Have Dolphins Gone Mad?

There are numerous possibilities, none of which can be confirmed or denied without extensive further research (which I do not propose to do), including:

1) Agression of a tribal nature (warfare?), possibly always present, but improperly documented/diagnosed until now.

2) Insanity on the part of the agressor(s) - hooliganism gone interspecies within just a few individuals.

3) An environmentally-induced rage, whether from 'red tide', which is known to be toxic, anthropogenically provided chemicals (we flush out a LOT of weird crap), or some factor not previously noted.

4) A dolphin mutation that caused a group, possibly a family pod, to exhibit bizarre behavior towards other members of their species.

There's probably someone out there in the world that will tell you it's because these are not real dolphins, they're alien beings that just happen to resemble dolphins. I don't subscribe to such notions myself, but just thought I'd give you a heads-up to the possibility...

I like theory number 3 - all the stuff we flush must be doing someweird things. Also it doesn't seem to date beyond the Katrina related thing. Another possibility is humans getting too close to Dolphins (?) - They must get a bit pissed at all the tourist who want to 'pet' a dolphin. Some sort of parasite in the brain would have been good, but I think it's been excluded.

Unless somebody has historical links, then I'm running with water pollution (at present). It's not implausible that a human could get killed, this seems to be recent behavior change. Just a matter of time ( Sharks mistake stuff for seals, supposedly).

Maybe Flipper can do an updated version of 'Jaws'.

I wish to propose theories 4 and 5.

4.) The increased use of underwater listening and targeting devices are causing disturbances in the brains and sensory centers of these highly evolved and (biologically) sensitive creatures.

5.) USO's. That's right - USO's. I am not describing necessarily alien crafts, probably domestic. Nonetheless a phenomenom that is on the rise, particularly in the waters between the US and UK (I'm sure that this has nothing to do with the large military budgets that these countries possess.)

I can't justify this, but I'd have thought these things might result in chaotic behaiour if anything. The 'attacks' seem to be calculated. Observers have noted a similarity in size of victims, which suggest a degree of planning/thought. To make an analogy, a human who's gone psycho on drugs would attack another, regardless of size etc. I hadn't heard the phrase USO before !

Their are few species on earth that will not attack their own kind over territorial issues (feeding grounds, the opposite sex, pack domination) why should dolphins be any different.

All animals that eat meat instruct their young how to hunt for survival.

I think we are just starting to learn more about the dolphin in its natural world. Behavior in captivity is not the same. The ocean's are vast area to track an animal to study. Technology today is better letting us fill in some blanks.

As far as I know, dolphins eat fish, though learning how to defend themselves would be an important learning skill.

It's true that there are plenty of large sea-creatures that we know very little about. Giant Squid, and even Blue Whales are just two examples. People have tried to make estimates of the rate at which species become extinct before they've even been discovered. Sounds odd, but apparently rough estimates can be done. The Yangtze dolphin is one of the more recent creatures to disappear.

The news did say that dolphins were killing porpoises. They are two different species. Maybe its like humans killing great apes for sport. They just don't have a wall to hang the head on.

Could be that they were already sick or injured and were put out of their misery.

In my readings, the dolphins attcak porpoise and other dolphins. The footage of victims trying to flee, seems to suggest they were not all practising some sort of dolphin euthenasia type thing.

{ Flipper on a wall ! }

As mad as humans executing , killing, and torturing humans for whatever reason. Humans even kill their healthy unborn babies! Solve our own problems before you think you are qualified to understand another species.

It could be a result of all the chemicals, toxins and garbage we dump in the ocean.

Thousands of tons of chemical warfare barrels were dumped in the sea off the coast of England after WW2!

New York still uses the ocean as a garbage dump!

Both are tied together by a common cross Atlantic current.

And I won't even start about all the damage from chemicals and radioactivity due to sunken vessels

It could even be a result of all the anti depression drugs (that make you suicidal) being used that eventually end up being dumped down the toilet and eventually make it to the ocean

If we waited until we'd solved our own problems, nothing would ever get done. The point of the question is not to exactly to 'get inside a dolphins mind', but to figure possible causes of the reported behaviour and address any man-made factors. I agree that any garbage dumped at sea is too much. There's no maritime nation I can think of that can claim innocence, and the landlocked can't claim it either. There doesn't seem to be much doubt that hormones reaching the sea can have dire consequences on fish. Some fish mutate sex naturally as they develop, but hormones seem to interfere with the process. That's only the 'thin end of the wedge', since a vast range of stuff gets chucked into the sea.

Your opening paragraph seems to suggest we shouldn't address the issue ? It's probably just my interpretation techno, but would you clarify ?

For what it's worth, I'm against places that keep creatures like these as playthings for people. There's some pretty horrific footage on You Tube of an Orca dying at a Sea-World type park in the US.

nah! I am just blaming ourselves.

Cant blame the dolphins who have to live in a poisoned environment.

Yeah. They teach each other how to hunt, but they don't practice on each other, they find a poor unsuspecting shark to practice on.

It is normal for animals to kill one of their own if they are sick. (or smell wrong). This could easily be our fault with all the chemicals, garbage and sewage that we dump in the ocean.

Territorial claims rarely end in a death, they usually end up in a submission.

techno,

I don't know where you get your information from up there in the "great white north", but New York hasn't dumped its garbage in the ocean for more than 70 years.

At least not legally...

Some garbage does undoubtedly fall off of the barges that are used at marine transfer stations, where the collection trucks dump their loads onto barges for transportation to their ultimate destination - burial in a landfill.

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Just my $0.02...

OK 'officially' not currently...... but 70 years? I don't think so, I have personally witnessed the barges dumping at sea, and I am certainly not that old.

For sure they started started dumping again from 1986 to 1992. It was also in all the news. I think their excuse was that they couldn't manage the quantity at the time otherwise. They did put restrictions on what was dumped at sea (mostly construction waste and sludge)

1992 it was banned

http://www.nyc.gov/html/dep/pdf/wwsystem.pdf

http://www2.ups.edu/faculty/wkupinse/ENGL132AFA04EADrafts/Ari.htm - (Sorry, link no longer available.)

techno,

Below is an excerpt (emphasis added) from a joint research project of Columbia University's Earth Institute, Earth Engineering Center, and the Urban Habitat Project at the Center for Urban Research and Policy of Columbia's School of International and Public Affairs.

(http://www.columbia.edu/~sc32/Columbia_University_Final.pdf - Sorry, link no longer available)

"New York City disposed of its waste in the Atlantic Ocean until 1935 when a federal lawsuit brought by a coalition of New Jersey coastal cities forced the city to end ocean dumping."

With respect to the "stuff" that has been dumped subsequent to 1935...

Until 1986, New York City, its suburbs, and New Jersey were dumping sewage sludge at a site in the Atlantic Ocean 12 miles from the New Jersey Shore.

After that year, in order to meet the newly enacted Federal regulations at the time, ocean dumping of the dewatered sludge residue from municipal wastewater treatment plants took place at a site 106 miles off of the coast of New York.

According to the Center for Coastal Monitoring and Assessment,

(http://ccma.nos.noaa.gov/stressors/pollution/assessments/ac_106-mi_dumpsite.html - Sorry, link no longer available)

"The 106-Mile Dumpsite, located about 185km east of Cape May, NJ, began receiving sewage sludge in 1986 from nine New York and New Jersey sewerage authorities. The 106-Mile Dumpsite is located seaward of the continental shelf and has water depths ranging from 2,400 to 2,700m. About 8 million tons of sewage sludge were dumped at the site annually from 1986 until 1992, when the Ocean Dumping Ban Act suspended the dumping of all sewage sludge and industrial waste in the oceans."

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You say you personally witnessed the barges dumping at sea...

Did you follow the sludge barges all the way out to the 106-mile dump site?

Or did you happen to be flying overhead, in a low altitude aircraft of some sort?

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Finally, with respect to it "being in all the news", I believe that you are referring to the somewhat ridiculous tale of the garbage barge named the Mobro 4000. On March 22, 1987, the barge, loaded with about 3,200 tons of municipal waste (aka garbage) generated in the town of Islip, New York began a 6,000 mile, 7-month voyage, looking for a port that would take its load of trash. The barge was originally destined for a waste to methane pilot plant in North Carolina, but was rejected due to rumors of the trash being "contaminated by medical waste".

From there, the Mobro would sail along the East coast of North America, down into the Gulf of Mexico and through the Bahamas, all the way to Belize, before finally returning to Brooklyn New York (in October of that year), still carrying its load of garbage.

In Brooklyn, the trash was incinerated, and the ash was transported back to Islip for landfill disposal.

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Just my $0.02...

"You say you personally witnessed the barges dumping at sea...

Did you follow the sludge barges all the way out to the 106-mile dump site?"

I am in the Navy. We were coming in from farther out and encountered the barge and they had solids on board.

techno,

All I can say is I hope your ship was upwind if the barge did have any sewage sludge on it. Several years ago, I had the misfortune of being stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic for more than an hour, two cars behind a 40 cy dump truck full of the stuff, in 95 degree weather. I presume that the truck was headed for a marine transfer station somewhere, but I couldnt believe that they hauled that putrid stuff around in an open-topped truck, with only a tarp across the top of the trailer.

BTW, my tongue was only halfway "in-cheek" when I asked that question about following the barge... You see, quite a few years ago, while employed by a local governmental agency, I did some late night "surveillance" - following truckloads of regulated/hazardous waste from their point of generation (municipally operated facilities) to the State licensed transfer stations, and on to to the ultimate disposal facility.

Well, that was the route that the waste took "on paper"...

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Just my $0.02...

I saw a footage about US submarines and Ships with special sonars affecting whales behaviour. Could it be happening to the Dolphins ?

Couldn't that be an experience the US Navy are doing ? Microchip the Dolphins to do attack experiences with them ?

Then it's easy to guide them or study if you have a submarine (USO element) ... also an hormonal systems can be implanted on the Dolphins as part of the trainning/research/crime as you want to call it...

You have no idea what experiences are done by the Defence Ministry of our developped countries...

The USN was a primary suspect when dolphins were found dead (mentioned at the start) in the Gulf of Mexico. If trained military dolphins escape, their changed behaviour must affect wild dolphins they encounter. A sort of ' Let me show you what the USN taught me' type scenario. It does sound like a strong contender for an answer. Maybe the killings noted at Norfolk are no coincidence, they have plenty of Navy activity there. We keep our Nuke subs not far from where the dead porpoise were found.......

There has been great concern over the effect that the Navy's medium frequency sonar is suspected of having on undersea creatures. Many animal rights activists believe that the MF sonar is responsible for the dolphin deaths in 1997 and other stranding/deaths noted along the US and UK coasts since then. A judge in a recent federal lawsuit in California significantly restricted the Navy's use of MF sonar along the California coast until further study could be done and the Navy could show protection for marine mammals. The federal government subsequently issued a waiver allowing the Navy to continue training with its active sonar systems as the studies continue. There are severe restrictions now on active sonar emissions in the presence of marine mammals, and since the noted deaths in 1997, no deaths or strandings can be directly attributed to the Navy's use of MF active sonar.

Hi Kris.

On tuesday evening this week there was a TV program on channel five about this, they showed several short films of the dolphins in the Moray Firth killing both smaller dolphins and porpoises.

Spencer.

Thanks Spencer,

The documentary was one in the series Nature Shock, shown on Channel 5. I think it was on at 8 PM ( I'd never have noticed it except for a magazine article). The footage shown was pretty amazing stuff. The intriguing aspect is the lack of much previous evidence of such attacks ( ie before the 1980's). Perhaps there are people out there who have seen it many times, but not thought it noteworthy ? I'm not sure, but I get the impression it is a recent behavioural change. As far as I know, the Honey bee disappearance thing is also recent and not understood. Bees have been covered on a couple of CR4 threads, but the dolphin thing was new to me.

Cheers,

Kris

Kris

In the mid 60's while body surfing alongside a school of dolphins off the East Coast of South Africa I witnessed the birth of a dolphin. I remember dolphins acting like "midwives" circling the baby and its mother and attacking any dolphin foolish enough to come too close. The attacks were quite vicious and I kept my distance, should imagine that one of those blows could have done serious damage to a human.

It was an unforgettable experience. Not sure that it has anything to do with the presently observed phenomena. A mother or school protecting the young from possible predators?

Hi Prof,

That's interesting to hear, and a very plausible trigger for attack. I think that maternal defensive-aggression is common to many species. One of the bits of footage shows a continued chase occurring - I'd have expected the dolphins to keep close to the family member, but I'm no expert. Also I'd have thought the presence of young/pregnant dolphin might have been noted. Perhaps such 'training' is done by the dolphins for when one of there 'pod' (if that's the right term for dolphins) is pregnant ? They are probably savvy enough to understand the usefulness of teaching there young defence tactics, and when giving birth they are probably most vulnerable. That's a lot of 'probables', but it makes sense to me.

Kris

Oh great, round them up and take them before a tribunal and put them on trial for genocide , oh but wait a minute they can't be tried for this because they are "insane" because of both the toxins and radar testing that have affected the elders tht are in the position of teaching the younger members of the pod. How about inbreeding? Maybe that is part of the problem... What if it was that they just couldn't voice up on the Haggis/Chocolate threads here on CR4 .

One thing that I did not see (as I scanned through the thread) was a mention of mercury poisoning. The Warnings are all over the place here in the States that too much fish could possibly lead to mercury exposure problems or something like that. Could this be a possibility? After all the dolphins DO live there in the same part of the neighborhood as the fish, not to mention consuming these fish (two for one?).

Hi Ferris,

The problem is quite simple when it comes to dolphins, they are only doing what every other animal species does when the local populations become too crowded, they kill off the vunerable, the weak and the old. As a merchant navy engineer who has travelled around every ocean and sea for many years I have witnessed this behavior several times in the past, and I can tell you that polution of any navy activity does not effect dolphin behavior so that they kill each other. In the Moray Firth on the north east coast of Scotland it is a well known fact that the dolphin population has more than trebled in size, ie they have to fight for food to keep themselves alive, (survival of the fitest is what they call it).

Spencer.

_{The Warnings are all over the place here in the States that too much fish could possibly lead to mercury exposure problems or something like that}

Dude - Dolphins can't read!

No, really I wasn't aware of this issue... Don't they travel around in schools? No that would be pods, huh? Obviously they do not know this because they 1. can't read 2. most likely wouldn't be able to read english 3. the news rags would disolve under water and they would be SO annoyed that they probably would not give a big stinky turd about anything anyways... .... I was just being a lil' sarcastic there Chaz ... Sorry

Whether these aggressive porpoises are forming their own distinct family pod or whether they have been subjected to behaviour modification is an interesting question. Perhaps it is answerable by observing the human template from the standpoint of instinct.

I would suggest these are rogue animals without any tribal connection getting rid of the food chain competition.

This is indeed a very large topic with many parametres and levels. Eye-opening!