Once the unprecedented dolphin deaths in the Gulf was making front page news it took No Oil At All (NOAA) less than a nanosecond to exert their federal authority to not only bigfoot the investigation but to totally muzzle the scientists. They were not even able to report the number of dead dolphins they were finding.
Scientists have found Brucella in five out 21 dolphins that were tested. I suspect that scientists used the fact that Brucella can be transmitted to humans to pressure NOAA to release their death grip on a small amount of data.
Given NOAA's track record of being BP's enthusiastic, numero uno apologist-in-chief it is shocking that Teri Rowles, NOAA spokesperson, actually admitted in public that BP's black monster could be a contributing factor in the dolphin's deaths and that at at least one dolphin was coated with oil linked to the Macondo. However, BP should be pleased that Rowles was lightening fast to point the dolphin deaths could have been caused by something else.
Even more disturbing, is NOAA admitting that more dolphin deaths are expected. My guess is that the scientists actually doing the work had to stage a near palace revolt to get NOAA to cough up even this paltry amount of data. NOAA even went so far as to also publicly admit that many dead dolphins and whales never wash ashore so what is counted only represents a fraction of the deaths.
Louisiana State University, oceanographer Jim Cowan, is quite direct in stating that chronic toxin exposure caused the rotting fins that were seen earlier this year on snapper. He further states that he thinks BP's monster is the culprit.
As critically important this dolphin research is, it strikes me that the same level of concern is not being shown for human victims. I would find it highly doubtful that vast majority of local jurisdictions, particularly in the most seriously affected areas, would have the testing facilities or budgets to send tissue samples out to qualified labs from people who passed away who were in close contact with BP's black monster.
We already know that the living who are suffering symptoms consistent with exposure to oil and dispersant are, often as as not, receiving anything approaching qualified medical care. Sometimes have no medical care access at all. The federal government is too busy patting itself on the back thinking that they are doing everyone a huge favor by sending out written health surveys. Heaven forbid they actually do anything to see to it that BP's victims receive some actual health care.
Researchers: BP oil spill may have contributed to Gulf of Mexico dolphin deaths
Five of the more than 500 dolphins that have washed ashore dead along the Gulf Coast from Florida to Texas over the past two years died from a bacterial infection called Brucella, federal scientists announced Thursday.
And last year's Deepwater Horizon oil spill may have played a role, they said.
"The working hypothesis is that the oil negatively impacted the dolphins' immune system," said Teri Rowles, coordinator of the National Marine Mammal Health and Stranding Response Program. "It could have impaired the dolphins' ability to respond to the bacterial infection."
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They do think there are likely to be more bodies washing up.
"We don't consider this event over," Rowles said.
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Over the winter, anglers began pulling in red snapper that didn't look right. The fish had dark lesions on their skin. Many had fins rotting away, and discolored or even striped skin. Inside, they had enlarged livers, gallbladders and bile ducts.
Jim Cowan, an oceanographer at Louisiana State University who examined them, said in April, "There's no doubt it's associated with a chronic exposure to a toxin."
Cowan said he thought the toxin to be oil from the BP spill. The investigation is continuing.
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One dolphin that washed ashore last December was coated in oil that matched what spewed out of the Deepwater Horizon rig, which may be another indication that the two are connected. NOAA officials noted that only a fraction of dead dolphins and whales in the gulf wash ashore, so the actual number of deaths is almost certainly higher than what can be confirmed.
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One dolphin that washed ashore prior to the oil spill was tested, and it did not show signs of Brucella, said Stephanie Venn-Watson, a veterinary epidemiologist working with federal officials to study the deaths.
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Some dolphins in massive die-off killed by bacterial infection, NOAA says
NOAA admitted that Brucella in stranded dolphins is unprecedented anywhere in the world. NOAA's chair of the investigation has mentioned investigators will be looking into the possibility of a strengthening of the Brucella bacteria as well as the possibility of the BP's black monster having weakened the dolphin's immune systems.
Even though brucellosis is zoonotic there have been no cases of human infection caused by contact with marine mammals.
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Additional testing is underway to determine whether oil or a chemical in the oil may have left the dolphins more susceptible to the marine strain of the Brucella bacteria, which caused the brucellosis, said Dr. Teri Rowles, a veterinarian and coordinator of NOAA's National Marine Mammal Health and Stranding Response Program.
No similar large stranding event involving dolphins has been connected to the Brucella bacteria anywhere else in the world, the scientists said, although the bacteria is often found in dolphins and other marine mammals.
The oil could work in in tandem with the bacteria in one of two ways, said Dr. Stephanie Venn-Watson, a veterinary epidemiologist and chair of the working group studying what NOAA has termed an "unusual mortality event."
"The dolphins may be more susceptible to severe infection because their immune system is not working well, or the pathogen Brucella becomes stronger and thus are able to do more damage," she said.
Rowles said future tests would focus on whether key organs -- the adrenal gland, lymph node or spleen -- may have become enlarged or atrophied because of oil exposure, and not provided the dolphins with a way of fighting the disease.
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She urged residents to report to federal and state fisheries officials when they come across a stranded animal, rather than approach it themselves, to reduce the potential for the disease spreading to humans.
NOAA advises anyone who sees a stranded dolphin in the Gulf of Mexico region to call 1-877-WHALE HELP (1-877-942-5343). The stranded dolphin should not be touched, and pets should be kept away from the dolphin as well. The public should also avoid touching live dolphins in the wild.
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Two fetuses that died within the bodies of grown dolphins were killed by bacterial pneumonia caused by brucellosis. Two adult dolphins died from meningitis, a swelling of tissues around their brain, again linked to the brucella bacteria.
The third fetus had brucella in its lungs, but was killed when its mother died of meningitis. Tests on the mother's brain tissue are still underway.
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NOAA is now specifically mentioning the dispersant as being a possible contributing factor to the dolphin deaths. The chair of the dolphin death project, Stephanie Venn-Watson, doesn't seem to know which of the 16 dead dolphins that had negative brucella reports had which of their tissues tested. She says earlier that she wonders if they don't test the right organ that they may not find if Brucella is present. One would think that the head of a scientific project would not exactly what tissues were tested in which dolphins before yammering to the press.
There are other 41 dolphins who have lesions similar to those of the dolphins testing positive for Brucella. However, Venn-Watson just says that eight are being "checked" without any more specifics with and was silent what the game plan, if any, for 33 more dolphins with lesions.
Bacteria may have caused dolphin abortions, deaths
updated 10/27/2011 7:29:40 PM ET
NEW ORLEANS — A common bacteria known to cause abortions in marine mammals killed some of the hundreds of dolphins — more than 100 of them babies and fetuses — that have washed ashore in the northern Gulf of Mexico since February 2010, dolphin experts say.
What they don't know is why a germ that has been found in healthy animals and that occasionally killed single animals is now apparently causing an animal epidemic and "abortion storms" like those caused by its land-based cousins.
The deaths are continuing, said Teri Rowles of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency and Stephanie Venn-Watson, head of a group that has been studying the deaths.
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She said scientists are also looking for contaminants from oil and dispersants, though only about 15 percent of the 580 cetaceans that have stranded since February 2010 — three months before the spill began — have been fresh enough for tissue samples.
Those found before the spill were generally too decomposed to test, Venn-Watson said. She thought at least one was tested without finding Brucella, but "I really get the feeling that if we don't test the right organ we might not know if the dolphin had Brucella."
The deaths are continuing from Louisiana through the Florida panhandle, Rowles said. Texas has not had unusual numbers of dolphin deaths, said Connie Barclay, spokeswoman for NOAA.
The "unusual mortality event" has killed a few whales and more than 570 dolphins, nearly 520 of them bottlenose dolphins. They included more than 100 pups and fetuses.
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She said Brucella was found in five of 21 animals tested for it: two adults and three fetuses. It had infected the fetuses' lungs and the linings around the adults' brains, and it's possible that those tissues were not tested in at least some of the 16 in which the germ wasn't found, she said.
Venn-Watson said the bacteria identified earlier this month as Brucella are now being analyzed to see whether the same strain infected all five dolphins.
"If different strains of Brucella are infecting many different dolphins," that could indicate that the animals all had compromised immune systems, she said. "If they're all exactly the same, this could potentially be a new Brucella that is particularly good at causing disease."
Venn-Watson said the scientists are also checking eight dolphins with lesions matching those of the animals with brucellosis, and have identified another 33 with lesions of the lungs in fetuses and of the brain and central nervous system of adults.
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Bacterial infection blamed in some dolphin deaths, oil link unclear
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Officials said they were investigating any possible link between the infections and the BP oil spill.
All of the animals that tested positive for the bacteria were found along the Louisiana coast and included two adults and three fetuses. Brucellosis, the illness caused by the bacteria, is often associated with abortions in marine mammals.
The high number of stillborn dolphins found in the Gulf during the last two years prompted scientists to test for Brucella. The same family of bacteria causes illness in mammals on land, including dogs, pigs, cows and goats, according to federal officials.
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Five carcasses from Mississippi and one from Alabama have been tested for the virus, with results expected next week. Those carcasses “have lesions that are similar to those in the five that were tested positive for Brucella,” Venn-Watson said. Dolphins can spread the disease through sexual contact and from mother to calf. Some marine parasites may also transmit the bacterium.
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Tests are ongoing for other possible causes, with scientists focused on common marine mammal killers, including toxins produced by shellfish and algae, as well as morbillivirus, which is a form of measles.
Venn-Watson said the agency was not in the position “scientifically and legally” to release the results of those other tests. The Brucella finding was released due to the possible public health threat.
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