Not really any more information on this story Peru mass strandings currently around 600 animals. but it's an interesting interview with CNN showing the current situation.

I can't get the video to embed as it's CNNs own format but here is the link: http://edition.cnn.com/2012/04/22/world/americas/peru-dead-dolphins/

This video is quite amazing, I think the thing I find the most amazing in some ways is the way the animals strand themselves. They are just swimming along in a straight line and they don't deviate, then before they know it they are in trouble and the waves are washing them further up the beach.

I'm not sure if there are any other videos of dolphins stranding themselves, would be intersested if anyone knows of any.

On a side note while I think this is an amazing rescue, I'd be a bit worried about the possible damage done by dragging them by the tail. I understand common dolphins are very heavy (I've had to carry a few in my time), but teaming up into groups of 3-4 people and carrying them would have been a much harder but safer way of doing it! Still, at the end of the day, they got the job done!

It was just another day at the beach--or so it seemed till dozens of dolphins suddenly swam in with the surf and got stranded in the sandy shallows. The dramatic video of the stranding in the Brazilian town of Arraial do Cabo--now a YouTube sensation--shows humans rushing to help their fellow mammals, pushing and pulling hard to help the animals reach deeper water.

 

 

 

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/08/dolphin-stranding-in-brazil-triggers-mad-dash_n_1333810.html

A bit of an ongoing story here, back in November a dolphin was rescued near Alabama, the area has seen a massive increase in strandings recently, see my previous posts here: Further on the Gulf Coast strandings.

Well it appears the dolphin, named Chance is still alive and seems to be healing well although still has a long way to go. Sadly the write up doesn't tell us much about the strandings which have now been declared a "Unusual Mortality Event."

GULFPORT, Mississippi -- A nearly dead dolphin found in Alabama in November is recovering at the Institute for Marine Mammal Studies and yielding data that may help explain 630 dolphin strandings that have occurred in the northern Gulf of Mexico since February 2010.

 

Moby Solangi, director of the institute, said he is not at liberty to talk about details of what has been discovered as the dolphin named "Chance" has been nursed back from the brink of death after being rescued Nov. 24 from near a marsh at Fort Morgan.

 

"What we can say is it has revealed some significant information," Solangi said.

 

"Finding this live dolphin was like finding the black box from an airplane after a crash," he said.

 

 

 

Source: http://blog.gulflive.com/mississippi-press-news/2012/01/dolphin_found_in_alabama_is_yi.html

 

Massive fingers crossed for Chance and I hope they can work out whats happening and put an end to it soon!

The sonar vs. strandings debate has always been a very contentious one, and one I'm not going to comment on. However it is fantastic to see the US Navy taking the problem seriously and conducting some research.

That’s why a team of marine mammal specialists, engineers, acousticians, and biologists were placing suction cup tags on whales and dolphins from the Santa Monica Bay to the Orange County Coast these past few days.

 

The tags gather a plethora of information including how deep the whales dive, their exact route and location and their response to loud underwater noises.

 

This is the second year of this Navy funded study called SOCAL-11 and it seeks to determine how different species in different scenarios react to sonar.

 

Of course the overall goal is help the Navy become environmentally compliant.

 

“The Navy has been wonderful as they really want to discover where and when they should not be using sonar,” said senior scientist Brandon Southall from SEA and the University of California at Santa Cruz.

 

Source: http://lagunaniguel.patch.com/articles/united-states-navy-seeks-to-understand-possible-reasons-for-whale-strandings