Adelaide's Port River dolphins are being given more protection, with two new rangers appointed to patrol the waterway.
The State Government has launched a research and patrol boat to better protect the dolphin population and monitor the health of the river.
The River is home to about 40 dolphins, with up to 300 visiting during the year.
Dr Mike Bossley from the Australian Dolphin research foundation says the rangers will also have to protect the dolphins from some of their biggest fans.
"People go out and they see dolphins and they get very excited and it there's children on board the boat they want to get close and take photos and that sort of stuff," he said.
"If too much of that happens it can be a negative impact on the dolphins and can stress the dolphins out, so it's necessary for the rangers to just to explain to people how not to love the dolphins to death basically."
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Friday, August 8, 2008
Harassment of wayward NJ dolphins increasing
TOMS RIVER, N.J. - More people are harassing a group of dolphins that has been lolling about in two New Jersey rivers, volunteers who have been keeping watch over them said Thursday.
Bill Schultz, the Raritan Riverkeeper, is one of several volunteers who have been keeping an eye on the pod of 12 to 15 dolphins that lately has been frolicking in the Navesink River in Red Bank.
He said boaters are increasing their harassment of the dolphins near the Route 35 bridge between Red Bank and Middletown.
"I'm starting to get concerned, because people are getting more callous in their treatment of the animals," he said Thursday before a public hearing in Toms River on beach access.
"I was out Sunday, and I counted 32 boats surrounding them," Schultz said. "There are more people who are violently chasing them with kayaks and personal watercraft. They just won't leave them alone."
Earlier this summer, the dolphins showed up in the Shrewsbury River in Sea Bright, possibly after making a wrong turn following schools of bait fish along the coast. While they fed and frolicked in the narrow waterway, most people gave them space, even though a few had to be shooed away by state Marine Police and federal wildlife officials.
But now that the dolphins have ventured into the nearby Navesink, the pressure on them is getting worse, said Lorraine McCartney, another Riverkeeper volunteer.
"People stop their cars right on the bridge and park and look at them until the police come and order them to move," she said.
Federal regulations require that boaters stay at least 50 yards away from the dolphins; harassing them is a federal offense punishable by a $10,000 fine.
Teri Frady, a spokeswoman for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said she had not heard of stepped-up harassment of the dolphins, and could not immediately say how many people have been issued warnings or fines for bothering them.
Schultz said some of the people he approached and informed that they were venturing too close to the dolphins immediately complied and appeared not to know they were breaking any rule. But others ignored him.
"Some of them just don't care," he said. "They want to get their Flipper picture."
What, if anything, to do about the dolphins has been the subject of great debate since they surfaced in the Shrewsbury River in late June. Federal wildlife officials are loath to do anything that would stress the dolphins, and say there is time to wait for them to head back out to the open waters of Sandy Hook Bay and then the ocean.
But volunteer rescuers are worried that waiting too long could invite an even worse replay of a disastrous scenario that resulted in the deaths of four dolphins who lingered too long in the Shrewsbury River in 1993. Ice eventually closed in on them and they drowned.
Bill Schultz, the Raritan Riverkeeper, is one of several volunteers who have been keeping an eye on the pod of 12 to 15 dolphins that lately has been frolicking in the Navesink River in Red Bank.
He said boaters are increasing their harassment of the dolphins near the Route 35 bridge between Red Bank and Middletown.
"I'm starting to get concerned, because people are getting more callous in their treatment of the animals," he said Thursday before a public hearing in Toms River on beach access.
"I was out Sunday, and I counted 32 boats surrounding them," Schultz said. "There are more people who are violently chasing them with kayaks and personal watercraft. They just won't leave them alone."
Earlier this summer, the dolphins showed up in the Shrewsbury River in Sea Bright, possibly after making a wrong turn following schools of bait fish along the coast. While they fed and frolicked in the narrow waterway, most people gave them space, even though a few had to be shooed away by state Marine Police and federal wildlife officials.
But now that the dolphins have ventured into the nearby Navesink, the pressure on them is getting worse, said Lorraine McCartney, another Riverkeeper volunteer.
"People stop their cars right on the bridge and park and look at them until the police come and order them to move," she said.
Federal regulations require that boaters stay at least 50 yards away from the dolphins; harassing them is a federal offense punishable by a $10,000 fine.
Teri Frady, a spokeswoman for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said she had not heard of stepped-up harassment of the dolphins, and could not immediately say how many people have been issued warnings or fines for bothering them.
Schultz said some of the people he approached and informed that they were venturing too close to the dolphins immediately complied and appeared not to know they were breaking any rule. But others ignored him.
"Some of them just don't care," he said. "They want to get their Flipper picture."
What, if anything, to do about the dolphins has been the subject of great debate since they surfaced in the Shrewsbury River in late June. Federal wildlife officials are loath to do anything that would stress the dolphins, and say there is time to wait for them to head back out to the open waters of Sandy Hook Bay and then the ocean.
But volunteer rescuers are worried that waiting too long could invite an even worse replay of a disastrous scenario that resulted in the deaths of four dolphins who lingered too long in the Shrewsbury River in 1993. Ice eventually closed in on them and they drowned.
Monday, July 28, 2008
Swimming with dolphins may not have any health benefit
But swimming with dolphins, or dolphin-assisted therapy (DAT) as it is scientifically known, may not actually have any mental or physical health benefits to human beings at all, according to new research.
In a scientific paper for the journal the Archives of Disease in Childhood, paediatricians Anna Baverstock and Fiona Finlay of the Community Child Health Department in Bath concluded that there is no reliable evidence that it actually works. And they say that it may even prevent patients from seeking more effective and traditional forms of treatment.
Baverstock and Finlay conducted the review because a mother was seeking medical support for her son and they needed to determine whether swimming with dolphins had any health benefits for children with cerebral palsy. They found that at best, it has the same likelihood of success - and failure - as having the patient interact with a small puppy.
The news will come as a blow to the multi-million pound dolphin-assisted therapy industry, which insists that playing with the intelligent marine mammals can help people suffering from a wide variety of conditions.
Various enterprises operate in resorts the world over promoting trips to swim with dolphins in the wild. Other schemes involve swimming with dolphins in tanks.
Previous studies have backed the use of swimming with dolphin to help people's recovery.
In 2005, a University of Leicester team tested the effect of regular swimming sessions with dolphins on 15 depressed people in a study carried out in Honduras and published in the British Medical Journal.
The team found that symptoms improved more among this group than among another 15 who swam in the same area but did not interact with dolphins.
In a scientific paper for the journal the Archives of Disease in Childhood, paediatricians Anna Baverstock and Fiona Finlay of the Community Child Health Department in Bath concluded that there is no reliable evidence that it actually works. And they say that it may even prevent patients from seeking more effective and traditional forms of treatment.
Baverstock and Finlay conducted the review because a mother was seeking medical support for her son and they needed to determine whether swimming with dolphins had any health benefits for children with cerebral palsy. They found that at best, it has the same likelihood of success - and failure - as having the patient interact with a small puppy.
The news will come as a blow to the multi-million pound dolphin-assisted therapy industry, which insists that playing with the intelligent marine mammals can help people suffering from a wide variety of conditions.
Various enterprises operate in resorts the world over promoting trips to swim with dolphins in the wild. Other schemes involve swimming with dolphins in tanks.
Previous studies have backed the use of swimming with dolphin to help people's recovery.
In 2005, a University of Leicester team tested the effect of regular swimming sessions with dolphins on 15 depressed people in a study carried out in Honduras and published in the British Medical Journal.
The team found that symptoms improved more among this group than among another 15 who swam in the same area but did not interact with dolphins.
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