacts on the Gulf ecosystem are only beginning to come to light […]
World’s smallest dolphin: only 55 left, but continue to drown in nets

Hector’s dolphin is the parent species of the subspecies Maui’s dolphin. Both are only found in New Zealand. Photo by: Bigstock. The world’s smallest dolphin is also the closest to extinction. New Zealand government figures show that Maui’s dolphin (Cephalorhynchus hectori maui) are down to just 55 mature individuals, falling from 111 in 2005. The […]
Amazon.com stops selling whale meat

Amazon Japan, a subsidiary of Amazon.com, pulled all whale meat products (and possibly dolphin meat) from its site after a new report by the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) and the Humane Society International highlighted the issue. Last December the organizations recorded 147 whale products on sale at Amazon Japan despite an international whaling moratorium since […]
New sanctuaries declared for Asia’s freshwater dolphins

Ganges River dolphin in the Sundarbans. Photo by: Rubaiyat Mansur. Bangladesh has declared three new sanctuaries to help protect the south Asian river dolphin (Platanista gangetica) in the Sundarbans, the world’s largest mangrove forest. Split into two subspecies, the Ganges River dolphin (Platanista gangetica gangetica) and the Irrawaddy River dolphin (Platanista gangetica minor), the new […]
87 marine mammals still eaten by people

Local fishers in Brazzaville in the Republic of Congo with a butchered Atlantic humpback dolphin, a West African endemic that has been extirpated from much of its range as fisheries decline and people shift to other sources of protein. Photo by: Tim Collins. Threats to marine mammals usually include climate change, drowning as by-catch, pollution, […]
Featured video: tuna industry bycatch includes sea turtles, dolphins, whales
WARNING: video is graphic. A Greenpeace video, using footage from a whistleblower, shows disturbing images of the tuna industry operating in the unregulated waters of the Pacific Ocean. Using fish aggregation devices (FADs) and purse seine nets, the industry is not only able to catch entire schools of tuna, including juvenile, but whatever else is […]
New species of bottlenose discovered in Australia (PHOTO)

Researchers have discovered a new species of dolphin in Australia, reports ABC News. Analysis of bottlenose dolphins in Port Philip and the Gippsland Lakes in Southeastern Australia revealed them to be declared a new species. “This is an incredibly fascinating discovery as there have only been three new dolphin species formally described and recognised since […]
Sowing the seeds to save the Patagonian Sea

The coastline of the ‘Patagonian Sea’ covered with seabirds and seals. Photo by: W. Conway. Claudio Campagna will be speaking at the Wildlife Conservation Network Expo in San Francisco on October 1st, 2011. With wild waters and shores, the Patagonia Sea is home to a great menagerie of marine animals: from penguins to elephants seals, […]
India plans to aid dwindling Ganges River dolphin

The Indian government has announced that it plans to develop a program to raise the population of its native Ganges river dolphin (Platanista gangetica gagnetica), a subspecies of the South Asian river dolphin. During a question and answer session Jairam Ramesh, India’s Environment and Forests Minister, said that the dolphin’s current population was estimated at […]
Dead baby dolphins washing ashore in Gulf of Mexico

Every year a few baby dolphins in the Gulf don’t make it and are found on the shores of the Gulf, but this year something is different. To date, 24 baby dolphins have been found dead in Alabama and Georgia, some are stillborn, others aborted fetuses. Researchers, who say death-toll is ten times the average, […]
Japanese making themselves sick with dolphin hunt

Japan’s dolphin hunt of Dall’s porpoise (Phocoenoides dalli) could be making people sick, according to a new study by the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) and Campaign Whale. The controversial hunt, which kills some 15,000 dolphins annually, produces cheap meat-for-consumption that on average contains over double Japan’s limit on mercury contamination. “We are very concerned that […]
Island nation announces Ukraine-sized sanctuary for whales and dolphins

Dolphins, whales, and dugongs will be safe from hunting in the waters surrounding the Pacific nation of Palau. At the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in Nagoya, Japan, Palau’s Minister of the Environment, Natural Resources and Tourism, Harry Fritz, announced the establishment of a marine mammal sanctuary covering over 230,000 square miles (600,000 square kilometers) […]
Will we ever know the full wildlife toll of the BP oil spill?

Will we ever know the full wildlife toll of the BP oil spill? The short answer: no. The gruesome photos that are making the media rounds over the last week of oiled birds, fish, and crustaceans are according to experts only a small symbol of the ecological catastrophe that is likely occurring both in shallow […]
Wildlife death toll from BP oil spill likely includes dolphins

The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is taking its toll on the region’s wildlife: brown pelicans, sea turtles, several species of fish, and now dolphins have been found dead. The National Marine Fisheries Service reported today finding six dead dolphins in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama since May 2nd. Officials are saying the deaths […]
Killer whales split into three separate species

Using genetic evidence scientists have discovered that the world’s killer whales, also known as orcas (Orcinus orca), likely represent at least three separate species. Scientists have long thought that there may in fact be more than one species of killer whales due to behavior difference, small physical differences, and the animals’ primary food source: fish […]
Slaughter of dolphins and whales begins in cove made famous by film
Japan Probe reports that the annual dolphin slaughter by fishermen in the Japanese town of Taiji has begun. The hunt was delayed by the presence of Japanese and foreign press in the cove during the first days when the hunt was supposed to begin. Japan Probe states that thirteen boats left the harbor at 5:30 […]
No killing yet as season begins for dolphin slaughter made famous by The Cove
Due to the new documentary The Cove, the town of Taiji, Japan is suddenly famous, or perhaps more aptly, infamous. Winner of the documentary award at the Sundance Film Festival, the film uncovers a cove in Taiji where over two thousand dolphins are slaughtered every year due to the billion dollar dolphin entertainment industry. Their […]
Oil spill off Australia potential ‘disaster’ for marine wildlife

Ganges River Dolphin population falls below 300, faces new threat from oil exploration

The Ganges River Dolphin faces a high risk of extinction in India’s Brahmaputra river system unless critical habitat is protected, report conservationists. Once abundant in the Ganges and Brahmaputra river systems in India and Bangladesh, the population of the Ganges River Dolphins has fallen sharply over the past century due to accidental bycatch by fishermen, […]
New Australian dolphin spits at food
Only recognized as a new species in 2005, the snubfin dolphin has been observed spitting jet streams of water at schools of fish. Spitting at the fish helps the dolphins round them up into groups where they are easier to catch. The odd behavior described by Lydia Gibson of WWF, Australia, has only been seen […]
Study confirms that sonar can cause deafness in dolphins
A new study in Biology Letters confirms what marine biologists have long suspected: loud sonar can cause temporary deafness in dolphins, possibly explaining some mass strandings. The study, using a captive dolphin in a controlled experiment, found that sonar at high prolonged levels could even lead to slight behavioral changes. The researchers subjected a captive-born […]
New species of river dolphin discovered in the Amazon

New species of river dolphin discovered in the Amazon New species of river dolphin discovered in the Amazon mongabay.com April 30, 2008 Researchers have identified a new species of river dolphin in the Bolivian Amazon according to the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society (WDCS). The announcement was made at a conservation workshop in Santa Cruz […]
A farewell to the Yangtze’s ghost, the Baiji
- The Baiji, the Yangtze River dolphin, was officially declared ‘functionally extinct’ this month.
- The Baiji is survived by other river dolphins, all themselves threatened.

Feeds: news | india | latam | brasil | indonesia