Captivity...

Hey everyone!!
So you probably remember that "The Cove" won an Oscar for best documentary (check my last post), and I did some more research. I saw that the film follows this Marine Biologist who used to train dolphins. For the movie Flipper, he trained five dolphins caught in the wild. After the movie, dolphins became wildly popular. However, all was NOT well. Though the dolphins seemed happy (what with their permanent smile), they were truly not at all. In fact, one female died in this man's arms. This dolphin did not die a natural death, though; in fact, the captivity plus being trained to do petty tricks made her so insane that she committed a form of suicide by voluntarily closing her blowhole. When she was ABOVE the water. After this man (Ric O'Barry) saw the dolphin (Kathy) die in this gruesome way, he took a different path. He became a fierce advocate of dolphins, and of course, eventually made the documentary.
The main reason I made this post is that I want to talk about captivity in dolphins. Some of you might know of a Killer Whale named Tilly (or Shamu in Seaworld shows) killing his trainer. If not, please check the following link: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/09/opinion/09iht-eddesmond.html
Anyways, I do feel horrible for the trainer. Her sister apparently said that the woman had been dreaming of being a trainer since she was young. However, we do have to look at this from a killer whale's point of view, so I made a sort of example. Let's imagine you are happily living wherever you do currently. Suddenly these people you don't know take you from your home, without any proper explanation, pile you into a helicopter, and take you to an odd place. It's like a shabby version of your own house- let's say a little box thing. They dump you in here, perhaps with a few other people who you would not ever get along with. Then the shows. These people bring huge, loud, and sometimes rude crowds around you, and tell you to sit down, stand up, and do a few little tricks for morsels of food. This is like adding insult to the injury. They keep you in this place indefinitely, perhaps for the rest of your life. OR they put you back in your home. This may seem like a nice thing, but it truly is not if you have been in captivity for a long enough time. You forgot how to cook, you are half-blind, and your family has moved on without you. You have become some sort of outsider. This is, in my opinion, what dolphins and orcas feel. The orca might have been violent by nature, or perhaps it was driven insane by the prospect of never being free again.
Please think about these things when you go to Seaworld or any place like that, and PLEASE keep in mind that this is purely my own opinion; I do not mean to offend anyone by this.
Think about it and comment. Thanks!
--Snoops

Oscars!

Hey everyone,
So many of you are probably watching the Oscars right now, or did before when you are reading this. I am happy to say that a documentary called The Cove won the best documentary award. This documentary, based on what I saw, is about many dolphins being killed in Japan and sold as food(ugh). It's really sad, but it makes me feel better that people are doing this to stop dolphins. The producers of the documentary stepped up on stage, anyways, and held up this sign that said to text the word Dolphin to 44144. Well, without thinking, I did this. I then checked online what would happen if I did. According to some sites I found that they send texts back on how to end dolphin slaughter in Japan. So if you are reading this ANYTIME soon from when I am posting this, please text to this number to see how to help dolphins. And if it isn't TOO gory, I'm going to try and watch this film.
--Snoops

Botos and Amazonian Dolphin Folklore

Sorry for the long absence.. Unfortunately, many things can get in the way of blogging, as I have deftly stumbled upon ;). Getting to the post...
Brownie points for the person who can find something more AWESOME than a pink dolphin! It's true, though. Deep in the lush jungles of the Amazon... In the Amazon River.. Lie these dolphins that are straight out bubblegum pink! These Amazon River dolphins, or Botos, don't start out pink, though. It's sort of like a sun tan of sorts. These dolphins are, unfortunately, endangered due to pollution, overfishing, and water trafficking. It's a shame, considering how important they are in Amazonian folklore and mythology.
In mythology, there was this "young man" who would enchant a LOT of young women in the night, but become a dolphin again by day. The locals also believe that it is bad luck to kill these dolphins. In fact, it was thought that the Dolphins were the guardians of the Amazonian Manatee. If you want to see a manatee, you basically have to get on the dolphin's good side first. I only wish that American dolphin folklore was so rich.. Sigh.. :P

A picture of the Pink Dolphin:(URL http://csiwhalesalive.org/IgOmachaSandalo.jpg)
--Snoops
PS This dolphin is not to be confused with the very popular albino bottlenose dolphin calf, Pinky. More on Pinky in the next post!

Newest Dolphin!

This post is about the newest dolphin species, dubbed the "ugliest" dolphin... I think it's sorta cute, but that's me.
So anyways: It was discovered so recently partly because it has probably been confused with the Irrawaddy Dolphin. It is called the Australian Snubfin dolphin, and was discovered in 2005. It is included in the Orcaella family, along with the Irrawaddy. Most live near Australia, but some have been found near Papua New Guinea. They can be told apart from Irrawaddies because the Snubfins are tri-colored, while their cousins are usually monochromatic, or sometimes have two colors.


The image is an Irrawaddy
lolz it has a hat =)
Below is a link with actual footage of the snubfin! Go check it out!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7536830.stm
Image link: http://swimwithdolphins.information.in.th/images/irrawaddy-cowboy-dolphin.jpg

-snoops =)

Misc...

Hey! Sorry I haven't posted in a long time. I was trying to find this book that I saw Vacquitas in-- it's a great book, and though it may be a little outdated, I will continue to look for it, and say all the info on another post.

For this post:

This is mostly bits and pieces that I have found. Baijis, Chinese River Dolphins, were thought to be extinct; this happened a few Decembers ago. Well, I have to say I was absolutely devastated.I had been hoping that pollution in the Yangtze River would lessen, but it didn't. I'm not blaming anyone, as the Yangtze is a bustling river of trade, but it still made me sad to learn of their extinction. The interesting part of this post is that I did a little bit of research, and found that scientists managed to take footage of the dolphins in the wild. They are now just critically endangered. This is still in the "red zone", but it IS a start, and I'm sure that scientists are starting small captive breeding programs.

I have a REALLY good book on dolphins, porpoises, and whales, by the way, so I'll put some info on this post. If you want to learn a LOT (and I mean a lot) on cetaceans, please read this book. It's really great! 

Whales, Dolphins, and Porpoises

The bestselling guide to whales, dolphins, and porpoises

By: Mark Carwardine, R. Ewan Fordyce, Peter Gill, and Erich Hoyt

Copyright 1998, published by Fog City Press

On the cover, there is an image of a breaching orca

Awesome, Awesome book. 

--Snoops (I'm going to sign off with this name from now on)

PS In the comments, please say what I can improve on to make this blog more interesting. I want to get more readers!

Vaquitas (lil cows :D)

Hi! This is the first post in a long time; sorry, but other things in life often seem to get in front of blogging, quite unfortunately ;D...

So, getting down to business:

This post isn't really about dolphins, but about a type of porpoise. It is called the Vaquita (Phocoena sinus), which means "little cow" in Spanish. They are extremely endangered, due to being caught in nets, and they are endangered to the point of most pictures being of dead vaquitas. They are short and stocky, which is the physical structure of all porpoises. They are notably the smallest cetaceans, and reach almost five feet at the most. More on this topic later!

--Snoops  

Note:

YAYYY!!! I got ads!! (finally) :D very, very happy