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Gray whale

UN adopts High Seas Treaty to protect the ocean

At the UN 'High Seas Treaty' negotiations in New York, a historic vote for the...

Hopes raised for whale and dolphin protection after last minute landmark nature agreement

WDC's Ed Goodall (far right) at COP15 with Thérèse Coffey (centre) UK Secretary of State...

WDC orca champion picks up award

Beatrice Whishart MSP picks up her Nature Champion award The Scottish Environment LINK, an organisation...

Large number of dolphins moved to Abu Dhabi marine park

Up to 24 captive bottlenose dolphins have reportedly been sent to a new SeaWorld theme...

Begging for food from fishermen may be harming dolphins

Researchers at Savannah State University in the US have concluded that dolphins foraging for fish stuck in or stirred up by the long, submerged nets of local shrimp trawlers are passing on this knowledge and behaviour to other dolphins in their group.

 

However, the research, published in PLOS ONE, also makes reference to the trawling activity having wider, negative impacts on the dolphins, dividing the wider group into those that do beg or forage for fish in the nets, and those that don’t. As well as the physical risks to half the group who do get close to these shrimp nets, there is also a risk that the whole population will split completely into two sub populations (those that beg and those that don’t) that then don’t mix, and so reducing rates of reproduction.

Recently, researchers used data spanning 45 years to illustrate how contact with human’s puts dolphins at risk as they become ‘conditioned’ very quickly, and that this can place the dolphins in harm’s way.