Monterey Bay researchers say dolphins are causing porpoise deaths

San Jose Mercury News ^ | 6 November 2009 | Alia Wilson

[garbanzo]

"Now we know the how, but we still are unsure of the why,"

Drugs, welfare, fatherlessness, moral decay, secularism, liberal dolphin mass media and lack of federal spending on dolphin inner cities.

[Cyber Liberty]

... dolphins, which have a relatively docile reputation ...

Tell that to the sharks.

[Chode]

[dfwgator]

This never would have happened if they hadn’t banned tuna nets.

This message brought to you by Weemsco Tuna. (”The Tuna Doesn’t Taste as Good as It Used To.”)

[Carry_Okie]

Dolphins and porpoises eat the same food (fish). It’s possible that the dolphins are eliminating their competitors, the same way humans eliminate wolves and other carnivores that eat what we want to eat.

Read the whole article. Seals and sea lions are their principal competitors and the dolphins are not attacking them.

[Carry_Okie]

The video shows a group of male dolphins using several techniques to assault a porpoise as it tries to get away. The dolphins corral the porpoise, ram it with their beaks, scrape or rake it with their teeth and drown the porpoise by jumping on top of it. The dolphins then bring the carcass up to the Okeanis researchers, watch them bring it on board and then swim away.

This research has been continuous for nearly twenty years with the same boat going out to see the same schools of dolphins. My guess is that these people have relationships with the dolphins; i.e., they probably know each other and are on friendly terms, recognizing individuals, possibly tossing an occasional fish, etc from their rather impressive (to a dolphin) watercraft.

Wouldn't it be ironic if this were some sort of induced reciprocal offering on the dolphins' part, that they were bringing food to the researchers? If the behavior is unprecedented and unique, and so is the research...

[Randy Larsen]

Crap!

My taxes are going up again to save another GD fish!