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The Potomac River has had an unfortunate history of pollution but conservation efforts have certainly paid off. For the first time since sightings were recorded in the late 1800s, bottlenose dolphins have been spotted swimming in the Potomac! As the Washington Post reported, in 2015, scientists identified about 200 individuals in one section of river […]
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Hurricane Dorian’s ripple effects are still being felt – especially when it comes to the pets and wild animals that also found themselves in the path of the storm. Our partners the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) are on the ground in the Bahamas and partnering with other key stakeholders helping to save the […]
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Last week Virgin Group founder Richard Branson announced in a blog post that Virgin Holidays will end the sales and promotion of tourism attractions that involve captive cetaceans, such as whales and dolphins. Branson stated that “We felt strongly this was the right thing to do and we knew most of our customers supported it, […]
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For tourists visiting Hawaii, a swim with wild Hawaiin spinner dolphins (or “naia” in the Hawaiian language) has traditionally been a popular attraction. However, growing awareness of how human interaction can harm wild dolphins has encouraged regulators to enact protections for the charismatic marine mammals. As Bloomberg reported, “National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration officials are […]
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In 2016 the National Aquarium in Baltimore made a decision to retire its 7 dolphins and move them to a yet-to-be-built seaside sanctuary in Florida or the Caribbean. The decision was made after a change in public sentiment regarding captive whales and dolphins occurred in part due to the 2013 documentary film Blackfish. However, fast-forward […]
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In the past two weeks, 6 dolphins have become stranded on Southern California beaches and have left animal rescue organizations puzzled as to why. As the Pacific Marine Mammal Center said, this is a drastic uptick in stranded animals as during this time last year they only responded to one incident of a stranded dolphin. The LA […]
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As part of their challenge to bar the government from drilling for oil and gas off the southeastern coast, a coalition of environmental groups asked a federal judge in South Carolina to force the government to suspend seismic airgun blast testing, which are used to deposits of oil and gas under the sea floor, until the case can be fully heard in court. They are challenging the government’s permits, which would allow for the drilling to harm and even possibly kill of a number of marine mammals, including the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale, which is on the verge of extinction.
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The red tide that tormented the coast of Florida was extremely deadly for marine wildlife. The Miami Herald Tribune reported that the Florida Department of Fish and Game attributed the deaths of 589 sea turtles and 213 manatee deaths to this episode of red tide, which began in late 2017. And the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported it had killed 127 bottlenose dolphins as of Dec. 20 (when the government shutdown began), leading the agency to declare an unusual mortality event. And that is not counting the tons of dead fish that washed ashore.
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