Christ First Forum

http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2011/f ... ulf-coast/


GULFPORT, Miss. – Baby dolphins, some barely three feet in length, are washing up along the Mississippi and Alabama coastlines at 10 times the normal rate of stillborn and infant deaths, researchers are finding.

Seventeen young dolphins, either aborted before they reached maturity or dead soon after birth, have been collected along the shorelines.

The Institute of Marine Mammal Studies performed necropsies on two of the babies Monday.

Moby Solangi, director of the institute, called the high number of deaths an anomaly and said it is significant, especially in light of the BP oil spill throughout the spring and summer last year when millions of barrels of crude oil spewed into the Gulf of Mexico.

Oil worked its way into the Mississippi and Chandeleur sounds and other bays and shallow waters where dolphins breed and give birth.

This is the first birthing season for dolphins since the spill.

Typically in January and February, there are one or two babies per month found in Mississippi and Alabama, then the birthing season goes into full swing in March and April.

“For some reason, they’ve started aborting or they were dead before they were born,” Solangi said. “The average is one or two a month. This year we have 17, and February isn’t even over yet.”

Deaths in the adult dolphin population rose in the year of the oil spill from a norm of about 30 to 89, Solangi said.

Solangi is gathering tissue and organs for a thorough forensic study of the infant deaths and is cautious about drawing conclusions until the data is in, probably within a couple of weeks.

“We shouldn’t really jump to any conclusions until we get some results,” Solangi said. “But this is more than just a coincidence.”

A result of the pollution from the oil spill? Our government will never tell us the whole story.
When we purchase seafood we don't have a clue if it's gulf seafood. We could very well be eating tainted seafood and don't know it.

Mice are icky- one of my least favorite of God's critters, they rank right up there with the Opossums.
I cringe with just the thought of their ugly faces. To me the Opossum is just a large mutant rat!
As for the mice around my neck of the woods - I'm always finding the bottom half of those my cat has killed! I have to clean up the mess, yuk!