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Scientists: peru dolphin, pelican die-offs likely unrelated,autopsy delays criticized by 123wert sdfsf
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Scientists: peru dolphin, pelican die-offs likely unrelated,autopsy delays criticized by 123WERT SDFSF
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| Article Posted: 01/22/2013 |
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Scientists: peru dolphin, pelican die-offs likely unrelated,autopsy delays criticized |
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LIMA, Peru – The carcasses of dead pelicans still litter the beaches ofnorthern Peru, even as the last of nearly 900 dolphins are slowlybeing cleared away. The mass die-offs have Peruvian scientists searching for a causeand environmentalists raising questions about the government'sability to protect the Pacific nation's marine life, among theworld's most abundant thanks to the Humboldt current that hugs mostof its 1,500-mile (2,400-kilometer) coast. After weeks of study, investigators say they think they know whythe 4,450 pelicans have died: Hotter than usual ocean temperatureshave driven a type of anchovy deeper into the sea, beyond the reachof many young pelicans. But Peruvian scientists studying the deaths of dolphins andporpoises from early February to mid-April say it remains amystery, due in part to the government's slowness in investigatingthe phenomenon. Authorities were so late in gathering tissues from the mammals thatcrucial clues were likely lost, said the scientist heading thedolphin death probe, Armando Hung, head of the molecular biologylab at Cayetano Heredia University.
At the same time, local officials were so slow to remove thecarcasses of the dead animals that the Health Ministry urged thepublic last weekend to stay away from beaches from Lima, thecoastal capital, northward, though it did not identify any specifichealth issue. Up and down the coast, disoriented pelicans have been seen standingon beaches where they don't normally alight. Some have even beenseen walking along coastal roadways. And beginning at the end of January, daily catches of about 5 tonsof anchovetas a day by fishermen in the northern region ofLambayeque dwindled after they began finding the small fish dead onthe beach, said Fernando Nique, president of the Puerto Etenfishermen's association.
"After that, we haven't seen any more anchoveta," he said. Patricia Majluf, a biologist and former deputy fisheries minister,said that tongues of warm water reach into coastal zones, drivinganchovetas deeper underwater where many birds can't reach them. "For a coast as dynamic as ours, it's not rare that this occurs,"said Majluf. "It looks ugly because this has occurred at the sametime and place (as the dolphin deaths)." A biologist at the National University of Trujillo, CarlosBocanegra, said his analysis of 10 dying pelicans last weeksupports that theory. Their digestive tracts were either empty orhad the remains of fish pelicans don't normally eat.
Scientists say the dead pelicans are generally young, 3-4 yearsold, an age in which they do not dive as deep as their elders. Ocean temperatures in the region, said Bocanegra, are currently 6degrees Celsius (10 degrees Fahrenheit) above normal for this timeof year, Peru's autumn. A similiar pelican die-off happened in 1982-1983 and again in1997-1998 when the El Nino meteorological phenomena warmed theocean, Bocanegra said. "We saw mass deaths along Peru's entire coast, also associated withhigh sea temperatures. Pelicans, cormorants, Peruvian boobies andguanay cormorants died," he said.
The dolphin die-off, by contrast, remains a mystery. Hung told The Associated Press that lab tests have so far ruled outa number of bacterial infections as the cause of the dolphindeaths, though other tests remain. Because the dolphins were so decomposed, Hung said, it wasimpossible to rule out a theory promoted by the sea mammalconservation group Orca, which initially publicized the dolphindie-off. Its director, Carlos Yaipen, says he believes thecetaceans were killed by shock waves generated by acoustic"explosions" used to test the sea bed for oil deposits. Yaipen says he found dolphins with broken bones in their ears,internal hemorrhages and some of their organs collapsed.
Hedescribed his findings at a congressional hearing on Tuesday,saying he encountered the first batch on Feb. 12. The government agency in charge of the investigation, the PeruvianSea Institute, or IMARPE, did not provide an explanation for thedelay in obtaining dolphin samples for testing. "At the moment I have no answer," agency spokesman Vicente Palominosaid Tuesday. Government officials have said they have no evidence the dolphindeaths are related to seismic oil exploration work that was carriedout off northern Peru between Feb.
8 and April 8 by theHouston-based company BPZ Energy, and the company says it doesn'tbelieve the deaths were related. Hundreds of dolphins have at times turned up dead on beaches invarious parts of the world, though the number in northern Peru wasparticularly high. Scientists have said that agrochemical runoff from rivers or heavymetals from upstream mining could be potential factors in the Perudolphin deaths. However, IMARPE's director, Raul Castillo, saidTuesday that testing had ruled out heavy metals, pesticides andalgae-related biotoxins.
"One of the things we do know is just how fragile we havediscovered our ecosystems have become," said Sue Rocca, aU.S.-based marine biologist with the Whale and Dolphin ConservationSociety. She said blooms of algae or other biotoxins can affectmarine mammals and could be involved. Juan Carlos Sueiro, an economist who has worked in government andwith public interest groups on coastal protection, said thedie-offs highlight Peru's general lack of readiness for emergenciesof this sort. "The resources are scarce and in a situation like this there is noprocedure or team in place," he said. A larger problem, Sueiro added, is Peru's incomplete monitoring ofthe health of its coastal waters.
Beaches are monitored during the summer by the Health Ministry, andbays and other areas crucial to the fishing industry are checked byIMARPE, an agency of the fisheries division of Peru's ProductionMinistry. "Peru doesn't have a policy of coastal territory management," saidSueiro. "It is probably the most backward in the entire region." ___ Frank Bajak on Twitter: twitter.com/fbajak Franklin Briceno on Twitter: twitter.com/franklinbriceno. I am an expert from Furniture & Furnishings, usually analyzes all kind of industries situation, such as exotic bedroom furniture , convertible dining tables.
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