Organic Consumers has this link up.  It leads to this link.

Here’s a much better report.

In the CNN piece, she mentions lesions in their respiratory systems…and my mind went to petroleum products as a cause.  Notice that the reporter briefly mentions pollution as a problem, and immediately goes to bacteria and elaborates on that without discussing what pollution does to marine animals.

So….I searched and found this on the effects of the BP oil spill on the dolphins.  (Apparently, BP didn’t get rid of ALL the evidence. /said with dripping sarcasm.)

Wow, look at this.  The picture is showing globs of oil still sticking to a grad student after he had showered.

And remember “corexit”–the controversial *cough* clean up chemical (because it makes perfect sense to use chemicals to clean up petroleum chemicals…natch.   /said with even more dripping sarcasm…)

Well…corexit is apparently still in the water, along with the globs of oil:

Tiny globs of it, mingled with the chemical dispersant that was supposed to break it up, have settled into the shallows, mingling with the shells, he said

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Geologist  James Kirby states that he wouldn’t want his grandchildren playing in the surf, and says this:

“The dispersant accelerates the absorption by the skin.”

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The dispersant accelerates absorption by the skin...meaning it’s making the oil even more toxic.  Even worse is that corexit is interfering with bacteria that normally eat the oil after spills.  Holy crap.

As always, it is wise to know who is funding research, and am glad to hear that Kirby’s funding is from a group independent of BP.

Also on my mind for a cause is mercury–which could be combining with the toxic petroleum and corexit–

I found this paper that I haven’t seen before on the connection between mercury and dolphins beaching themselves.   This is important because it compares the dolphins that beached themselves with the same group.    They were also going to test mercury levels in fossil teeth…gotta love the Aussies.

I thought this paragraph was interesting:

Historical gold mining, which up until the 1930s used mercury in gold extraction, is the likely main source of the heavy metal in the waters, says Thompson. The mercury has gradually washed down the Yarra and other rivers, and accumulated in the sediments of the bay. Current dredging work could further increase mercury levels in the food chain, he adds. The mercury levels he measured were already higher than those found in dolphins in other populations in polluted waters around the world, from the Mediterranean to costal India.

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This is not something I have come across before–mercury being used in gold extraction.  Wonder how that has affected gold miners and water supplies in the U.S.?

Finally, I’ll leave you with this–Note the video clip of the trail of oil spilled that also follows the east coastline where the dolphins are beaching themselves: