Dolphins & Porpoises

Dolphins and porpoises are at the top of the food chain and play an important role in the overall balance of the marine environment. They belong to a group of marine mammals called cetaceans. Marine mammals in the cetacean family include whales, dolphins, and porpoises. These animals are often referred to as “sentinels” of ocean health providing insight into marine ecosystem dynamics. Numerous studies have explored the effects of noise and chemical pollution, habitat degradation, and changes in climate on these animals.

Dolphins and porpoises tend to be social and live in groups. They exhibit complex methods of communication and echolocation making squeaks, buzzes, whistles, and clicks that can be heard from miles away. They are also thought to communicate by slapping the water’s surface with their tails or bodies. They range in size from the small, critically endangered vaquita porpoise to the iconic killer whale—the largest member of the Delphinidae, or dolphin family.

All dolphins and porpoises are protected under the Marine Mammal Protection Act, and some are also listed under the Endangered Species Act. Together with our partners, we work to study, protect, and conserve these fascinating species and their habitats.

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Shark Finning

The Massacre of the World's Sharks for Soup BY EDWARD DORSON The world's sharks are quickly vanishing and it's primarily driven by the demand for shark fins as an ingredient of a status symbol soup devoured throughout Asia at weddings and banquets. Approximately 73 to 100 million sharks are killed annually worldwide just for their fins. Some shark populations are already functionally extinct, having declined by as much as 99%. The outcome of further inaction will soon create a vast jellyfish soup, formally known as the ocean. Sharks targeted by finners aren't taken whole; their valuable fins (up to $700 a kilo, at the time of this writing) are sliced off and the living mutilated shark is tossed back into the sea to sink and slowly die. It is despicably inhumane. The obliteration of 400 million years of evolution for some perceived social status with serving shark fin soup isn't just idiotic and cruel - it's tragic. A healthy ocean depends on sharks. Scientific...

Plankton

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Ocean Current

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