ifaw’s Post

Two animals died at this marine mammal facility. Its punishment? A tiny little fine. A Dolphin Drowned and a Sea Lion Died. When Will the USDA Shut Down This Dangerous Marine Mammal Facility? The Institute for Marine Mammal Studies in Gulfport, Mississippi has a long history of subjecting its captive animals to harmful conditions, resulting in sickness, injuries, and even death. That includes Jester, a sea lion who joined the facility in 2015. After he arrived, he and three fellow sea lions developed eye lesions, which veterinarians linked to the overly-high levels of chlorine in their water supply. It ultimately led to his death when, in 2020 staff put him under anesthesia to surgically treat his eye. Then, two years later, a bottlenose dolphin named Jag drowned to death at the Institute. The dolphin got trapped under a panel of netting at the pool's floor. By the time staff reached him, it was too late. He died tangled up in netting, resting on the bottom of the enclosure. Under government rules, the U.S. Department of Agriculture could have fined the Institute for Marine Mammal Studies up to $12,722 for each animal's death, totaling more than $25,000. Instead, it only issued one measly warning and a single, paltry $3,000 fine. Why is the U.S. Department of Agriculture essentially letting this facility get away with deaths? It needs to do better to protect animals! Sign the petition to demand that authorities shut down this facility now! https://lnkd.in/gcVRE9SC PLS #Sign #RT and #Share TY 🙏 🐬 💙 Please #DontBuyATicket to #MurinePark...#AbusementPark This is no life for our precious sea mammals of our ocean's. #AnimalsAreNotForOurEntertainment #Saynotodolphinshows #CaptivityKills #ShameOnAllInvolved

#AnimalWelfare is just as important whether marine or land animal when used for research purposes. However sources of subjects for scientific research can come from #animalscience backgrounds that are unethical and clearly involve animal suffering that the research community would not condone. Principals are needed so that research does not appear to condone low #animalwelfare practices by working alongside cases of clear animal cruelty. BUT the potential learning for future animal welfare understanding and laws would justify it in my mind. Being able to make a positive practical difference is surely a rationale? #scientificadvancements #animalwelfarelaws

Describing what Kenya Marine Mammal Research and conservation does is a daunting task. Where to start? Helping protect and conserve Kenya’s whales, dolphins and dugong along the Kenyan coast is easy to say, but how to accurately describe, who we are, what we do and how we do it can be a challenge – when asked “What do you guys actually DO?” First off find your animals. While Kenya’s terrestrial mammals are easily sighted, locating underwater marine mammals poses a number of logistical problems. Assessing the considerable 600kms of Kenyan coast, both inshore and offshore is a mammoth task, and where to begin when dolphins, whales and dugong spend most of their time in the water! Where would you start?    Begin local  - Watamu back in 2010 our work today is probably unrecognizable from our original humble beginnings, collecting our first invaluable data with local community tour operator goggle boats in the Watamu Marine Park and Kenya Wildlife Service to help us map out those areas that dolphins and whales prefer to be. Fast forward to today what does our work look like after 14 years? Four project areas, Lamu, Ungwana Bay, Watamu and Shimoni, working with local communities after years of hard earned trust, with Kenya Wildlife Service and Wildlife Research and Training Institute. Establishing presence of animals from ocean locations, from boats, with cameras, deploying underwater audio devices recording vocalisations, from drones, and from citizen science reports from tour boats and fishermen. We currently have 2/3rd of the coast covered with 26 species identified so far in all of Kenya, and three IUCN Important Marine Mammal Areas established. Now we have more understanding now we know their preferred locations, where they live and from dead strandings where they die, about the threats they face; bycatch, and net entanglement and port development. Armed with this information we can begin to address the government and industry as well as local fishermen to mitigate the challenges that marine mammals face not only in Kenya but with partners in East African too. So when you ask us “what do you do?” we will ask “how long have you got?” because our work has no end. Thank you to all that have supported us over the last 14 year and continued

The Institute for Marine Mammal Studies in Gulfport, Mississippi has a long history of subjecting its captive animals to harmful conditions - resulting in sickness, injuries, and even death. Yet the U.S. Department of Agriculture has taken years to even issue tiny fines or wag its metaphorical finger at the facility with official warnings. Sign the petition to demand the U.S. Department of Agriculture finally take animals' protection seriously and shut down the dangerous Institute for Marine Mammal Studies! In 2020, a sea lion named Jester died while undergoing surgery at the facility for a problem he shouldn't even have developed in the beginning. Jester had always been a healthy little guy, until he arrived at the Institute in 2015. After that point, he and three other sea lions developed eye lesions - which veterinarians linked to the overly-high levels of chlorine in their water supply. But while he was under anesthesia to have an operation to treat the ulcer, he passed away. None of that should ever have happened. Then, two years later, a bottlenose dolphin named Jag drowned to death at the Institute. The dolphin was attempting to escape facility staff and got trapped under a panel of netting at the bottom of the pool. By the time staff reached him, it was too late. He died tangled up in netting, resting on the floor of the enclosure. On top of all that, experts say that holding tanks for the captive aquatic animals there contain hazardous materials including flaking paint and rust. These are all extremely dangerous for wildlife that evolved to live in the open, unconfined spaces of the ocean. Under government rules, the U.S. Department of Agriculture could have fined the Institute for Marine Mammal Studies up to $12,722 for each animal's death - totalling more than $25,000 for the two deaths combined. Instead, it only issued one measly warning and hit them with a single, paltry $3,000 fine. Why is the U.S. Department of Agriculture essentially letting this facility get away with multiple deaths? It needs to do better to protect animals! The Institute for Marine Mammal Studies has a known history of being unsafe for marine animals. It's time to shut down this facility now! Sign the petition if you agree! more

Happy World Otter Day! Did you know…. The Southern Sea Otter, also known as the California sea otter, and one of the two sea otter subspecies living in the U.S., lives in the waters along the central California coastline. Before commercial hunting took hold, there were an estimated 150,000 - 300,000 sea otters in the northern Pacific Ocean. By the time of the enactment of the Msrine Mammal Protection Act in 1972, the California population had grown from as few as 50 to more than 1,000. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service listed the Southern Sea Otter as threatened under the Endangered Species Act in 1977. After some population growth, the species population has declined in recent years, with the latest abundance estimate being a little shy of 3,000 indivividuals.

��� Marine mammals signal ocean health. Dive into NOAA's insights, the Marine Mammal Protection Act, and the Prescott Grant Program. Protect our ocean's majestic creatures and learn how you can contribute. #HotGrants #MarineMammals #OceanConservation #USFCR https://lnkd.in/ebFEpn_V

🆃🅷🅴 🅼o🆁🅴 🆈o🆄 🅺🅽o🆆 Feral cats Dilemma (?) Let's talk about a sensitive topic — feral cats. So, what's the problem with feral (aka stray or free-ranging) cats? Well, there are several. For starters, they impact wildlife through predation, competition, the spread of diseases, or even cross-breeding with wild-type species. It is known that feral cats kill millions of birds and small mammals every year worldwide. That includes species that can help us balance other "inconvenient" animals like mosquitos, cockroaches, mice (by being their natural predator), etc. But potentially also killing endangered species. Due to their abundance, they may restrict the territory of wild animals, too. And, since they live side-by-side with humans, they became adapted to diseases that wildlife may not. Then, it's very unlikely for cats to have direct predators (or natural ones, for that matter). Cats produce dozens of cats within a few months. Feeding is not enough, on the contrary, it contributes to the overpopulation crisis. Do you love cats? Have them in your space. Are there feral cats where you live? Encourage and support local entities in conducting sterilisation campaigns. You've been cool'd! #themoreyouknow #becoolthursday

New #openaccess paper on global #marinemammal #rehabilitation practices. If our goal is robust, healthy rehabilitation programs with strong impact for animals treated and their populations, we need common metrics to assess. Read the paper here: https://lnkd.in/dpKtGdkD Sea Change Health collaborated with researchers from Wildlife Conservation Insights and Sea World Foundation and found: -Rehabilitation efforts are strongest for pinnipeds, and North America was the most represented region, although marine mammal rehabilitation happens around the globe; -Data are scarce for both short- and long-term survival across species; -Reports about species threatened with extinction were significantly more likely to include data about conservation parameters than those about species of least concern; -Rehab programs are already collecting a lot of important data to be able to evaluate their success, and a focused effort to coordinate and streamline will benefit many programs. Estelle Rousselet Mélodie De Trez Margot Delemotte Shawn Johnson Claire Simeone Cath Atkins 🎉

How do we measure the 'health', or success, of marine mammal rehabilitation programs? Our new #openaccess paper looks back at more than 2 decades of literature, including 418 publications featuring 52 species of #marinemammals. We found that: -Rehabilitation efforts are strongest for pinnipeds, and North America was the most represented region, although marine mammal rehabilitation happens around the globe; -Data are scarce for both short- and long-term survival across species; -Reports about species threatened with extinction were significantly more likely to include data about conservation parameters than those about species of least concern; -Rehab programs are already collecting a lot of important data to be able to evaluate their success, and a focused effort to coordinate and streamline will benefit many programs. Read the whole paper here, and let us know your thoughts! https://lnkd.in/d5JWvkV5 This research was such a fun collaboration across regions. Estelle Rousselet, Mélodie De Trez, Margot Delemotte, Shawn Johnson, Cath Atkins - you all did great work with a monumental task! Sea Change Health, Wildlife Conservation Insights, Sea World Foundation, Sustainability MDPI. #Rehabilitation #OneHealth #Conservation #MarineMammals

Extinction 🤔is becoming a real threat faced by countless creatures across the animal 🐠🐺🦆🦉🐍🐢🦟🐛🦂kingdom. Famously, there are an estimated just 10 vaquitas remaining in the Gulf of California, Mexico. Now, the International Whaling Commission (IWC) has issued the first-ever extinction alert in its 70-year history, to spur action to help the world’s tiniest and most endangered marine mammal. Vaquitas are the smallest of all the living cetacean species measuring between 1.2 and 1.5 meters (4-5 feet). They are only found in the Gulf of California and it's thought there are just 10 left, down from around 30 in 2017. The reason for this decline in the population is due to fishers using gillnets, a specialized flat net used for the illegal hunting of totoaba fish, which are sold into the lucrative traditional Chinese medicine black market. Despite nearly thirty years of repeated warnings, the vaquita hovers on the edge of extinction due to gillnet entanglement,” the IWC said in a statement.