Unusually large numbers of dolphins and whales are washing up on the beaches of the northern Gulf of Mexico for the third year in a row. January and February, 2013 begin the fourth calendar year of the unusual mortality event which started in March 2010. Baby dolphins continue to be especially hard hit. Scientists continue to study what might be causing the high mortality but they haven't yet determined the cause.
Cetacean strandings January 1 - Feb 17, 2013
Under the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972 (as amended), an Unusual Mortality Event (UME) has been declared for dolphins and whales (cetaceans) in the northern Gulf of Mexico (Texas/ Louisiana border through Franklin County, FL) from February 2010 through the present.
These numbers are preliminary and may be subject to change. As of February 17, 2013, the UME involves 865 Cetacean "strandings" in the Northern Gulf of Mexico (5% stranded alive and 95% stranded dead).
Something happened in 2010 that put red streaks in the water. However, the event apparently began shortly before the red streaks appeared, confounding scientists.
The investigation is ongoing and no definitive cause has yet been identified for the increase in cetacean strandings in the northern Gulf from 2010 to the present.
Are there any preliminary results available at this time for the current UME?
• Many of the stranded animals are too decomposed for complete testing. Only 17% of the animals that stranded have been alive or freshly dead.
• Historically, the two most common causes of unusual mortality events are morbillivirus and marine biotoxins; for example, red tide. Results so far do not point to these as primary causes of deaths in this Unusual Mortality Event.
• Brucella, a bacterium associated with flu-like symptoms in humans, has been identified in some bottlenose dolphins that stranded in the northern Gulf since the start of the UME. In total, 13 of 56 dolphins tested to date were either positive or suspect positive for Brucella.
• At this time, Brucella is a common thread in some of the Unusual Mortality Event animals, particularly the perinates, but does not account for all deaths.
• Prior to this event, Brucella has not been associated with Unusual Mortality Events in marine mammals in the United States.
• There is a need to assess how long Brucella has been in the Gulf, how long has it caused dolphin illness in the Gulf of Mexico and why northern Gulf of Mexico dolphins might be more susceptible to severe infections.
• On land, Brucella can infect cattle, goats, dogs, and pigs and lead to illness, including abortions.
• The Center for Disease Control reports that brucellosis in people is rare in the United States, with approximately 100-200 cases per year. Brucella exposure has been found in many marine mammals throughout the world, and it is not clear how easily marine Brucella can infect people.
• Please see the CDC website for more information and the NMFS Marine Mammal Brucella factsheet [pdf].
• The role of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill on stranding rates, diseases, and the death of dolphins during this Unusual Mortality Event remains under investigation.
• Sample and data collection continue and new analyses of samples and data are under way.
Very cold weather and cold water may have played a role in starting the mass mortality event in early 2010. Very cold weather may have played a role in the late winter and early spring 2011 mass mortality. However, we are beginning the 4th late winter and early spring of mass mortality. Unusual cold cannot explain the continuation of this mass mortality event into a third and fourth January and February.
Bottlenose dolphins in the northern Gulf of Mexico were hit by a triple whammy of events, leading to an unusually high death rate in early 2011, a paper published in PLoS ONE suggests1.
Between January and April 2011, 186 bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) washed ashore in the northern Gulf of Mexico. Of these, 86 were near-term or newborn, nearly double the historical average. Dolphin deaths are being monitored by an ongoing Unusual Mortality Event (UME) survey, which began in response to high numbers of adult dolphins dying during a period of sustained cold weather in early 2010.
The PLoS ONE study suggests that the cold weather was the first of three factors that weakened the dolphin population and contributed to the high death rate.
Research shows that total cetacean mortality may be 50 times more than the observed strandings because most of the deaths happen well offshore and the carcasses never make it to shore.
A NOAA spokeswoman said the agency is looking at the new data, but that it has always pointed out that the true number of dead mammals is much higher than what washes onshore. “We’ve been saying for a long time, a lot of marine mammals die in the ocean that we never will see.”
There are many reasons for this, but mostly because sea mammals this size that die are quickly consumed by other predator fish or sink to the bottom of the ocean. As Michael Jasny explains in a previous blog, determining what caused these deaths is a not easy. The results of a special federal investigation into dolphin deaths could take many months or years.
Baby dolphins have been particularly hard hit by this mortality event.
Apparently, neonates and the very young are extremely sensitive to the causal agent.
MARTIN: Now just to recap-when your team did the survey in 2010, parents were reporting that their kids suffered some serious effects like depression, sleep disorders, some behavioral problems. I wanted to ask if these conditions have abated at all or are they continuing?
REDLENER: This is the key question and as it turns out we are right now in the middle of a study to take another look at how the families are faring, not only in the coasts of Louisiana and Mississippi but also into the coasts of Alabama and Florida. And the field teams are out there right now talking to families every day and the preliminary results are, you know, this is obviously - I just want to emphasize - it's anecdotal; it's not analyzed.
But there is a strong impression by our field interviewers that both mental health and physical health concerns continue to be a problem for families in the Gulf, especially with children.
MARTIN: Talking about the physical conditions that you talked about, you talked at the time, when we first spoke about this, that kids were experiencing, you know, coughing, wheezing, rashes. And I understand, again, that this is, again, anecdotal evidence. You've just gone back into the field, your teams have. But what are you hearing on that score?
REDLENER: Well, we're hearing that something in the order of one in five to one in six children, so far, are being reported as having worsened symptoms of wheezing and coughing, and some rashes and things of that nature. And obviously we're going to have to really get into the data and analyze this information. But the fact of the matter is, there's every reason to believe that we're going to find a persistent problem with the physical ailments that parents were concerned about a year out.
A Hidden Crisis Festers
For months following the onset of the disaster, she says, there was an oil smell outside their home and “a constant cloudiness, like a haze, but it wasn’t fog.” Her 6-year-old daughter Brooklyn’s asthma got worse, and she now has constant upper respiratory infections. “Once it goes away, it comes right back,” Nicole explains.
Before the spill, Elizabeth, 9, was her “well kid.” But now Elizabeth constantly suffers from rashes, allergies, inflamed sinuses, sore throat and an upset stomach.
Nicole stares at me and catches her breath; she apologizes for the tears that flow down her face. “It’s a touchy subject,” she says. “They are just tired. Tired of being sick.”
William worked from June to October 2010 as part of the Vessels of Opportunity program that paid the fishermen BP put out of business to use their boats to clean up its oil. William transported giant bags, called bladders, used to collect oil, to the shore. When he came home at night, says Nicole, his clothes “smelled oily.” Not only were his clothes blackened; so was William.
William’s symptoms began with coughing, then headaches and skin rashes, followed by vomiting and diarrhea. About three to six months later, he started bleeding from his ears and nose and suffering from a heavy cough.
“I ain’t got no money for a doctor,” William quietly tells me, staring down at his hands in his lap. Medicaid covers the kids, but Nicole and William do not have health insurance. “We didn’t know we were gonna get sick. Now I get sick, I stay sick. I don’t sleep. I stay stressed out more than anything. I got bags under my eyes I never had before. I just don’t know if I wanna show people who I am.”
When questioned by a National Geographic reporter
NOAA's principal investigator studying the health of dolphins in Barataria Bay admitted that the unusual unwellness of the dolphins was consistent with the known toxic effects of oil spills.
Bottlenose dolphins in oil-contaminated Barataria Bay off the coast of Louisiana are showing signs of serious illness, including extremely low weight, anemia, low blood sugar, and some symptoms of liver and lung disease, according to a health assessment conducted by U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) scientists and their partners.
The scientists, who performed comprehensive physicals last summer on 32 dolphins from the bay, also found that half of the tested dolphins showed abnormally low levels of hormones that regulate stress response, metabolism, and immune function, indicating adrenal insufficiency. One of the dolphins in the survey was found dead on Grand Isle in January.
Lori Schwacke of NOAA, the project's lead investigator, said the findings were preliminary and could not be conclusively linked to the oil spill. But she added that control groups of dolphins living along the Atlantic coast and in other areas that were not affected by the 2010 spill did not manifest those symptoms.
"The findings that we have are consistent with other studies that have looked at the effects of oil exposure in other mammals," she said.
The third day of the BP trial will be covered by Lorinda Pike today. Yesterday she reported on the testimony of retired U.C. Berkeley engineering professor and former Shell oil petroleum engineer Dr. Robert Bea.
Bea said during the second day of the spill’s civil trial that he would characterize BP’s failures in overseeing the Macondo well project as “tragic, egregious.”
“It’s a classic failure of management and leadership in BP,” Bea testified.
Bea said he had warned BP to look for problems.
“I called it being afraid,” he said. He later added, “Unfortunately, the message apparently didn’t get through.”
Speak up to use BP's fines for Gulf restoration at Florida's only public meeting.
Thursday, February 28
Florida – 6:00 PM CST
Student Union East Conference Center, Gulf Coast State College, 5230 W. U.S. 98, Panama City Beach, FL
Hold BP accountable petition action link.
Dolphins across the northern Gulf of Mexico have been dying in high numbers for an unprecedented thirty-three months in a row.
And, in a section of the Louisiana coast that was badly affected by the BP oil spill, dolphins are suffering from anemia, low hormone levels, low blood sugar, and signs of liver damage.
But even as dolphins are struggling, BP continues to avoid paying the money it owes for violating multiple federal laws--money that would help restore the Gulf and its wildlife.
In fact, recent media reports indicate BP might be trying to settle for less than half of what the company could face if brought to trial.
Take Action! Help dolphins in the Gulf by editing and sending a message to the Department of Justice, urging them to hold BP fully accountable for the oil spill.