Gag Order Imposed on Dead Dolphin Investigation
OVER 400 BABY DOLPHINS HAVE WASHED ASHORE IN THE GULF SINCE FEBRUARY
As dead baby bottlenose dolphins continueto wash up in record numbers on the shores of the Gulf of Mexico, scientists working for the government have been slapped with a gag order (see right column). Although sea life washes ashore on a regular basis in the area, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has designate these deaths as an "unusual mortality event". That way, it doesn't sound like dead baby dolphins. Beyond the issue of the sheer number of rotting carcasses is the question of why they are virtually all infants pre-term, neonatal or very young. Some, but not all, of the animals are turning up covered with oil.
Perhaps more alarming than the actual bodies washing ashore is the fact that a much larger die-off is likely taking place off shore.
Although sea life washes ashore on a regular basis in the area, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has designate these deaths as an "unusual mortality event". That way, it doesn't sound like dead baby dolphins.
In addition to the plague of dead dolphins, two types of endangered sea turtle have also been discovered close to shore or washed up on the beaches. The majority of them are the endangered Kemp's ridley sea turtles, along with some loggerheads. Subsequent research indicates that while some were killed by boats, most seemed to have drowned near the bottom of the Gulf -- possibly either from forced submergence or an acute toxic event.
The NOAA Fisheries agency has indicated tissue samples from both turtles and dolphins are being documented due to the civil and criminal litigation ongoing with BP.
GAG ORDER SILENCES DOLPHIN RESEARCHERS
According to Reuters news service, a gag order forbidding scientists at the National Marine Fisheries Service to discuss their finding in the dead dolphins and turle die off. The gag order was contained in an agency letter informing outside scientists had been folded into a federal criminal investigation launched last summer into the oil spill.
According to regional news sources, the locals don't trust the government and think another coverup is underway:
"The government's full of more crap than a bathroom at a Taco Bell," one Louisiana fisherman told this reporter over the weekend. "Anybody down here with a lick of sense knows that."
