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A Rare Sighting Of Pickle! The Orca With A Partial Dorsal Fin

Featured Image Credit: Auckland Whale & Dolphin Safari

A special treat for whale watchers: an orca who lost half of her dorsal fin in a mystery accident has been sighted in Auckland’s Hauraki Gulf.

Pickle, who is one of the fewer than 200 orcas now remaining in New Zealand waters, surfaced next to a sea safari on Friday. No one knows how Pickle ended up with a jagged fin, but a scientist who’s studied her since calf-hood said she hadn’t let it slow her down. “Pickle is incredibly bold … she appears to have a little bit of an attitude,” Orca Research Trust founder Ingrid Visser said. “If you were to put it in human terms, you might say she runs around thinking ‘Well, I survived losing my dorsal fin, I’m pretty bullet-proof.”

Pickle is 8 years old and was given her unique name by a group of school children who said she was “cute as a little pickle.” Her maturity is far beyond her year, although still loveable, she is rambunctious and enjoys hunting. “When she was only 1-year-old, she was already successfully catching eagle rays and stingrays. You don’t normally see that until they’re 2 or 3 years old,” Visser said.

Featured Image Credit: Auckland Whale & Dolphin Safari

It will remain a mystery why she lost part of her fin, but one thing is for sure – it was a painful injury. “If you suddenly remove part of the body, they’re no longer hydrodynamically perfect so they have to compensate for that,” Visser said. “It’s painful when it happens.”

Auckland Whale & Dolphin Safari’s marine research officer, Catherine Lea, said the loss of a dorsal fin could be the result of human interference from boats or fishing lines. But due to the sighting being rare, it is hard to know for sure. “These guys [orca] spend a lot of time at sea but we only get a little snapshot into their lives.”

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Malnourished Monk Seal Pup Airlifted To Care Center

Featured Image Credit: The Marine Mammal Center
By: Sarah Sharkey

A young Hawaiian monk seal pup was recently rescued from a beach in Molokai. Rescuers saved the pup after determining that it looked malnourished and distressed. The pup, Sole, is now being cared for by an excellent animal care team at Ke Kai Ola, which is an animal hospital that works with endangered seals.

The pup seems to be recovering well and is enjoying a diet of blended fish to keep his strength up.

The hospital director, Claire Simeone, had this to say about the rescue and recovery efforts, “With only a few hundred monk seals living in the main Hawaiian Islands, the survival of each individual is critical to the recovery of the population. Conservation takes a village. We are so grateful to our partners for their support in achieving our mission, and ensuring this pup made it safely to Ke Kai Ola.”

Image Credit: The Marine Mammal Center

The pup has been in the best of hands throughout the entire process. The initial rescue effort was supported by both the National Park Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the U.S. Coast Guard assisted by flying the pup to Kona via helicopter.

It appears that Sole was weaned prematurely which had experts concerned. The pup was watched for several days before it was decided that it needed special attention. The center has rehabilitated 23 Hawaiian monk seals since 2014, so Sole has great chances for a swift recovery and return to the wild.

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Polar Bear Cubs On Remote Island Found Playing With Plastic

Featured Image Credit: SWNS
By: Sarah Sharkey

Plastic is known to be a huge problem that is facing marine life everywhere. Sometimes we mistakenly think that this plastic problem is limited to a human-occupied coastline. Unfortunately, this is not the case. Even remote islands can have huge amounts of trash accumulate on otherwise pristine shores.

Recently, a young pair of polar bear cubs was spotted playing with a sheet of black plastic. The bears were on a remote Arctic island with few inhabitants, but even it still has to deal with the plastic trash on its shores.

The Norwegian island is part of an archipelago that is approximated halfway between the continent of Europe and the North Pole. The island is hundreds of miles away from the European continent, yet according to researchers, the waters around it were filled with trash.

If not for the penetrating trash, we would generally assume that the Arctic environment in this area was relatively pristine. However, the ever-present trash has led even the most remotes reaches of the plant struggling to deal with plastic and other forms of human trash in the environment.

The two polar bear cubs were spotted by a British research team aboard the Blue Clipper. Unfortunately, they found plastic at every single beach that they surveyed on the expedition into relatively remote areas. The trip was a sad testament to how prevalent trash is in our oceans.

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Civilians, State Agencies, And Aquariums Come Together To Save Rare Beached Whale

Featured Image Credit: www.tampabay.com
By: Kira Krall

A beachgoer near Clearwater, Florida got quite the sight as she went for her early morning walk. The large shape she spotted in the shallows turned out to be an 8-foot long melon-headed whale that needed her help. After she reported the nearly 300-pound mammal to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, she positioned the whale’s blowhole above the surface and made it easier for the marine mammal to breathe. Clearwater Marine Aquarium arrived on scene to stabilize the whale to complete the rescue. They stabilized the rare cetacean and checked for signs of a life-threatening condition before transporting him to Sea World for rehabilitation. Watch a video below of his care!

Initial exams revealed that the whale had no visible injuries. Once he arrived at SeaWorld only three hours after his stranding was reported, he was swimming unsupported in his recovery pool. He remains there while veterinary staff continues to monitor and treat him.

Melon-headed whales are named after the organ involved in echolocation. Dolphins, orcas, and other toothed whales all have a melon in their forehead to fine-tune signals and hone in on their surroundings. This species of cetacean is a rare sight due to their deep-dwelling habits. A population near Hawaii has been logged diving as deep as 6,000 feet. The Gulf of Mexico has its own resident population, which could be the group that the rescued male travels, feeds, and plays in.

Caption: Sea World staff prepare the male whale for transport into his recovery pool. They use a specialized sling that puts minimal pressure on his body as he’s lifted through the air. Image Credit: SeaWorld

While his condition is stable at the moment, Sea World staff are monitoring him around the clock to check for the condition that caused him to stray so far from his normal habitat. Marine mammals that strand are almost always sick or injured and are very good at hiding it. Reasons for stranding could include everything from natural causes like disease to man-made ones like seismic testing.

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There’s A New Addition At World Wildlife Zoo, Aquarium And Safari!

Featured Image Credit: World Wildlife Zoo
By: Sarah Sharkey

The Wildlife World Zoo, Aquarium, and Safari Park recently welcomed a new baby sea lion. The pup was the first pup to be born to its mother, Andi. It was born on July 8^th and by all reports is doing very well.

The pup is doing so well that it has already received its first swim lesson from its mother. Young sea lions are not born knowing how to swim, so they need their mother to teach them as soon as possible.

The animal care team at Wildlife World took amazing care of Andi through the entire pregnancy. Due to the intelligence of sea lions, the team was able to have Andi participate in her own health care. She was helping the team by staying still during ultrasound and other animal husbandry behavior through the length of her pregnancy.

Her participation allowed the team to take great care of Andi and her baby. Now that the pup has been born, the team is continuing to monitor the sea lions to ensure that they remain in healthy conditions. Wildlife World could not be happier about the new addition to their very large family. With over 6,000 animals, new babies are born regularly but it is not every day that you see an adorable sea lion pup.

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Successful Transfer Of Weedy Sea Dragon Eggs At Shedd Aquarium

Featured Image Credit: Shedd Aquarium
By: Sarah Sharkey

The Shedd Aquarium in Chicago recently participated in a momentous event: a successful egg transfer between a female and male weedy sea dragon. The Shedd is the 12^th institution to successfully watch this event transpire in their aquarium.

Prior to this event, there have only been 26 successful egg transfers in aquariums worldwide. It is a huge success that will hopefully lead to the production of many happy weedy sea dragon babies.

Image Credit: Shedd Aquarium

The male weedy sea dragon accepted 47 eggs from the female. He will carry the eggs on his tail for two months before they are ready to hatch. Until that point, he will offer these eggs the best possible protection.

Although it is unclear why the male weedy sea dragon takes such an active role in the care of these eggs, it is a phenomenon in nature that is marvelous to watch. Scientists have hypothesized that the split care between the mother and father allows for the animals to split the cost of reproduction, instead of the female having to use all of her resources. Other hypotheses include the idea that this practice allows females to get pregnant again sooner, which will lead to the overall production of more offspring.

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Almost 100 Baby Hammerhead Sharks Found Dead In Hawaii

Featured Image Credit: Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources
By: Sarah Sharkey

Nearly 100 baby hammerhead sharks were found dead near a Hawaiian lagoon. Investigators are working hard to find out who committed such an atrocious crime.

As of now, it is believed that the sharks were caught in a gill net. The young hammerhead sharks likely suffocated within 2 minutes of being in the net because they need to constantly move in order to breathe. Samuel Etrata works at the sailing club nearby and reported the sharks to the Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources. He had this to say about the scene, “I see sharks right from here and then I walked farther and I see all this fish, the sharks across this barricade. It is very shocking.”

The sharks were found in Keehi Lagoon, which is a known location of hammerhead pupping. The horrifying incident has called attention to the fact that it is not illegal to catch a shark with gill nets. Hawaiian state senator Mike Gabbard wants to pass a bill that would make a catching a shark with a gill net punishable with a $500 fine per shark.

For now, this incident will continue to be investigated. Hopefully, lawmakers and citizens can come to a solution that will allow all sharks to pup around the island in peace.

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Harp Seal Pup Dies With Plastic In Its Stomach

Featured Image Credit: DAVID DOUBILET
By: Sarah Sharkey

Another animal death was attributed to plastic earlier this summer. The unfortunate victim of senseless human trash was a young harp seal pup. It was found on the Isle of Skye in Scotland. The pup was found dead, but its body was transported to the Scottish Marine Animal Stranding Scheme. The organization investigates deaths of marine mammals found in Scottish waters.

In the autopsy, the veterinarian found a small square of plastic in the animal’s stomach. The young pup was likely only between 8 months and 1 year old. In addition to the plastic, there were ulcerations in the stomach that indicate that the plastic may have been there for some time.

Image Credit: SCOTTISH MARINE ANIMAL STRANDINGS SCHEME

Finding plastic in a seal’s stomach is apparently a very rare occurrence because these seals are intelligent enough to determine the difference between plastic and prey most of the time. Usually, seals fall victim to entanglements with fishing gear instead of death by plastic ingestion.

The death of this seal shows just how prevalent plastic trash is in our oceans. No animal is immune to the horrors associated with the plastic epidemic. The trash is just impossible to avoid for many of the animals in our oceans. Over 700 species are known to eat plastic regularly because they thought it was food. The death of these animals is needless, cleaning up our oceans and reducing plastic waste needs to be a top priority.

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