I have been working with Dauphin Island Sea Lab staff to create an educational video for schools, communities and all coastal residents. Please take a few minutes to view and then share with others as you see fit. The intention of the video is to promote awareness of our marine mammal species. Special thanks to Michael Brant DeMaria for allowing us to include two of his beautiful musical compositions.
I can almost hear the squeaking, grinding gears of the cogs of the old machinery as it begins to come to a stop and reverse directions. In the past week here’s a short list of positive happenings: Australian government begins a legal case against Japanese government about whale slaughter in the name of scientific research; India’s goverment banned dolphin captivity calling dolphins highly intelligent and sensitive non-human persons; a massive PR campaign to help sharks and show they are NOT the bad guys…12 people were killed last year by sharks worldwide while 11,417 sharks are killed PER HOUR by humans; Denmark installs the largest offshore wind farm in the world with 91 turbines that they are hoping will supply 10% of Europe’s energy needs in the next few years; a settlement was reach by oil companies by they agreeing not to use sonar air guns that torment and injure marine mammals…til the end of 2015; a judge protected a Kentucky coal miner who was wrongfully dismissed after raising safety concerns and was sued by the coal mining company; a victory for NC sea turtles and shore birds…driving on beach regulations upheld; the Supreme Court will hear a case against a ruling that overturned EPA mandate for cleaner air…let’s hope the justices prove they are not owned by corporations; and finally an event to celebrate the Earth and spread joy in even the most wounded places was held Saturday…Radical Joy for Hard Times.
That’s a lot of good news. Even though we continue to hear a lot of bad news as well, I believe the tide is turning. The work people are doing all over the world is making a difference. And once consciousness begins to shift, it’s going to shift big and fast and momentum will build!
While I know we’re not there yet, I have hope that we will raise awareness and gather strength through people with big hearts and open minds coming together. As we unite for the planet and all species, we are very truly uniting for our own species health and wellbeing. There is no separation from nature. We are part of it, it is part of us. It’s time to remember this truth and keep the turning in motion.
It has been a rough 24 hours with really disastrous news for wildlife coming in from near and far. It is difficult to know how to stay informed and stay sane. But turning away and refusing to be informed isn’t an option. If everyone did that we would be in a bigger mess.
Of special concern is the large number of manatee and pelican deaths happening in the south. Over 600 manatees have died in the first four months of this year. The Gulf-side manatee deaths are being blamed on red tide, an algae bloom that is toxic to fish, marine mammals and sometimes humans. The cause is generally fertilizers being washed into the waterways after heavy rains and causing this toxic bloom. It is a neurotoxin and deadly to manatees and other wildlife who ingest it. Humans who eat shellfish or fish contaminated with it can also become seriously ill. Manatee deaths on the east coast of Florida in Indian River Lagoon have reached over 100 and there is no known cause for their deaths.
Brown pelican deaths in the Indian River Lagoon have reached high numbers and now they are reported on the North Carolina Coast as well. Lots of sad news indeed.
I have researched these events today and explored deaths of dolphins and other species during the past year. In Peru last year nearly 900 dolphins washed ashore with apparent sonar injuries. Sonar injuries occur in marine mammals from LFA sonar like the US Navy uses and sonar blasts used by oil companies in off-shore oil exploration.
It felt like a puzzle being pieced together. Everything pointed back to human-created environmental issues. Over-fertilizing lawns and golf courses, using technology that kills, boat strikes. As a member of the human species–sometimes with deep shame for our collective treatment of wildlife and wild places–I decided to take action and made a donation to Save the Manatee. This club helps manatees recover from injuries and is a clearing house for information on manatees. I joined and gave an extra donation for emergency treatment of manatees.
I needed to feel as if I was doing something besides sitting at my desk, researching, reading and sharing about these tragedies. So I took action. And every time I volunteer for Share the Beach, or the Sea Turtle Stranding Network, or the Alabama Marine Mammal Stranding Network I take action to help.
Likewise, I refrain from using chemical fertilizers on my lawn and garden. I don’t use pesticides inside or outside my home and support local and organic farmers. There are many practices that make a direct difference in our world. The effort required isn’t that much and the pay-off is positive change and community-building. TOGETHER we can create a safer, healthier planet.
I was beginning to think it was a bad April Fool’s joke. I was standing on the beach asking the lifeguard if he knew where the dead dolphin was that had been reported. He didn’t but rode west three miles down the beach on his three wheeler looking….nothing. I called our stranding coordinator and told her the lifeguard reported that someone said there had been a dolphin with rope on its tail…but no dead dolphin materialized. Not sounding good….could we be getting pranked by spring breakers?
A little nudge from my intuition sent me walking east. It was looking pretty hopeless but my intuition nudged me again…ask the fisherman. I did and he said…”Yes, I know exactly where it is. Can’t you smell it?”
Great. And I thought last week’s dolphin carcass was challenging. The bloating was significant and so was the smell. But I was observing a necropsy of a very large, adult male dolphin inside a facility. Some decomposing and a lot of blood…the smell of blood was what wore on my stamina. Tissue samples were taken, counting of teeth, and all the other data that must be collected from a marine mammal death. Hours upon hours of locating, loading, hauling, photographing, and bit-by-bit taking the dolphin apart and taking samples from organs, blood, eyes…a very intensive effort on the part of several people.
But today, I witnessed another large dolphin…this time in the final stages of decay. The body had been dragged with a rope and there were parts missing….the lower right mandible, the dorsal fin…and even in the ragged state this dolphin was in, I could see where tissue had been removed. Between our coordinator, my on-scene eyes (and nose…significant putrid smell) and another biologist via telephone, we pieced together the story.
This dolphin was found in December, processed by the other biologist and dragged up in the dunes by the resort gardener and buried. It had been recently unearthed by someone or something and the smell created a curiosity in spring break celebrants who reported to the resort management there was a dolphin on the beach with a rope around it. They forgot to mention the fact that it was nearly skeletal….but that’s okay. We want to be sure it is a dolphin that has already been counted….and not an unreported death.
Perhaps I did feel like an April Fool….but in a good way I suppose. Not another dolphin death, just a resurrection…of sorts….VERY ‘of sorts.’
Every marine mammal that washes onshore (bays and rivers included…not just the Gulf) and is reported has to be confirmed, measured, tissue samples taken and a lot of paperwork completed by the coordinator at Dauphin Island Sea Lab. She is working to build the volunteer program so our state can do its part in reporting dolphin and manatee mortality and stranding.
It’s not a pleasant job as most ‘strandings’ are really recovery and examination of dead dolphins and manatees. But it is very necessary to gather the data and samples so the reason behind the nearly 900 dolphin deaths since the BP Oil Spill can be determined. Everyone isn’t capable of this kind of ‘death’ work…but there are different jobs you can do to help the Alabama Marine Mammal Stranding Network. It’s one way you can make a difference.
Nothing is more vital than a wild heart. When we lose that, we’ve lost our connection to the untamed, the unruly….the undomesticated part of ourself. And when that happens, the planet suffers.
Yesterday I met Sampson.
I walked into the conference room and high up on a shelf, he perched. At first I wasn’t sure if he was alive as I wasn’t expecting a bobcat to be…ummm…there. But he was very much alive.
Sampson is a northern bobcat that was ‘owned’ by humans who had him declawed and kept as a pet. They ran into problems with his ‘wild’ behaviors and there were permitting issues so he was surrendered to a wildlife rescue group in Ft. Walton Beach who now provide a home for him. He doesn’t like to be outdoors but rather lives in the administrative part of their building.
resemblance When I looked into this beautiful bobcat’s eyes I immediately saw my orange cat Stanley reflected back through the thread of wildness that remains very present in Sampson. Only it was like Stanley with his superhero powers turned up to full force.
There was no where to hide from his searching eyes. When they locked with mine I understood that his wild wisdom is still intact even though he lives indoors. It was a bit unnerving to have my own wildness, my own worthiness to be evaluated. It was as if I was exposed, open to his scrutiny with no tree or rock or pretense to hide behind. He nailed me.
Sampson allowed me to photograph his greatness and then came down to my level and allowed me to stroke him and ‘love’ him. I was being accepted into his clan. And when I sat at the conference table, he jumped up and walked to me and head-butted or bunted my forehead when I lowered my head to his. Cats (domestic and wild) have facial pheromones that they deposit on other cats, people, objects as a way to mark something as safe. According to one vet, it is like leaving a signal of comfort and safety….trusting the person or environment.
As I reflect back on my interaction with this amazing animal I realize how grateful I am. To be accepted as a trustworthy friend, or a person of comfort and safety to a wild creature (especially one that has been removed from his natural environment by humans and ‘used’ as a pet) is a gift to me. Given the amount of damage humans do to wild animals and wild places, to find acceptance such as this makes my heart glad…and happy.
What is needed on our part to find greater acceptance from wild hearts of the world? What must we do to find ourselves worthy to be accepted by the clan of wild beings that we, in the greater sense, have abandoned? How can we maintain our wildness, like Sampson, even when living in environments that can seem far away from wilderness?
Whether a bobcat–ripped from his natural home as a baby–or a wild manatee, chooses to bring me into their clan, I am deeply grateful that I am deemed as acceptable, as a trustworthy friend and a human that brings comfort instead of pain and destruction….on some level do they know that I am a champion of their wild hearts?
