Vaquita (CR)

“WDCS” says that SeaWorld has announced, it intends laying off 350 employees – mostly in administration – following a slump in profits and low attendances at its captivity shows.
—-—-—-—-—
RE-UPLOAD. Now that the Mediterranean Monk Seal can be considered as functionally extinct – or as something that will go extinct anyway, no matter what we do – I decided to remove its photo and replace it by this critically endangered mammal. Now the vaquita and the Hawaiian Monk Seal are the only critically endangered species of marine mammals.
“http://wwf.panda.org/what_we_do/endangered_species/cetaceans/about/vaquita/”, “http://www.worldwildlife.org/species/finder/vaquita/vaquita.html” and “http://www.vivavaquita.org/” are websites of organisations that try to preserve this cute animal and they even give you the chance of getting involved.

The newsletter of the marine mammal rescue organisation “WDCS Deutschland” says that 640.000 tons of fishing nets and other waste left behind by the fishing industry pollute the sea as of today. Just considering the population of humpback whales in the Gulf of Maine you can say that half of them got entangled at least once in their life often getting injured or even scarred. Just for the US-state of Maine they count an average number of 25 humpback whales killed by fishing nets per year. This number doesn’t even consider other marine mammals, non-edible fish or fowl.

“Tierschutz Euskirchen” says that a dolphin breached itself on a beach in Spain this week. Instead of calling the marine rescue people, some tourists – among them adult men and women who should have known better – used the situation to make some selfies. The young dolphin then died.

>Good news! I just removed my photo depicting two critically endangered monk seals. As it turned out “IUCN” meanwhile started a new research that found out that both seals have recovered. But then again it’s also sad that now all these interesting discussions we had under this photo are gone; about the unique looks of the Hawaiian monk seal; about the scientific theory that by protecting plankton-eating species of whales we could slow down the greenhouse effect; about several cases of illegal dolphin-shootings in Italy, Mexico and the USA and about this mysterious epidemic that back then killed many seals in the Baltic Sea.
>“WDCS” says that President Trump now allowed a project on the East coast of the USA to search for natural gas and petroleum. As this project also involves some very loud engines, environmentalists fear the effects – disorientation, difficult communication in whale pods, less interest in breeding etc. – this may have on the dolphins, seals and whales living in this area.

“WDC”says that in the Elbe recently many porpoises have been found. Reason may be disorientation due to tourists making too much noise while having fun in the Elbe, motorboats hitting and injuring them by accident, but also due to accidental water pollution during construction works near the river.