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Playoff Hopes Still Alive With One Week to Play I facetiously told a friend ago that I had a better chance of nabbing a Pulitzer Prize than the Texans had of making the playoffs after losing their fourth in a row and falling to 5-7 a few weeks back. But after watching how the stars have seemingly lined-up perfectly in favor of the Texans over the past few weeks, maybe a trip to Columbia University during the month of May just might be in the cards for me after all someday.

Monterey Bay researchers say dolphins are causing porpoise deaths For the past five years, the growing number of dead harbor porpoises washing up on California shores has been a marine mystery — until now. In September, marine biologists with Okeanis, a nonprofit conservation group based in Moss Landing, captured the only video footage taken in Monterey Bay of bottlenose dolphins attacking and killing a porpoise. Scientists suspected dolphins, which have a relatively docile reputation, have been attacking the smaller porpoises because the porpoises have been washing up on the shore with rake marks and internal bleeding, but they never had...

Many species of marine creatures are very well suited to their watery environment, with precisely arranged gas exchange organs, properly angled eyeball parts, and streamlined bodies with appropriate musculature for expert swimming. They also have a continuously sloughing slime layer that lubricates their underwater motion. Rahul Ganguli of Teledyne Scientific in California is experimenting with ways to provide a similar slime for ship hulls to glide through water more efficiently...

Thought the Dolphins were done adding celebrities to their ownership group? Apparently not yet. The Dolphins are working on a deal to bring Fergie on as a limited partner, and NFL owners during their meeting in Boston on Tuesday approved the Black Eyed Peas' singer as a potential owner.

Within 12 months, the Japanese were killing more than 40,000 dolphins every year. Most were fed to children in school meals, with the rest being exported to China. Ironically, recent scientific research suggests that the Japanese authorities might be endangering the health of their own children through this practice. Dolphin meat is full of toxic mercury, cadmium, DDT and carcinogens such as dioxins and PCBs. Some cuts of dolphin meat have more than 5,000 times the safe level of mercury. Such levels can very quickly lead to severe nervous system problems and even insanity. The dolphin meat is so toxic...

For years, millions of people were enamoured of the anthropomorphic antics of our title character, a bottle-nosed female dolphin named Flipper. Everyone, that is, except the talented though hapless actor who played the father of the boys. He began to phone me, usually after midnight. “Why do they make me out to be a blithering idiot? An incompetent? Why do I always have to be a boob, huh, tell me that?" “I've kept track," he wailed. “We've shot nearly a hundred episodes and in 99 per cent of them I have to ask the bloody dolphin, ‘Where are the boys,...

Two Miami Dolphin cornerbacks will miss tonight’s preseason game against the Carolina Panthers because they are suspected of having swine flu. At first, the word from sources was that Sean Smith and Jason Allen definitely have the swine flu. But once The Miami Herald broke the story, the team flak moved in for some damage control, saying that the players were still undergoing tests to determine the actual diagnosis. And even when that diagnosis is confirmed, said spokesman Harvey Greene, it will not be released to the public. But that’s ok because apparently there are plenty of sources on the...

Miami Dolphins Cheerleaders Unveil 2010 Swimsuit Calendar August 7, 2009   By Andy Kent MiamiDolphins.com Friday night on South Beach got about as hot as it could get - literally and figuratively when the 2009 Miami Dolphins Cheerleaders took to the runway in the courtyard of Casa Casuarina, formerly the Versace Mansion, for a fashion show and the unveiling of the 2010 Miami Dolphins Cheerleaders Swimsuit Calendar.   Monica Mason, Johanna Torres, Amy Madill and Fabiola Romero graced the cover of the new calendar and none of them knew that until the cover was unfurled from the balcony above...

Dolphins Discovered Fleeing Warming Tropical Waters Pod of dolphins observed fleeing tropical waters, which have warmed to dangerous levels in recent years. (Miami, Florida) Marine researchers who have been observing the same pod of dolphins off Florida's eastern coast for three years have now, for the first time, photographed the dolphins swimming directly northward. "These bottlenose dolphins, possibly the smartest creatures on Earth, were observed swimming directly northward", said Prof. Bonita Krillman. "Given the recently observed warming of the tropical oceans, we theorize that this pod is heading poleward in search of cooler waters". Underwater listening devices, used to pick...

Sharks are to be trained like dolphins to feed from keepers and even roll over and have their tummies tickled. Brave keepers at British aquariums will use the techniques after research showed they responded well to tuition. Experts hope the training will reduce stress levels for the captive beasts. The UK's Sea Life Centres are to begin a period of intensive tuition by using coloured boards and sounds to train the sharks in a similar way that scientist Ivan Pavlov trained his dogs. Sharks - superorder Selachimorpha in Latin - learn the signals and then when they see or hear...

Adult tucuxi dolphins have been seen trying to kill a newborn calf of their own species. It is the first record of these dolphins attempting infanticide. Although common in many mammal species, infanticide is rarely recorded among cetaceans, the group of animals that includes whales and dolphins. Until now, the behaviour has only been reported twice in bottlenose dolphins; but the new episode suggests it may be more widespread than was thought. Tucuxi dolphins (Sotalia guianensis) live either in the freshwater of the Amazonian basin, or in the ocean off the coast of Brazil to Nicaragua.

You may or may not have seen this before, but it is pretty neat. The video is on site. Dolphins create bubble rings by blowing air in a water vortex ring: by flipping a fin they create a vortex ring of water. The then blow air in the ring, which goes to the center of the vortex ring. In the water vortex ring the natural location of the air is in the center of the vortex. When air and water move in a circular path like they do in the vortex ring, air and water are separated due to the...

Dolphins' secret underwater language has intrigued generations of scientists, but no one has come close to cracking the code to understanding their mysterious sounds - until now. A British acoustics engineer claims he may be close to deciphering the clicks and whistles that make up "dolphin speak". In a lab in his Cumbrian cottage, John Stuart Reid showed me his Cymascope, a new invention which transforms sounds into pictures. He explained the principle behind it using sand, a brass plate and a violin bow. "You see what happens when we bring the bow down the side of the plate," he...

Dolphins are fantastic sea chefs who have mastered the art of rustling up a soft meal of calamari, say scientists. The intelligent sea mammals have been spotted going through precise and elaborate preparations to rid cuttlefish of ink and bone to produce a soft meal of calamari. Australian researchers observed one wild female Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin The research team, writing in the science journal PLoS One, said they repeatedly observed a female dolphin herding cuttlefish out of algal weed and onto a clear, sandy patch of seafloor. The dolphin, identified using circular body scars, then pinned the cuttlefish with its...

The survivors of a group of dolphins living in a New Jersey river have returned after briefly heading toward the sea. Three of the five dolphins returned to the Shrewsbury River after they were spotted Saturday in Sandy Hook Bay. The Marine Mammal Stranding Centre says they were apparently frightened by construction noise near the bay. Four dolphins tried to cross again Sunday but turned back, although it wasn't clear why. Three dolphins had been confirmed dead out of the original group of 16 that spent the summer and fall in the Shrewsbury and Navesink rivers. Authorities don't know what...

New research has shown how dolphins achieve their blinding speeds. Gray's Paradox - named after British zoologist Sir James Gray - proposed that dolphins simply do not have the strength to swim so fast. But researchers at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in the US have now studied the movement of water around dolphins as they swim. The results show that dolphins can exert as much as 180kg (400lb) of force with their tails...The short answer is that dolphins are simply much stronger than Gray or many other people ever imagined."

The museum area of the Institute for Marine Mammal Studies features interactive displays for learning about marine life at the new facility in Gulfport. Marine Life post Hurricane Katrina New research, rehab facility features museum GULFPORT -- Dolphin lovers at the Institute for Marine Mammal Studies are flipping over their new state-of-the-art museum and research facility expected to open in the next few weeks. IMMS President Dr. Moby Solangi, a marine biologist who spent more than two decades working with dolphins at Marine Life Oceanarium, said the new 12-acre Center for Marine Education and Research will open as soon...

<p>Dolphins owner H. Wayne Huizenga said Sunday no date has been set for selling up to 45 percent more of the team to Stephen Ross, but the presidential election is among the issues weighing on his decision.</p> <p>That's because a Barack Obama administration is expected to mean higher capital-gains taxes.</p>

New Zealand dolphin rescued stranded whales Last Updated: 6:10pm GMT 12/03/2008 A dolphin led a pair of stranded whales to safety on Monday after all efforts by a human rescuer had failed. Mr Smith said he was 'not aware dolphins could communicate with pygmy sperm whales' The pygmy sperm whales, a 10ft female and her 7ft male calf, were seen to be in trouble off a New Zealand beach. They appeared to have become confused by a sandbar near the beach and could not find their way back to open water. Conservation Officer Malcolm Smith was called to Mahia beach,...

SAN DIEGO The Navy has resumed sonar training off the coast of Southern California despite the continuing legal battle over how the exercises affect whales and other marine mammals. The training by the carrier strike group of the USS Abraham Lincoln is part of a broader exercise to prepare the group for deployment, the Navy said in a news release. During the exercises, which began Wednesday and were scheduled to last through February 1, sailors train in anti-submarine warfare, ocean security operations and other areas. The anti-submarine warfare exercises use mid-frequency active sonar that environmentalists say hurts whales and other...

So, scientists find the dead bodies of dozens of dolphins and baby porpoises near Miami, Florida and across the pond along Scotland’s East Coast. These aquatic mammals where literally beaten to death with multiple internal injuries, lacerations, contusions and the like. Back in 1997 the whole C.S.I. treatment was given these animals and guess who these scientists first blamed? You guessed it, the United States Military. It turns out, however, that scientists have now realized that it is the “smartest” fishie on earth that is responsible. Yes, they were surprised to discover that dolphins are outright murderers. So much for...

Killer dolphins baffle marine experts By Nigel Blundell Last Updated: 12:01pm GMT 25/01/2008 It's hard to visualise but the intelligent and ever-friendly dolphin can also be a determined killer. New evidence has been compiled by marine scientists that prove the normally placid dolphin is capable of brutal attacks both on innocent fellow marine mammals and, more disturbingly, on its own kind. Film taken of gangs of dolphins repeatedly ramming baby porpoises, tossing them in the air and pursuing them to the death has solved a long-term mystery of what causes the death of so many of these harmless mammals -...

The Miami Dolphins today named Jeff Ireland as their new general manager, effective immediately. Ireland joins the Dolphins after a seven-year stint with the Dallas Cowboys, including the past three as the team’s Vice President of College and Pro Scouting. In fact, of the 53 players on the current Cowboys team, which went 13-3 and won the NFC East in 2007, 38 were acquired over the last three years, including 12 of the club’s 22 starters. “I am excited about joining the Dolphins as their general manager,” Ireland said. “I know the great tradition of the team, and in my...

What a whiner and crybaby old man is Don Shula. I mean really Don, get over it. No matter how good the Patriots do in 2007-2008 it doesnt effect how good you were. You are still as good as you were before the "perfect season" of the Pats. You are embarassing yourself and football generally by your whining about spygate, etc. PS: If your best team ever played the 2007 Pats, you would lose by 50-3. At least.

Going into Sunday December 16, two perfect streaks were intact. The New England Patriots were undefeated; the Miami Dolphins were winless. Both teams hosted their respective games, a week ahead of what was to be a head-to-head matchup. While the Patriots held up their part of the bargain, beating the Jets 20-10, the Dolphins and the Baltimore Ravens were in a struggle, and in fact, Miami had a great chance to win the game in regulation, taking a late 16-13 lead. However, on the ensuing kickoff, the Miami kicker committed the cardinal sin of kicking the ball out of bounds,...

Surfer Todd Endris needed a miracle. The shark — a monster great white that came out of nowhere — had hit him three times, peeling the skin off his back and mauling his right leg to the bone. That’s when a pod of bottlenose dolphins intervened, forming a protective ring around Endris, allowing him to get to shore, where quick first aid provided by a friend saved his life.

Sightings by marine scientists of dolphins in the north Atlantic's Bay of Biscay have dropped off by 80 percent compared to the same period in 2006, a wildlife conservation group said Wednesday. The alarming drop in numbers of the Bay's three most common species of dolphin -- the striped, bottlenose and common -- can be attributed to one or both of two causes, Clive Martin, senior wildlife officer for the Biscay Dolphin Research Programme, told AFP. "We know for a fact that by-catch is killing thousands of dolphins every year," he said, referring to commercial fishing operations in the bay,...

MIAMI -- The Miami Dolphins released quarterback Daunte Culpepper on Tuesday, ending the former Pro Bowler's short stint in South Florida and wrapping up what became a contentious split between the player and the team. The Dolphins made the move in a one-sentence release, without further comment. Miami tried for weeks to trade Culpepper, the former University of Central Florida star who was acquired by the Dolphins before the 2006 season, even though he was coming off major knee surgery. Culpepper never regained his form last year, struggling in four games before the team shut him down so he could...

MIAMI -- The Miami Dolphins released quarterback Daunte Culpepper on Tuesday, ending the former Pro Bowler's short stint in South Florida and wrapping up what became a contentious split between the player and the team. The Dolphins made the move in a one-sentence release, without further comment. Miami tried for weeks to trade Culpepper, the former Minnesota Vikings star who was acquired by the Dolphins before the 2006 season even though he was coming off major knee surgery. Culpepper never regained his form last year, struggling in four games before the team shut him down so he could continue rehabilitating...

Los Angeles (AP) -- Four dead dolphins have washed ashore with fatal bullet wounds and fifth with lacerations on its pectoral fin, said authorities who have offered a reward for information on the slayings. The long-beaked common dolphins were all discovered between Carlsbad State Beach and Oceanside Harbor between May 29 and June 5. Photos showed their normally sleek gray skin mottled and stained with blood from the bullet wounds. "It's a horrendous thing that happened," said Mark Oswell, spokesman for the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration. "That someone would go out there and shoot four dolphins." Necropsies revealed that...

Having watched their offense sputter under the direction of a pair of journeymen veterans during a three-day weekend minicamp that concluded on Sunday, the Miami Dolphins are expected this week to ramp up their efforts to complete a much-discussed trade for Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Trent Green.

Williams starting process to return to NFL By Len Pasquarelli ESPN.com Running back Ricky Williams, exiled for the entire 2006 season because of a fourth violation of the NFL substance abuse policy, has triggered the process that could end his one-year suspension and lead to his reinstatement by the league. Williams was suspended by the NFL last April 25 and spent last fall playing for the Toronto Argonauts of the CFL. In advance of the one-year anniversary of the sanctions, Williams has already requested that pertinent reports, including those from the clinician who has monitored his case and from Dr....

Knitting women unite to keep Navy dolphins warm Story Updated: Mar 2, 2007 at 5:50 PM PST By Bryan Johnson A group of women gathered Friday at the Bainbridge Island Senior Center. They are part of a knitting group growing across the United States. It only It looks like a knitting club. This is much more than knit one, purl two. This is politics. "The whole problem of putting them on the dolphins is one of the things we have to consider in the future. It's an interesting thought," said Jan Bailey, one of the knitters. The women are...

Birds not so stupid after all By Roger Highfield, Science Editor Last Updated: 1:58am GMT 22/02/2007 Birds have emerged as strong challengers to chimpanzees and dolphins for the title of our smartest rivals in the animal world, biologists at Cambridge University have concluded. Planning and worrying about the future has always been considered an exclusively human activity, but now at least one species of bird has also been found to plan. "This is the first evidence that an animal can plan for the future," said Prof Nicky Clayton, who led the research team. According to her findings, published in the...

San Diego Chargers offensive coordinator Cam Cameron has been chosen as the next head coach of the Miami Dolphins. As a 16-day, coast-to-coast search for former coach Nick Saban's replacement came to its end today, Dolphins officials concluded that Cameron indeed was their man. A news conference could come as soon as later today. Cameron, 45, will take over as the seventh head coach in the Dolphins' storied history -- and the fifth coach to lead Miami since Don Shula retired in 1995. Cameron arrived at the team's facility today with General Manager Randy Mueller at 12:40 p.m., shortly after...

MIAMI -- One day after it was announced that Nick Saban was stepping down as head coach of the Miami Dolphins to take that same job at the University of Alabama, another former Dolphins coach spoke out against the perceived injustice many Miami fans thought Saban committed by continually saying he was not interested in the job. Don Shula, who led the Dolphins to two world championships and the only perfect season in NFL history during his 26-year tenure with the team from 1970 to 1995, watched from his home on Indian Creek Island on Thursday as Saban was formally...

Once upon a time, in a Florida far, far away, the lakes were translucent lagoons, teeming with fish and fowl. The landscape was a tropical Eden, saturated with guava fruit, papaya, coconut and mangoes. And, most importantly, the football fields were filled with magnificent touchdown prances and end zone dances. These days, something awful and alarming is happening to our beloved land. The lakes now teem with slime and sludge. The landscape is covered in strip malls and T-shirt shops. And, worst of all, the football fields are barren wastelands, devoid of offensive imagination and innovation. Who unplugged our scoreboards?...

The Pittsburgh Steelers needed two big plays from unlikely sources to pull out a season-opening victory behind their backup quarterback. Maybe Miami Dolphins coach Nick Saban should be flagged for a costly delay, too. Tight end Heath Miller chugged his way down the Steelers' sideline on an 87-yard touchdown pass play midway through the fourth quarter, fill-in QB Charlie Batch's third scoring pass of the game, and the Super Bowl champions beat the Dolphins 28-17 Thursday night in the NFL's first game of the season. Only Miller didn't really score — TV replays clearly showed him stepping out between the...

Dolphins are dumber than goldfish and don't have the know-how to match a rat, but they're so pumped full of happy chemicals they probably don't care one bit, a new study suggests. For years, humans have assumed the large brains of dolphins mean the animals are highly intelligent. But a new study by Paul Manger, a brain-evolution scientist from Johannesburg's University of the Witwatersrand, suggests it wasn't intelligence that spurred the dolphin's big brain -- it was the cold. To survive underwater, warm-blooded marine animals developed brains that have a lot of insulating material, known as glia, but not too...

A lucky adolescent male bottlenose dolphin is back to living nude and free in Gulf Coast Florida's Sarasota Bay after making a potentially fatal wardrobe choice early this summer. The 10-year-old dolphin, known as Scrappy, probably owes its life to a Brookfield Zoo marine mammal research team that works year round in the bay. The drama began July 6, when a member of the team working in the bay spotted Scrappy unaccountably and uncomfortably swimming around while wearing a black, Speedo-brand man's bikini swimsuit. "He must have found the swimsuit floating in the water," said Randall Wells, a population biologist...

DAVIE, Fla. (AP) -- When the White House called with an invitation to dine with President Bush, Dan Marino took it. But the coach of his former team said no. Miami Dolphins coach Nick Saban said Monday that his obligations at training camp took priority over a chance to meet the president. "It was really a tough decision," Saban said. "I feel like my first responsibility is our team. That in no way disrespects the importance of the opportunity I would have loved to have had to spend dinner with the President." The invitation was for dinner with Bush on...

Blind since age 3, Ben Underwood skateboards, shoots hoops and plays video games. How does he do it? Just like bats and dolphins"I'm a normal kid," says Ben, who lost his sight at 3. (above, he inspects his prosthetic eyes.) Photo by: Theo RigbyThe Boy Who Sees with Sound There was the time a fifth grader thought it would be funny to punch the blind kid and run. So he snuck up on Ben Underwood and hit him in the face. That's when Ben started his clicking thing. "I chased him, clicking until I got to him, then I...

"this is exactly what we would expect for dolphin behavior... if you had hot water poured on you, you would flee, wouldn't you?"

<p>Environmentalist groups fear for the physical condition of up to 25 dolphins flying from the anarchy-torn Solomon Islands to an aquatic park in Mexico this week.</p> <p>The animals were among 200 wild dolphins captured in the Solomon Islands and held in tiny pens awaiting sale in what activists have branded "an environmental crime."</p>

Alongside the submarines, ships and airplanes participating in large-scale military exercises in the Pacific this month, a team of sea lions and dolphins are expected to patrol the sea. These marine animals will be flown in from San Diego for simulated mine recovery and mine detection during the biennial RIMPAC war games. Six bottle-nosed dolphins would find the mines, while four California sea lions would help recover them. "There are a number of mechanical systems that work to some degree in those areas, but not as well as the Navy would like them to work," said Tom Lapuzza, spokesman for...

Published online: 8 May 2006; | doi:10.1038/news060508-2 Dolphins play name game Underwater whistles give bottlenoses their own moniker. Michael Hopkin You talking to me? Click here to hear a signature name whistle from a bottlenose dolphin. © Getty We are not the only animals to give ourselves names, says research on bottlenose dolphins. The dolphins' distinctive whistles may function as individual calling cards, allowing them to recognize each other and even refer to others by name. The research reveals that bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) each have their own personalized whistle, which is recognized by other dolphins even from a synthetic...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Bottlenose dolphins can call each other by name when they whistle, making them the only animals besides humans known to recognize such identity information, scientists reported on Monday. Scientists have long known that dolphins' whistling calls include repeated information thought to be their names, but a new study indicates dolphins recognize these names even when voice cues are removed from the sound. For example, a dolphin might be expected to recognize its name if called by its mother, but the new study found most dolphins recognized names -- their signature whistles -- even when emitted without inflection...

Long after they expected and hoped, a house full of family and friends was able to let out the screams of joy that nine hours of anxiously watching the NFL Draft had bottled up. When former Palmdale High School star Derek Hagan finally saw his name on the television screen Saturday afternoon, the champagne and tears flowed freely because Hagan's lifelong dream of being an NFL player came true. With the 82nd-overall pick in the draft, the Miami Dolphins ended the extended wait for Hagan and his supporters, who all believed the Arizona State wide receiver would be selected in...

A NESSIE hunt using a team of dolphins was planned by the Tory government, according to declassified secret documents. Within days of the 1979 election, officials in Margaret Thatcher's regime proposed importing the mammals from America and fitting them with hi-tech equipment to scour Loch Ness. Despite opposition from animal rights groups, it was argued that finding the monster would benefit local tourism. A letter from Environment Department civil servant David Waymouth to Stewart Walker at the Scottish Home and Health Department, showed the Government wanted a licence to initiate the plan. It stated: "This department is presently considering the...

Miami Dolphins running back Ricky Williams might miss another season ... and this time it apparently won't be his decision. According to a broadcast report in Miami, which was later confirmed by two sources in a story posted Sunday on the Miami Herald's Web site, the Dolphins running back will be suspended for at least the entire 2006 season after failing a drug test for the fourth time in his career.