Thursday, April 5, 2012

Dolphin Strandings in Peru: up to 600 lost, but some were rescued

On the northern coast of Peru there has recently been a series of dolphin strandings that have left researchers baffled as to the cause. As many as 600 dolphins have been reported as fatally stranded on Peruvian beaches and, to date, the possible cause for these fatalities has ranged from disease or pollution to poisoning from food, spilled oil, or red tide algae to naval sonar interference.

As tragic as it is in its totality, there was one momentary bright spot. A group of dolphins beached themselves but were apparently rescued by people on the beach. My friend Stan McClain of Filmtools in Burbank, CA, sent me a link to the video below that was originally posted by El Comercio, a Peruvian online new website. I could not find any additional information on this incident, but it at least represents a ray of hope when these unfortunate strandings occur.

What I found interesting with this video is that the approach of the dolphins was capture on video. So, often in news clips we simply see the animals already beached, but here you seem them actually beaching themselves. And then the beachgoers got to work on what was, hopefully, a happy ending.



Source: http://elcomercio.pe/player/1384898

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