Oiled dolphin's rescue ends in death -- dolphin was crying as people rushed to save it

[nashville_brook]

http://www.nwfdailynews.com/news/saw-30310-dolphin-fort.html


Oiled dolphin's rescue ends in death (VIDEO, PHOTOS -- at link)

Pensacola News Journal


Christy Travis first saw oil splotched along the beach as she approached the surf at Fort Pickens. Then she turned and saw a bottlenose dolphin in distress. “It was heartbreaking. Everyone was crying,’’ said Travis, 41, who was visiting with her family from Arkansas when they discovered the dolphin and joined with others in attempt to save it. “We had oil all over us,’’ Travis said.

(snip)

Travis said the dolphin was crying as people rushed to save it. She said people scraped oil off the dolphin with their hands.

(snip)

The dolphin’s struggle to survive added to the dismay of people stunned to find a mass of oil washing ashore and covering the pristine coastline at Fort Pickens. This was the worst day for oil reaching Pensacola area beaches since the BP oil disaster began with an explosion April 20 off the Louisiana coast. “It’s terrible. It’s awful,’’ said Dee Pittman, 57, a Pensacola resident, who was among the people gathered at Fort Pickens. “You can’t get close to the water. It’s (oil) just coming in. This is very dangerous.

“BP doesn’t get it. This is sacred ground to us. We got married on these shores. We baptized our children in this ocean. We entrust the ashes of our loved ones in this ocean.”

[villager]

1. Not only BP -- most of the professional plutocrats in Washington don't "get it" either...

n/t

[Mimosa]

2. And they don't really care.

There aren't enough Southern coastal people represented in Washington.

[tsuki]

6. There aren't enough people represented in Washington. FIFY

[Mimosa]

12. Thanks. *hug* n/t

[Skidmore]

21. It seems to me that there were plenty of Southern coastal people

represented in government over the past decade and we are reaping the results of the corrupt power brokers they sent to DC. IJ'd like a nickel for every time I looked at my teevee and saw a Southern pol drawling away about how big bidness was good bidness and keeping the nation preoccupied with divisive social issue circus. We had more than a decade of being hammered by Southern interests.

[suzie]

35. Does additional South bashing somehow make people feel better about the oil spill disaster?

We are a nation of energy guzzlers.

But the same people whose lives are being impacted are the only ones to blame for the fact that we have to increasingly seek energy in environmentally dangerous places?

Pardon me, but that seems just a little unfair, and untrue.

[awoke_in_2003]

65. +1000

This post will get removed as region bashing, but "southern thinking" got us into this mess.

[Kalyke]

66. Hmmm.... seems like "Southern thinking" is represented in

the article and NOT on biased, anti-Southern DU... the bastion of Yank states whose people won't move down here and help change things - it wouldn't take many of you. We're about 42-48 percent... 9% more of y'all and we'd get decent folk representing us.

Oh - and we need something besides right-wing radio, too.

[Skidmore]

71. I was born a Yank, although more than one line of my

family left the South around the time of the Civil War. They were southern Quakers. They never returned. I've no desire to live in the South because this is my home. There are Southerners even now who think just the right nudge could bring back the South as a separate nation. The South is part of the United States and it is time for southerners to join it instead of clinging to old segregationist ideas. It should not be up to Yanks to change the South to finally join the 21st century and eschew old prejudices.

[QC]

72. Most of the carpetbaggers here in the Florida Panhandle are freepers.

So much for the theory that Yankee transplants will save us from our benighted condition.

[valerief]

40. They ABSOLUTELY don't care. It's blatant they don't care. nt

[shraby]

3. More and more people will "get it" as more and more oil

comes ashore. It will move eastward to the Florida gulf beaches and on down around the southern tip of Florida, right smack dab up into the Everglades. From there, it will move up the Atlantic coast as it gets into the Gulf Stream and then off to the Scotland, Ireland, England area. The worst is yet to come.

[villager]

7. and then it will be harder and harder to "spin" -- or to avoid actually responding

...in a substantive, meaningful way.

Of course, the "response" may have to come from people in the streets, and not the aforementioned professional plutocrats...

[nashville_brook]

4. ask a native american: it's almost as if they TARGET that which is sacred.

[closeupready]

37. That was my thought, as well. Invaders sure didn't care about Native American sacred places.

Still don't.

[Maru Kitteh]

5. Hate.

I'm finding new levels of it daily.

[Kadie]

8. .

:cry:

[Contrary1]

9. They "get it", alright....

They just don't give a damn.

[G_j]

10. we've been taught that a certain amount of "collateral damage" is necessary

how does this feel?

[nashville_brook]

11. this is just the one that made it to shore. i can't stop thinking about all the ones who don't.

[TexasObserver]

13. recommend

[Yeahyeah]

14. People should detach.Attend a yacht race or something.

[nashville_brook]

15. we'd like our dolphins back.

[Jamastiene]

19. and our birds.

[Swamp Rat]

16. just like my nightmares

:cry:

[nashville_brook]

17. .

[SmileyRose]

18. Oh BP execs get it just fine.

The choice was a few extra billions or the planet and that dolphin is not going to pay for the CEO's botox.

[pecwae]

20. So incredibly gut wrenching.

In a way I don't get it either. I don't get how we got to the point of treating our world and fellow inhabitants the way we do. Consequences of our actions are ignored or delayed to be dealt with at some later, ill defined date in a distant future.

[nyc 4 Biden]

22. photo

http://www.pnj.com/article/20100624/NEWS01/6240324

[Catherina]

23. "the dolphin was crying" OMG.

:cry:

[cwydro]

24. You know whale songs that you've heard recorded?

I can only imagine the cries in the Gulf that we CAN'T hear...

[nashville_brook]

27. and the silence to follow for generations.

[cwydro]

36. Yes.

Sadly so.

[Catherina]

43. :(

And the people bowed and prayed
To the neon god they made
And the sign flashed out its warning
In the words that it was forming
And the sign said, "The words of the prophets are written on the subway walls
And tenement halls"
And whispered in the sounds of silence

[mod mom]

30. :(

:cry: fucking heartless greedy bastards! I wished I believed in hell. Poor tony wants his fucking life back so he can attend fucking yacht races :snip: I would spit in his face if I got the chance.

[earth mom]

45. Gut wrenching isn't it?! I have to force myself to read these threads anymore.

:cry:

[snake in the grass]

64. I, too...

...have to force myself, but we must not let this slide into the memory hole. These images should be everywhere. I grew up on the Florida coast and although I detest Florida now, my heart breaks for its coasts. In my younger years it was a Florida beach and the ocean that kept me optimistic.

Sickening!

edit to add following:



Feel the pride!

[Peggy Day]

54. I'M CRYING

It's a crying shame...

[jillan]

62. Me too.

[DirkGently]

25. Sickening. It's hard to even contemplate these things

every day. But we HAVE to. We're actually still doing offshore and even deepwater drilling. After this, though, I can't imagine what it would take, short of the literal death of all of us, to stop this.

And at this rate, we may get there.

[BrklynLiberal]

26. ...................

:cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry:

[Ignis]

28. Heck of a job, BP. Now watch this drive.

[femrap]

29. I

fucking loathe oil boyz.

What a horrible way to die.

Thank you for not showing the pictures...I appreciate that. I did not go to the link.

[pinstikfartherin]

31. My heart breaks more and more...

I can't stand to look at photos of these poor creatures dying or dead.

BUT, I know that I have to. Images of this destruction need to be rolling through everyone's mind. We can't forget or try to block out images of the damage BP has done.

So what if these images make me cry, keep me up at night? These creatures are suffering because of our greedy need for oil. We deserve to suffer right along with them.

[mod mom]

32. link to madrchsod's thread for a free PROSECUTE BP stick:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=8629019&mesg_id=8629019

[HillbillyBob]

33. I have been watching this oil mess off and on

on when I can cope, I have to turn away from time to time lest I slide back into black depression.

We have 4 rescue dogs, they have feelings. I think the dolphins and other cetaceans are sentient.

When my partners mini collie (abused rescue) died from liver cancer. she had 'adopted' my Aussie Cattle Dog puppy Dora who sobbed and sobbed for days she would hide to cry.
Now tell me they don't have emotional feelings. Does not help that a good friend had to put her Aussie Cattle dog down this morning after a bad reaction to anesthesia damaging her kidneys

We are supposed to be stewards of our environment not dominate it.

[a la izquierda]

34. I wish we could somehow send the wildlife a message...

"swim away, swim away!!" I have more faith in the intelligence of animals than I do in ANYONE in DC. :cry:

[rhett o rick]

38. Be mad at all corporatists, not just BP. There will be more disasters. Our government did nothing

to prevent this. They are doing nothing to prevent the next. The corporatists control our government. Pres Obama isnt doing enough.

[NOLALady]

39. If the earth could run away

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rs7WteybOXw

[caraher]

41. Ummm.. dolphins cry?

I have no doubt the dolphin was suffering badly, and echo the sentiments about the calamitous evil BP has wrought.

But I find anthropomorphism like this distracting. It seems unlikely that dolphins cry tears in response to emotion. Underwater, doing so would convey no message to other dolphins. Anatomically, as far as I can tell tears work very differently from human tears. From the one reputable-looking dolphin anatomy site I found that discussed dolphin tear ducts:

The eyes are located on the side of the head, close to the corners of the mouth. A tear duct is present in the forward corner of the eye. Dolphin tears are very viscous are secreted in large quantities. Their main function is probably protection and lubrication of the cornea. The tears contain slightly less salt than blood, which in turn contains less salt than the surrounding sea water.

This is the only reference to dolphin tear ducts I could find, and it sounds as though dolphins "cry" all the time, constantly secreting this thick lubricating and protecting substance.

Unless someone with a serious background in marine biology sets me straight, I'm inclined to dismiss this "dolphin crying" claim as having no more credence than interpretations of a dolphin's facial expression as a (permanent) smile. They're different from us.

But that said, I do definitely believe they are intelligent and self-aware enough to know when they are dying, and to feel roughly the same emotions we would in that situation. It's a tragedy and an injustice, and whatever we feel about BP I'd imagine dolphins would feel about humans for this disaster if they know we were responsible.

[Catherina]

48. Dolphins cry. Not tears but sounds of pain and hurt.

Look into dolphin slaughter, like the terrible ones in Japan or Faroe Islands. The butchery is neither painless nor silent. Dolphins scream out, sounding very much like a human child, as they are sliced and hacked apart while still alive and conscious. There are pictures and videos here to get you started http://www.protecttheocean.com/denmark-continues-dolphin-slaughter-warning-graphic-images/

Tuna divers will tell you that the dolphins scream and cry as they die.

Look for a movie called "The Cove", about the dolphin slaughter in Japan. Ric O’Barry, the man who trained Flipper, narrates the film. You can see and hear the dolphins crying and screaming. Hundreds of them crying for mercy as the waters turn bright blood red until there are no more cries left.

Just to not be graphic, here is one pic



All that red is the blood of dolphins that were just massacred for sport. After you listen to videos with their screams and cries, you won't be the same again.

Here is the official website for the documentary: http://www.thecovemovie.com/



5 dolphins trapped behind drifting pack ice
Canada turns down town's request that icebreaker be sent to open channel



SEAL COVE, Newfoundland - Five exhausted dolphins have been trapped behind drifting pack ice for several days and now need rapid rescue, according to the mayor of an eastern Canadian village.

...

Ledwell, who heads Whale Release and Strandings Group, which rescues whales and dolphins, said that if the ice continues to encroach on the open area the dolphins could eventually drown.

May said he asked Canada's federal Fisheries Department to send an icebreaker to create a channel to the open Atlantic, but that he was told no vessels were available.

"They're not going to survive much longer," said May. "You can hear (the dolphins) crying all night long," he said.

"You could hear the screams coming out of them," the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. quoted resident Stanley Banks as saying. "And they were trying to break the ice there just to survive. And there's us here empty-handed. And DFO (Fisheries) with all this money won't even send a boat in here to let those out? It's a crime."

...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29280801/



Mr. Izumi Ishii was once one of the most outspoken advocates of the capture and killing of dolphins. But Ishii-san had changed. "I heard the sound of the dolphins crying as they were killed. I could not bear it," he said in describing his reasons for converting from dolphin killing to dolphin watching. "The value I now see in dolphins is not the value of their meat, but of the wonder they incite in us.

http://www.bluevoice.org/news_dolphinwatching.php

[caraher]

53. To quote Homer Simpson: DOH!

Thanks, I was being dense. Learned something about dolphins, anyway... :hide:

[Catherina]

55. I wish I knew much more. There's a poster here named Cetacea

who knows so much about them. I just learned the other day, from him, that when a dolphin gets depressed, it can commit suicide by refusing to breathe.

Check this out. I never saw this until I went to look for links for you http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6yHJ9RymNDk

I hope they do a new one for the Gulf immediately and air it on national tv.

You weren't dense. I did something even denser her one day when someone posted about soccer and I chewed them out thinking they were talking about BP so no worries. :hi:

[flamingdem]

42. NOTE: Scientists say dolphins should be considered NON-HUMAN PERSONS - 2nd smartest

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/science/article6973994.ece

Scientists say dolphins should be treated as 'non-human persons'
Jonathan Leake

Dolphins have been declared the world’s second most intelligent creatures after humans, with scientists suggesting they are so bright that they should be treated as “non-human persons”.

Studies into dolphin behaviour have highlighted how similar their communications are to those of humans and that they are brighter than chimpanzees. These have been backed up by anatomical research showing that dolphin brains have many key features associated with high intelligence.

The researchers argue that their work shows it is morally unacceptable to keep such intelligent animals in amusement parks or to kill them for food or by accident when fishing. Some 300,000 whales, dolphins and porpoises die in this way each year.

“Many dolphin brains are larger than our own and second in mass only to the human brain when corrected for body size,” said Lori Marino, a zoologist at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, who has used magnetic resonance imaging scans to map the brains of dolphin species and compare them with those of primates.
Related Internet Links

* Fight Club Live: Animal Experimentation

Related Links

* Dolphins not so friendly when catching salmon

* Analysis: Dolphin diet makes insulin resistance unharmful

* Swimmers warned as dolphin 'turns bad'

“The neuroanatomy suggests psychological continuity between humans and dolphins and has profound implications for the ethics of human-dolphin interactions,” she added.

Dolphins have long been recognised as among the most intelligent of animals but many researchers had placed them below chimps, which some studies have found can reach the intelligence levels of three-year-old children. Recently, however, a series of behavioural studies has suggested that dolphins, especially species such as the bottlenose, could be the brighter of the two. The studies show how dolphins have distinct personalities, a strong sense of self and can think about the future.

It has also become clear that they are “cultural” animals, meaning that new types of behaviour can quickly be picked up by one dolphin from another.

In one study, Diana Reiss, professor of psychology at Hunter College, City University of New York, showed that bottlenose dolphins could recognise themselves in a mirror and use it to inspect various parts of their bodies, an ability that had been thought limited to humans and great apes.

In another, she found that captive animals also had the ability to learn a rudimentary symbol-based language.

Other research has shown dolphins can solve difficult problems, while those living in the wild co-operate in ways that imply complex social structures and a high level of emotional sophistication.

In one recent case, a dolphin rescued from the wild was taught to tail-walk while recuperating for three weeks in a dolphinarium in Australia.

After she was released, scientists were astonished to see the trick spreading among wild dolphins who had learnt it from the former captive.

There are many similar examples, such as the way dolphins living off Western Australia learnt to hold sponges over their snouts to protect themselves when searching for spiny fish on the ocean floor.

Such observations, along with others showing, for example, how dolphins could co-operate with military precision to round up shoals of fish to eat, have prompted questions about the brain structures that must underlie them.

Size is only one factor. Researchers have found that brain size varies hugely from around 7oz for smaller cetacean species such as the Ganges River dolphin to more than 19lb for sperm whales, whose brains are the largest on the planet. Human brains, by contrast, range from 2lb-4lb, while a chimp’s brain is about 12oz.

[SlingBlade]

44. I appologize to this poor creature for my part in its death

I apologize for not doing more to reduce my reliance on this filthy substance
which ultimately caused its demise and that of hundreds of thousands of other
sea creatures, birds and plant life that call this area home.

I am ashamed of my part in it. I am so very sorry as I sit here and read yet another
days tales of destruction in the Gulf.

I ask myself why ?

Why didn't I do more, Why didn't I demand my so called representatives put an end to this
practice of trading our environment for fast hard cash and the promise to make my life a bit easier and less demanding for this tragedy. Why didn't I demand that they look towards others such as Europe who have put into practice not only large renewable energy programs but single residence programs as well involving solar and wind.

Why ?

[earthboundmisfit]

50. x1000

I'm there with you.

[Catherina]

61. Oh my God. Me too. We've committed an unforgivable crime

The book of Genesis, for those who believe in the bible, tells us to tend the earth and tend God's creatures. We've failed miserably.

[MrMickeysMom]

46. I can't apologize enough, I can't do anything but cry myself...

... and that's not going to do anything for more than a minute.

I'm told that the best way we can make this country and the oil industry that controls it change is to do everything we can to support the wildlife efforts with our carefully spent dollars, then try to support the remaining Louisiana sea food industry. Jesus... that's not going to do what we must do... end this.

I have a whole new series of letters and phone calls to make.

I'm so sorry that we are killing ourselves off like this. WE MUST do something to end this practice, as it HAS no good outcome.

:cry:

[AtomicKitten]

47. Genuinely heart-breaking.

:cry:

[defendandprotect]

49. We think that it's Dolphins and Pelicans and the Gulf dying . . . but it's really us -- !!

[nashville_brook]

67. [phone]

[Jeffersons Ghost]

51. K&R

[Mimosa]

52. Yes, sentient creatures cry

Cats cry, dogs cry, mammals have nervous systems and they feel. Birds have nervous systems, therefore they feel, and they communicate.

Humans are the most heartless of all because we have developed nervous systems yet we are capable of deliberate or merely uncaring cruelty and destructiveness.

[sce56]

56. I posted a local FOX news station video link on this story two days ago!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4439788
The video starts out showing us an Oily Politician, Gov Crist!

[saracat]

57. Doesn't anyone care about anything but politicians anymore? Why can't this be stopped?

Why isn't even an effort being made? This isn't defensible. It just is not.

[whathehell]

58. Oh my god.

I didn't know that dolphins cried.....I want to cry too.:cry:

[whathehell]

59. I'm donating Gulf Rescue of Animals through United Way right now....

You can choose to donate to the people of the Gulf or the animals of the Gulf, or both. This heartbreaking story has moved me to donated to the animals first.

[whathehell]

63. Slight correction: Larry King Telethon featured Nature Conservancy and Nat'l Federation for Wildlife

for Gulf wildlife donations.

[timefortherevolution]

60. Devastating.

A perfect symbol for the Bush Years.

[merh]

68. .

:cry:

[L0oniX]

69. MURDER

[Urban Prairie]

70. I feel so sad for the dying marine life and the people that live and work(ed) on the Gulf Coast

Even though I am also someone who has spent a good portion of their life near large bodies of water, and revere nature's bounty and respect our environment, by trying to limit my "carbon footprint" as much as possible, I can only just begin to imagine the elevated degree of grief, stress and anger that I would feel if this mindlessly evil and mind-boggling catastrophe was happening within one of the Great Lakes. I think about all of those, especially our fellow DUers who are living on and nearby the Gulf Coast amidst the horrifying reality of this unending tragedy each and every day....:cry:


The "spill" is now at least the size of Lake Superior:



:cry: