Are
Dolphins Becoming Extinct?
The article,
Focus on Ocean’s Health as Dolphin Deaths Soar ,by Lizette Alvarez on http://mobile.nytimes.com/2013/12/23/us/focus-on-oceans-health-as-dolphin-deaths-soar.html?from=science is an article about how dolphins, especially
bottlenosed, are dying rapidly.
Dolphins are mysteriously showing up dead on
the shores from New York to Florida. 124 dolphins have shown up since the
beginning of July. Scientists hypotheses are dolphin deaths are occurring from water
pollution some pollution may be leftover oil from the BP oil spill in 2010. The
other hypothesis is, dolphins are infected with the disease, pathogen.
Scientists need to work fast to
help these dolphins from becoming extinct, because “Marine mammals are very
good sentinels for ocean and human health, and they really act like the
proverbial canaries in a coal mine,” They give us an idea what’s occurring in
the environment.” Said Dr. Greg Bossart. This quote means that dolphins give us
an idea of what is occurring in the marine environment because dolphins are top
predator, live long lives, and live close to the coast.
Scientists will soon not have an idea of what is happening in the environment,
as the article states “whatever happens coastally impacts them and potentially
us.” This means whatever is happening in
the dolphins life’s right now could soon strike upon humans.
What is happening to the dolphins connects to what we learned
in biology class. We learned in the movie, The Lorax, that
pollution can harm animals and you don’t even care enough to see that the
animals around are being negatively affected by it. This happened to the Lorax
when he made a factory and it polluted the whole land and all of the animals
died or tried to find other land. He didn’t care enough to help until it was
too late.
I think that scientists should continue research on why so
many dolphins are showing up dead on the shore. Scientist should also find out
if the places they are showing up dead have high pollution levels like traces
of oil left over from the BP oil spill 2010. If dolphins keep dying we will be
lost on what is occurring environmentally in the ocean, because Dr.Bossat said
they help us find out what is happening in the marine life. I hope dolphins
will soon have a great come back.
I think that your article was very thorough and clearly stated the issue. I believe that I have heard about this happening before with dolphins, but I wasn't sure of the causes. If dolphin populations were to drop, I think it would have a serious impact on the marine life food chain in these areas. You did a good job summarizing the article and your post was well composed.
ReplyDeleteGood blog Jaime! I think this is a very sad problem that I was unaware of and I think others need to become aware of. I think this also relates to our biology class with all the work that we have done with food webs. We have looked at what can happen to a food web when one population of organisms becomes extinct, and this might become a problem if dolphins become extinct. If the dolphin population keeps decreasing, there will become an abundance of fish like herring and cod which dolphins usually eat, which will disorient the rest of the food web.
ReplyDeleteGood Job! This was a very thorough post. You did a great job creating awareness on this issue. That is important because the deaths of dolphins may cause dolphins to become extinct but also may affect other marine life that depend on dolphins. Also, I found it very interesting when you said, "whatever is happening in the dolphins life’s right now could soon strike upon humans." This was very interesting because it makes us realize that this issue could hurt us as well! I too hope that dolphins do not become extinct. Also, it is important to find out what is harming the dolphins in order to help them and make sure it doesn't harm any other organisms.
ReplyDeleteJaime, great job! Your title really caught my eye because endangered species seem to be a common topic lately, but I, for one, love dolphins! Anyways, your summary was very organized and informative. It's a very concerning topic to know that pollution from an oil spill that happened 4 years ago is still affecting some of the animal life in the present day. I like how you tied this article into the Lorax because it definitely does relate in terms of pollution and environmental change that affects organisms. I agree with you in saying that scientist need to further their research and figure out why this is happening to all of these dolphins. I'd hate to see this wonderful species go extinct! Overall, Fantastic job:)
ReplyDelete