Healing the Gulf

From: Ocean Conservancy

Bethany Kraft: Restoring an ecosystem and a way of life in the Gulf of Mexico

If you wander away from the funky New Orleans vibe and make your way to the more secluded areas along the Gulf coast, you may happen upon a lone figure tromping childlike through the muddy marsh. You may see her watching hopefully to catch a glimpse of crabs and other critters skittering in the shallow water. You may see her deeply inhaling the thick salty air. You may see her stand – face to the wind – and smile, feeling grateful and energized. This is how Bethany Kraft unwinds. And it’s just one of the many reasons why she cares so much about protecting the Gulf of Mexico. As Deputy Director for Ocean Conservancy’s Gulf of Mexico Program, Bethany spends her days fighting to protect one of the country’s greatest national treasures – from marine life to coastal habitat and communities that have called the Gulf of Mexico home for generations.

Dolphins Pepe and Lucea reenact JAWS!

"Jaws Theme" Copyright 1975 by John Williams. The original soundtrack for Jaws was released by MCA Records in 1975

Luna the Dolphin Makes a Splash

Surfing with Pepe the Dolphin

Ziggy the Dolphin does a high jump

Training Nemo - UPDATED

Nemo is a very high energy dolphin, so we decided to train him to do a double-front flip rather than a single. To start training him to do this behavior, we focused on motivating Nemo following a target: a long pole with a little buoy on the end that Nemo follows, in this case, with his mouth or "rostrum." Our first step was to train Nemo to complete one rotation (flip) under the water’s surface. Then, after he understood what we wanted him to do, we added the second rotation. The next part of the process was to motivate Nemo to take the flip out of the water and follow the target pole. After Nemo learned to flip out of the water, we used the "bridge" (a whistle) and "primary reinforcement" (fish) to perfect Nemo’s double flip. One day, Nemo over rotated by an additional half-flip, and we decided to adopt this change in the criteria for the behavior: we decided to use the bridge and primary reinforcement to complete the third rotation. Now Nemo has the most amazing triple front flip. It’s WICKED!.

Hurricane Preparedness Training - Updated

When there is a hurricane, debris and large waves in the lagoon are a threat to dolphin safety. We train the dolphins to come out of the lagoon voluntarily so they are relaxed when we need to move them. We also want the staff to be well-trained in the evacuation procedures so that when it is time to deal with the emergency, they know exactly what to do. In this video, we are training the dolphins to come out of the water onto a platform. This will allow us to take them, one-by-one, on stretchers to the above-ground, indoor pool. The pool is located in a building which is designed to withstand hurricanes up to Class 5, and removal to the building during big storms ensures the animals' safety until the storm passes. We do routine dress-rehearsals for evacuations to ensure that the dolphins know what is happening and can participate without stress.

Sperm Whales Caught Napping

Luna's Dance

Luna's Ball Dance 

Elvis is one of the senior trainers here at Dolphin Cove. When we attended the International Marine Animal Trainers Association conference this year, their opening video included a ball-dance behavior. Luna has recently demonstrated a great interest in playing with balls, so Elvis decided to train Luna to do the same behavior. Luna loved learning the ball dance, and as you can see in the video, she really enjoys doing it!

Boaters save a humpback whale

Incredible video about rescuing a young whale completely tangled in a fishing net.

Happy to be free the whale puts on a spectacular show as thanks for its freedom.

Ocean Voyagers 3D Trailer

"The heart of this film is really a relationship between our mother humpback and her calf," notes the director Feo Pitcairn, "we had unlimited access to these animals, filming them day after day, we have developed a real bond of trust. This allowed us to obtain rare and intimate images, like the calf and the mother's care rests on the sandy bottom of the ocean We're very excited to premiere the film in 3D at the Centre for Independent Theatre -. seeing this material for big screen in 3D is the closest thing to experience first hand what we experienced during filming underwater."

Dolphin Videos!

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Jellyfish Lake In Palau Swarms With Complex Historical Wonders

Source: Huffington Post

Who knew the gelatinous bags of goo known as jellyfish could have such a complex history?

The video below shows millions of golden jellyfish thriving in the evolutionary wonderment that is Jellyfish Lake.
The lake is one of many in Palau, an island nation located about 500 miles east of the Philippines.

Pamela S. Turner writes in a National Wildlife Federation (NWF) article that five lakes each contain a jellyfish "varying from its neighbors and their common ancestor in a dramatic example of the origin of species ... If Darwin had stepped ashore in Palau instead of the Galapagos, the icon of evolution might be not Darwin's finches, but Darwin's jellyfishes."

Snatch!

Thieving Octopus steals diver's camera and makes a quick getaway.

More Whale Encounters

Whale Encounter

Great video about an amazing photograph.

40 foot jumping humpback whale

Animals: Rehabbed Loggerhead Turtle Released

Hydroplaning Dolphins - Planet Earth - BBC

Ocean Mysteries with Jeff Corwin

Source: Monterey Bay Aquarium


Otterly Delightful! from Litton Weekend on Vimeo.
This week’s episode of “Ocean Mysteries with Jeff Corwin” was filmed at the Aquarium! In it, Jeff goes behind the scenes to learn about our sea otter conservation work. Episode #112 - Go West - Otters Airdate: 11/19/2011
More Info Here