Wink News reports that a deadly virus is killing dolphins on the east coast and may now be in the Gulf of Mexico. Just this week, scientists discovered the virus in a dolphin in the Florida Keys. "Researchers with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration say more than 1,500 dolphins have died from the morbillivirus since July of 2013. This week, a dolphin in the Keys tested positive for the virus and now the entire Gulf Coast of Florida is considered a surveillance

NBC Los Angeles report that lifeguards have rescued an 8-Foot Risso's dolphin Beached in San Pedro, California on the 13 December 2014. "A roughly 8-foot adult Risso's dolphin was seen on San Pedro's rocky Royal Palms Beach by passersby and members of the county's Beaches and Harbors department just after 7 a.m". The rescued dolphin was taken to SeaWorld. Let's hope the dolphin is released again into the wild as soon as he or she has made a recovery.

The BBC report that oil spilt from a crashed tanker is threatening a rare dolphin sanctuary. The government declared areas in the southern Sunderbans to be a dolphin sanctuary in 2011, after research suggested some 6,000 Irrawaddy dolphins lived in the area. The spillage now threatens those same rare Irrawaddy dolphins. NDTV report on the 14 December 2014 that sadly the first dead dolphin has been spotted following the spillage.

The Mail Online in the UK reports that a rare albino dolphin has been captured by Japanese fishermen and could be sold for up to £300,000 to be displayed in captivity. The fishermen killed 11 other dolphins in a shallow cove in Taiji, Wakayama, Japan, but put the albino dolphin into a small holding pen where the dolphin will be fed dead fish and and trained to interact with humans. Whilst the albino dolphin was at least spared its life, clearly it should be able to live in w

The Mongobay news reports the declining population of Indus River dolphins. Some dams on the river But some of the dams divert so much water to crops that the river effectively dried up in those sections for part of the year, and threaten the dolphins as a result. Dolphins appear to have vanished from seven river segments between 1955 and 1988. Lets hope that this decline can be slowed or reversed

Sputnik News report that the Russian Black Sea Fleet’s Special Forces have held its first training exercises with combat dolphins since the Crimean Peninsula was reunited with Russia, a military source in Crimea. It reports that training exercises were held with combat dolphins in the Sevastopol Oceanarium in the search of military equipment at a depth of over 60 meters. An object that looked like a mine was spotted by a dolphin and tagged with a buoy. It appears that some 13

Ecanadanow.com reports that in the Special Area of Conservation set up in the Moray Firth in the North Sea (between Scotland and the rest of Europe) 102 bottlnose dolphins were spotted in 2011, rising to 112 in 2012 and then 94 in 2013. "While it wasn’t clear what caused the number of sightings to slip, the SNH report concludes that the bottlenose dolphin population is stable for the first time in a generation" Local people, businesses, and authorities have been praised for