Feds Forbid Scientists Probing Gulf Dolphin Deaths from Speaking to Media

NOAA: Oil Found on Corpses of Some Dead Dolphins

April 8, 2011

The Lookout - Federal officials have forbidden the researchers investigating the deaths of an unusually high number of Gulf dolphins from speaking to the media about their findings. But a scientist with the National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration (NOAA) broke protocol to offer up one tidbit to the AP: Nearly a year since last summer's Gulf oil spill, investigators have identified weathered oil leaked from BP's busted well on the corpses of some of the dead dolphins collected from the Gulf region.

NOAA scientist Blair Mase told the news agency that researchers are "still seeing dolphins wash ashore with evidence of oil." NOAA spokeswoman Kim Amendola also confirmed that 15 dolphin corpses collected recently had "a few spots of weathered oil on them, but none of them were completely covered in oil."

Still, NOAA officials maintain that agency researchers need to complete extensive testing to determine the cause of the 153 dolphin deaths recorded in 2011, 65 of which were babies. Some researchers have suggested, however, that if anything the initial inquiries may significantly underestimate the scale of the dolphin death toll. Mase told CNN that the die-off is "quite a complex event and requires a lot of analysis."

Feds Forbid Scientists Probing Gulf Dolphin Deaths from Speaking to Media

March 28, 2011

The Lookout - Last month dolphin corpses began washing up on the Gulf Coast in alarming numbers. Well, more dead dolphins continue to be found, bringing the total this year up to 114 -- 100 more than the average number of dead dolphins that washed ashore during the first three months of any year between 2002 and 2007.

So, naturally, there are quite a few people interested in what might cause such dramatic increases in marine mammal mortality. But Mississippi's WLOX reported recently that government testing on the animals has been slow to commence, and Reuters reported over the weekend that a gag order has been put into place forbidding wildlife biologists at the National Marine Fisheries Service to talk to the media about their findings.

Reports Reuters:

The gag order was contained in an agency letter informing outside scientists that its review of the dolphin die-off, classified as an "unusual mortality event (UME)," had been folded into a federal criminal investigation launched last summer into the oil spill.

"Because of the seriousness of the legal case, no data or findings may be released, presented or discussed outside the UME investigative team without prior approval," the letter, obtained by Reuters, stated.

One veteran biologist-- speaking on the condition on anonymity -- told the news agency that fellow government scientists are "confused" and "angry" about the order because it leaves outside "marine experts out of the loop completely" and it "throws accountability right out the window."

Meanwhile, Gulf Coast residents already convinced that their government is either lying to them about the situation in the Gulf or doing everything in its power to suppress bad news (or both) aren't likely to find such reports reassuring.

"The government's full of more crap than a bathroom at a Taco Bell," one Louisiana fisherman told this reporter over the weekend. "Anybody down here with a lick of sense knows that."