Irish scientists working for the Shannon Dolphin and Wildlife Foundation have made an interesting discovery that may also relate to Panama’s ongoing controversy about a proposal to capture wild dolphins from this country’s waters on both sides of the isthmus. The AFP news service reports that when using a computer set up in a County Clare barn to analyze the recorded sounds of some 120 bottlenose dolphins that live in the Shannon estuary, researchers found eight categories of whistling sounds not found among another group of the same species in Cardigan Bay, Wales. The two groups of dolphins were eavesdropped upon by means of hydrophones, in a project involving not only the foundation in Shannon but also several universities and grant money from the Vodafone Group Foundation.

It is known that dolphins use sound both the communicate with one another and for ecolocation — finding their way around by a natural sonar ability. Scientists are far from being able to decipher dolphin language, but researchers with the foundation are working on it by compiling a catalog of dolphin sounds, correlating them with observed behaviors and by building mathematical models of these.

It may be just a human conceit to reserve the definition of “language” to the ways that we communicate among ourselves, but the Shannon researchers are describing what they think they may have found as a difference in “dialect.” Similar differences, sometimes limited to small related groups within a species, have been noted among certain monkeys and whales.

Just how to define the differences in the ways that distinct groups of bottlenose dolphins communicate will require more research.

This research has been conducted among dolphins living in their natural wild environments. We really don’t know many details about how captivity affects dolphin communication, but there are clearly disruptions of the natural sonic environment and social structures when dolphins are held captive. It just might be that to take dolphins from the Solomon Islands and put them in a pen with other dolphins in Cancun, Mexico, or to take dolphins from Bocas del Toro and confine them with Pacific dolphins would be to put them into artificial social groups whose members have no common system of communication.

Ireland and the UK don’t allow the capture of wild dolphins in their waters, so there won’t be any comparative studies of Irish and Welsh dolphin languages as affected by captivity. But despite the absence of dolphin parks’ marine dog tricks, the dolphin studies in the wild still add to a profitable tourism industry. Some 25,000 tourists take to the waters of the Shannon estuary in small boats every year to observe the dolphins and it’s a growing niche in overall ecotourism. Evidence of a peculiar Irish dolphin “brogue” is likely to enhance the attraction.

Despite the recent loss of a newborn dolphin, a marine mammal acoustic researcher said Sunday the ability to record sounds emanating from the calf as it was born may provide new insight into dolphin communications.

“We have his first sounds, which took place about two seconds after birth, ” said Jack Kassewitz of SpeakDolphin.com.

Before that, scientists had wondered whether dolphins took a long time to learn sound and echolocation or whether they were hard-wired at birth.

The calf was born June 11 to a deaf Atlantic bottlenose dolphin at the Marine Mammal Conservancy. It died Friday.

The calf’s sounds were recorded in an isolated environment without multiple dolphins present.

Something is happening at the National Aquarium, and the dolphins know it. They are taking turns peering through a small opening in the gate that separates their tank from another one. In the next tank is a new dolphin!

“They’re really curious animals in general,” Aquarium spokeswoman Hillary Bates said. “They know when somebody new is in there.”

The new guy is Chinook, who arrived last week from the Minnesota Zoo. He has come to pair bond — or become buddies — with Bo, the Aquarium’s 3-year-old male dolphin, Bates said.

“It’s natural for dolphins to pair bond in their [wild] environment,” she said. “Dolphins are really social animals.” Chinook will join the nine Atlantic Bottlenose dolphins at the aquarium, but it is unknown when the public can see him in the dolphin show.

“It will depend on when he’s feeling comfortable and interacting normally,” she said. “He’ll bring behaviors [to the show] we haven’t necessarily done before. Hopefully he’ll be adapting well.”

“I like dolphins and sharks,” 3-year-old Conor McCoy said during a visit to the dolphin tank.

“I remember seeing a dolphin and he had to stand up,” aquarium visitor Hank Reinhardt, 7, said.

When Chinook has adapted to his surroundings, he’ll join the shows. For now, he’s still so new, even the staff hasn’t seen him.

A rare and unique species of dolphin living off the west coast of the North Island of New Zealand could be saved from distinction by a new marine sanctuary being proposed.

The sanctuary, which is planned from Maunganui Bluff in Northland to Cape Egmont in Taranaki, will protect Maui dolphins that are down to 111 in the species.

The project, if it is given the green light by the government, will mean a ban on set netting, trawling and excessive use of speed by boats in the area.

Mark Bellingham from Forest and Bird says if it works we could see numbers rise once again.

Dolphins living off the coast of Wales whistle, bark and groan in a different dialect from dolphins off the western coast of Ireland, scientists have discovered.

Different physical environments might have contributed to the mammals developing distinctive sets of vocalisations or “dialects”, said Simon Berrow from the Shannon Dolphin and Wildlife Foundation.

Berrow supervised a master’s thesis by student Ronan Hickey at University of Wales, Bangor, who analysed 1,882 whistles from the dolphins in the Shannon estuary and bottlenose dolphins in Cardigan Bay in Wales. The study found 32 different sound categories, of which eight were only produced by the Shannon animals.

“The idea that the sounds are different is not a bad notion - you’d expect the information had to be different given the diversity of the areas where they reside,” Berrow told Reuters, adding he would use the data to create a dictionary of sounds and pursue the research further, should time and money allow.

Filly is young female bottlenose dolphin from Sarasota Bay. The dolphin was first spotted back in December of 2006 and had a fishing line trailing her tail. A month later Filly was seen again still with the fishing line but not algae had attached to the line. This was causing an additional drag and making the line cut deeper in Filly’s flesh.

Mote Dolphin and Whale Hospital received permission from the federal agency that regulates the protection of wild marine mammals, NOAA Fisheries Service, to aid the dolphin.

Sarasota Dolphin Research Program manager Dr. Randall Wells led a 30 member team on Jan 30th to free the dolphin from the line. The team was unable to move the line there so Filly was brought to Mote Dolphin and Whale Hospital where the line was removed and the dolphin was treated.

The hospitals chief veterinarian, Dr. Charles Manire, performed two surgeries to remove the line that had embedded into the dolphin’s skin near the tail and wrapped around the bone. A segment about a foot long that encircled the spinal column three times had to be removed. At the hospital the dolphin was also treated for infection.

“We found that Filly had ingested plastic and had obvious scars from a boat strike, as well as a scar from a shark bite,” Manire said. “She came in underweight, but has gained weight and grown. I’m hopeful she can survive on her own.”

Filly’s isn’t the only case that illustrates a serious issue facing resident dolphin population, Wells said. “Cases of dolphins being negatively affected by humans are becoming all too common on Sarasota Bay,” and he added. “In 2006, at least three adult dolphins clearly died as a result of recreational fishing gear entanglement and a fourth dolphin died with a large fishing lure in its mouth. A fifth dolphin was entangled in a man’s bikini bathing suit that had begun cutting into its pectoral fins.

Now this young dolphin would likely have died from having its tail cut off if it had not been rescued. While the loss of an additional three or four dolphins in one year and another injured from human interactions may not seem like a lot to some, our models show that continued unnatural dolphin deaths at this level will lead to the demise of the long-term resident Sarasota dolphin community.”

NOAA Fisheries has granted a conditional release for Filly now that she has had eight weeks of treatment. If the dolphin needs additional help contingencies are in place to return her to rehab.

Filly is a young dolphin, she had already separated from her mother when she was only 18 months. Most bottlenose dolphins stay with their mother, during this time they learn crucial survival skills, anywhere from three to six years after birth.

Five of 17 trained dolphins rescued during Hurricane Katrina and taken to a marine mammal center in the Bahamas are pregnant, officials said Thursday.

A sixth dolphin gave birth to a stillborn calf earlier this week, the Dolphin Cay center said in a statement.

The dolphins were from the Marine Life Oceanarium marine park in Gulfport that was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. Some of the animals were swept out to the Gulf of Mexico following the storm. After being rescued, the dolphins were moved to a Bahamas’ resort early last year.

The mammals had lived at the Oceanarium, doing jumps and other tricks for tourists, before it was severely damaged by Katrina.

The five pregnant dolphins – two first-time moms and three experienced mothers – are doing well, said Teri Corbett, vice president of Marine Mammal Operations.

Corbett, in a phone interview, said the pregnancies were “a sign of adjustment.”

“It means they’re comfortable in their environment, and they’re comfortable enough to raise children.”

The dolphin that gave birth to a stillborn calf did not appear to experience complications during her pregnancy, officials said.

More than 50 percent of first-time dolphin births fail both in the wild and in controlled environments, said Dr. Michael Renner, a veterinarian who monitored the dolphin.

The dolphin center is located in the Atlantis Paradise Island resort. The rescued dolphins live along with four others in seven interconnected pools comprising an 11-acre lagoon at the resort.

A bottlenose dolphin found stranded near Mile Marker 18 at Padre Island National Seashore on Saturday night by park staff has pneumonia, officials with the Texas State Aquarium said Monday.

But additional tests still are needed to determine the overall condition of the 287-pound dolphin, said Sarah Paige, the aquarium’s animal husbandry director.

The female dolphin, who was given the name Alice, receives fluids every four hours and is monitored closely at the aquarium’s Sea Lab. She is housed alone in a 40,000-gallon tank.

Lea Walker, Corpus Christi regional coordinator for the Texas Marine Mammal Stranding Network, estimated the dolphin is an adult about 5 to 7 years old.

“We’re cautiously optimistic at this point,” Walker said. “She’s definitely feisty.”

Park employees on sea turtle patrol spotted the dolphin about 6 p.m. Saturday and immediately contacted Texas Marine Mammal Stranding Network staff to help in the rescue.

Rain, high winds and cold weather made it tough for rescuers to reach the dolphin’s location and to make the careful transfer.

“The beach was horrible. It took about two hours to get there and getting back was bad too,” Walker said.

Aquarium staff and network volunteers are unsure why the dolphin became stranded but plan to begin feeding her solid food within the next couple days.

“We have to be careful and introduce it slowly,” Walker said. “We might start with a mixture of fish gruel.”

Bottlenose dolphins commonly inhabit warm seas throughout the world and on average live about 25 years. Officials said the bodies of very young or old dolphins that became ill often are found stranded along the coastline between January and late March.

“The fact that she’s alive shows she’s tough,” Walker said. “The best-case scenario is she fully recovers and can be re-released into the Gulf of Mexico.”

For the first time, scientists in Florida have rigged a “chat line” to the unborn calf of a deaf dolphin so the baby can learn how to speak in utero.

When marine biologists rescued Castaway in November, they knew the clock was ticking. As a pregnant dolphin she needed to return to the sea to give birth with her social group, or pod. But four attempts to release her failed. Eventually experts diagnosed her tragic problem.

“She didn’t respond to any auditory stimuli and that’s when we started to suspect she was deaf ,” said Jana G. Fly, a veterinarian at the Marine Mammal Conservancy in Key Largo, Fla.

For a dolphin hearing is more important than any other sense. They need it to utilize their sonar, which is how they find food, avoid their predators and communicate.

Biologists believe that in the wild Castaway was likely cared for by her dolphin pod, but in the open ocean alone she and her baby have no chance of survival.

“Her baby will have to stay in the captive facility as well and we don’t know if she’ll be able to speak with her,” Fly said.

But Castaway’s caretakers have a plan. They’ve installed a “dolphin chat line” at the Marine Mammal Conservancy in Key Largo.

The squeaks and clicks of dolphins at a nearby facility are transmitted live, via a phone line, for Castaway’s baby to hear in the womb. For a dolphin these vocalizations are like a mother’s voice to a human infant.

Her caretakers won’t know if this pioneering system will help until the baby is born in a few weeks, but until then Castaway’s family has already gotten a bit bigger.

“She has no other dolphins,” Fly said. “We humans have become her pod.”

A BOTTLE-NOSE dolphin nicknamed ‘Flipper’ by locals has been trapped in East Ballina’s Prospect Lake for more than a week.

Marine mammal experts fear the dolphin could die if it stays in the lake much longer and have planned a rescue operation for this morning to relocate it into the nearby Richmond River estuary.

Resident Luke Barr said his jaw dropped when he first saw Flipper about two weeks ago, while fishing at the lake.

“My mate’s face went red and I wondered what was wrong. Then I saw the dolphin too,” he said.

“I’ve seen it almost every day for the past two weeks.

It hangs around when we go fishing and has come as close as two metres from us.”

Liz Hawkins, a PhD student from the whale research centre at Southern Cross University (SCU) said it was not unusual that Flipper had gone into the lake, as bottle-nose dolphins often went looking for food in lakes and estuaries.

The concern was that it had not been able to get out and was likely to catch a fatal skin disease from being in fresh water for too long, or run out of food. Dolphins eat up to 10kg of fish each day.

Lawrence Orel, from the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service, said a dolphin in similar circumstances had died from starvation after staying in the lake for a few weeks in 2000.

National Parks and Wildlife, Australian Seabird Rescue and experts from SCU and Seaworld are working on the rescue with support from Ballina Shire Council and NSW Fisheries.