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Frain: amakii Mikahala Rnv
<br /> T. WPCtestimonv
<br /> Subject Lamaku Mikahala Roy Testimony Instructing Commissioners Why You N.Called to Vote Against Revised General Plan 2045—II
<br /> IWte: Thursday,February 6,2025 8:47:07 AM
<br /> Attachments:
<br /> Date:Fri,Oct 18,2024 at 8:33 PM
<br /> Subject:Cape Cod Great white beached itself
<br /> n Tuesday,the Orleans Police Department in Massachusetts received an unusual piece of news:A great white shark had mysteriously washed ashore
<br /> in Cape Cod.Officials called local tow company Nauset Recovery Inc,to haul the 12.5-foot and 1,240-pound apex predator in the back of a truck
<br /> through the beachside town of Orleans to the local transfer station for a necropsy.
<br /> "You really never know what kind of call you'll respond to on any given shift,"writes the Orleans Police Department in a post on Facebook."At least Sgt
<br /> Elliott only needed to follow the tow truck and didn't have to wrestle an unruly great white."
<br /> Experts identified the shark as a mature adult male named"Koala,"who had been known to researchers since 2022.
<br /> But as for Koala's cause of death,scientists are coming up empty-handed.Often,sharks are killed for their fins in an illegal practice known as finning.But all
<br /> of this shark's fins were intact upon pickup,as Dennis Reed,operator of Nauset Recovery Inc.,tells Heather McCarron of the Cone C'od Timec.
<br /> A Wednesday necropsy,led by Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries scientist Greg Skomal,found no signs of the shark being hooked,either,and
<br /> uncovered no definitive signs of trauma.As such,its results were inconclusive,the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy says in a Facebook post.
<br /> Associatedby:PATRICK WHITTLE,
<br /> Posted:Nov01:01 PM HST
<br /> Novr - 01:01 PM HST
<br /> AP Share--Questions by:Lamaku Mikahala Roy
<br /> An unprecedentedly bad year for beached dolphins on Cape Cod might have to do with warming waters changing the availability ofthe animals'food,said scientists
<br /> hoping to curb the strandings.
<br /> Cape Cod,the Massachusetts peninsula beloved by beach tourists and seafood lovers,has a long history of marine mammal strandings.That is partially because of
<br /> dramatic changes in the tide that sometimes trap wayward dolphins if they swim too close to shore.
<br /> But this year is different.The International Fund for Animal Welfare,which responds to marine mammal strandings,said Thursday it has responded to 342live,
<br /> stranded dolphins this year,and that is five times more than its annual average of 67.
<br /> An already bad year got worse earlier this month when the organization was inundated with calls about beached dolphins.More than 50 of the animals were stranded
<br /> on multiple beaches and waterways in the span of a week,the organization said.
<br /> The massive number of strandings has stretched the group's resources and supplies,said Brian Sharp,marine mammal rescue team lead for the organization and a
<br /> biologist by training.Scientists are still trying to determine what is causing the strandings,but they have noticed that the small fish the dolphins eat in high numbers
<br /> have been swimming close to the shore,he said.
<br /> The dolphins seem to be following that food source and getting themselves in jeopardy,Sharp said.
<br /> "Any effect of climate change on ocean temperature,salinity,is going to affect the prey resource of the fish,"he said."That as part of the food web is going to have
<br /> kind of that ripple,that cascade effect throughout the food web,which eventually leads to marine mammals."
<br /> Cape Cod is located near important dolphin feeding grounds,and the peninsula is popular with summer whale watchers because of its diversity of species.Most of the
<br /> stranded dolphins have been common dolphins,Atlantic white-sided dolphins,Risso's dolphins and bottlenose dolphins,Sharp said.
<br /> Of the 342 stranded dolphins,293 were able to be released back into the wild,Sharp said.More than 90 additional dolphins were found dead upon stranding,he said.
<br /> This year's strandings included a mass stranding event of more than 100 dolphins in the summer that rescuers said was the largest event of its kind in recorded U.S.
<br /> history.The Cape can be difficult for the animals to navigate because of its sloping sandbars,hooked shape and sticky mudflats.
<br /> While the factors influencing the strandings are complex,a changing climate is clearly driving prey and predators to new areas at times of the year they were not
<br /> previously expected,said Regina Asmutis-Silvia,executive director of conservation group Whale and Dolphin Conservation North America.
<br /> "We have had noticeable unseasonably warm temperatures on land lately around Cape Cod to remind us we are facing changes in the climate.But those changes
<br /> don't stop at the shoreline.They are being felt in the ocean too,"she said.
<br /> This month's rescue operations were made difficult by rough winds and surf and cold weather,the International Fund for Animal Welfare said in a statement.The
<br /> dolphins that stranded this month might have been part of the same pod,or group,but why the group became stranded is still unclear,the organization said.
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