More Than a Dozen Stranded Dolphins Die in Florida Keys (30 moved)

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory?id=552941


In this photo released by the Florida Keys
News Bureau, Celeste Weimer, left, stranding
coordinator for the Florida Keys Marine Mammal
Rescue Team, aids two stranded rough-tooth
dolphins, assisted by volunteers David Finney,
center, and Jill Glinert, right, Wednesday night,
March 2, 2005, off Marathon, Fla. About 49 dolphins
stranded themselves Wednesday off the Florida Keys
and more than 20 were in a nearby canal or boat
channel, officials said. (AP Photo/Florida Keys
News Bureau, Bob Care)


complete story: http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory?id=552941

they were "not likely to recover at all"

what was in the blood test? Some indication of pollution?

...magnetic disturbances, possibly caused by the precursors to seismic activity. Large-scale beaching incidents sometimes precede large-scale seismic events.

Maybe another ocean-centered earthquake?

Or maybe Weapons testing under the ocean; or extensive off-shore drilling near where they beached?

http://www.nrdc.org/wildlife/marine/nlfa.asp

http://www.earthwatch.org/pubaffairs/news/balcomb.html

What kills me about this is this is also poor engineering.

There are so many ways to map the deep sea w/o doing this.

Dolphins' beaching closely followed sub's exercises

KEY WEST - The U.S. Navy is investigating whether sonar used in the training activities of a submarine off the Florida Keys this week may have contributed to the mass stranding of more than 80 deep-water dolphins, at least 19 of which have died.

Groups of rough-toothed dolphins mysteriously began beaching off Marathon on Wednesday afternoon -- within 24 hours, and perhaps less, of exercises conducted off Key West by the USS Philadelphia, a submarine based in Connecticut.

A Navy spokeswoman said Friday she did not know if the sub was still in the area the day of the stranding or if the vessel was using active sonar -- considered by some scientists to be potentially harmful to marine mammals -- during its mission.

''This is absolutely high priority. We are looking into this. We want to be good stewards of the environment and anytime there are strandings of marine mammals, we look into the operations and locations of any ships that might have been operating in that area,'' said Lt. Cdr. Jensin Sommer, spokeswoman for Naval Submarine Forces, based in Virginia.

Full article at:
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/local/states/florida/counties/monroe_county/cities_neighborhoods/florida_keys/11057549.htm