Hundreds of baby penguins found dead in Brazil


RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil - Hundreds of baby penguins swept from the icy shores of Antarctica and Patagonia are washing up dead on Rio de Janeiro's tropical beaches, rescuers and penguin experts said Friday.

More than 400 penguins, most of them young, have been found dead on the beaches of Rio de Janeiro state over the past two months, according to Eduardo Pimenta, superintendent for the state coastal protection and environment agency in the resort city of Cabo Frio.

While it is common here to find some penguins — both dead and alive — swept by strong ocean currents from the Strait of Magellan, Pimenta said there have been more this year than at any time in recent memory.

Rescuers and those who treat penguins are divided over the possible causes.

Thiago Muniz, a veterinarian at the Niteroi Zoo, said he believed overfishing has forced the penguins to swim further from shore to find fish to eat "and that leaves them more vulnerable to getting caught up in the strong ocean currents."

Niteroi, the state's biggest zoo, already has already received about 100 penguins for treatment this year and many are drenched in petroleum, Muniz said. The Campos oil field that supplies most of Brazil's oil lies offshore.

Muniz said he hadn't seen penguins suffering from the effects of other pollutants, but he pointed out that already dead penguins aren't brought in for treatment.

Pimenta suggested pollution is to blame.

"Aside from the oil in the Campos basin, the pollution is lowering the animals' immunity, leaving them vulnerable to funguses and bacteria that attack their lungs," Pimenta said, quoting biologists who work with him.

But biologist Erli Costa of Rio de Janeiro's Federal University suggested weather patterns could be involved.

"I don't think the levels of pollution are high enough to affect the birds so quickly. I think instead we're seeing more young and sick penguins because of global warming, which affects ocean currents and creates more cyclones, making the seas rougher," Costa said.

Costa said the vast majority of penguins turning up are baby birds that have just left the nest and are unable to out-swim the strong ocean currents they encounter while searching for food.

Every year, Brazil airlifts dozens of penguins back to Antarctica or Patagonia.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080718/ap_on_sc/brazil_dead_penguins

Maybe it wont be Penguin's here in America, and maybe it was the later scenario given, or possibly a combination of the two that killed these Penguins.
But as you can see many of the birds are covered with petroleum!

Do we really want this happening to say, our sea turtles or any marine species of animal, fish, or plants?

I dont, esp when we wont see any benefits from it for at least 10 yrs, and the technology to become energy independent is within our grasp!

Why worry about these things. Europe has a new super collider coming online within a few months, at most. There is the risk that it might create a mini black hole that could grow to swallow up the entire earth and more.

So, who cares about what else happens when they are doing experiments like this and blow off the risk!

We should care about the environment.
We are all creatures of ours. I think
it is fair to say we have caused more
damage in the last 100 years than any
time before that and we can't fix it
all in the next 100 years.

I dont get what this story has to do with the title "is this america's future".

Really?

I don't find that all too surprising.
Wait until you can't retire, have no
clean drinking water and have trouble
breathing the air.... you will understand
then!

Do you want to eat and have transportation? Do you want a/c heat. If you do we better get drilling. I dont know what caused the death of thoughs animals but we are the top of the food chain and we better start behaving like it.

But what will we eat when we are all that is left on the
food chain.... lets protect our land and save it for our
children. We don't need oil for that, we need to use our
minds, the very things that put us on top of the food chain!

You youger people better start learning about the politics of the enviroment or you are going to be vary poor. You will be paying big bucks if All Gore gets his way. What happened to the coming ice age from the 70s.

I have know problem withn new tec. its just not as far along as you think. Lets use all of our brain cells.
and our resources.

Yes,
Thank you! Why drill when we wont see the oil for at least 10 yrs, and then it will have no significant effect. I posted a Gov study saying exactly that at least 20 times.

The technology is out there now that would give us energy independence in the same amount of time, and reduce pollution at the same time!

IMO, it's ridiculous to waste time and money killing off whole species, drilling for more fossil fuels just so the oil companies can have time to buy and lock up patents to these technologies, and keep making obscene profits!

I dont know how much profit is to much when at any given moment some two bit ***** can take over your oil feild and all of your investments.When you have trillions invested around the world. In dangerous places.

Well, the post says they are divided on the causes. It doesn't say that only america fishes there, and i know for sure that we are not the only country that pollutes and we have been lowering our emissions every year.

So I still say that I don't understand what this has to do with the title.

OK, look at this one part of the article chaz,

Niteroi, the state's biggest zoo, already has already received about 100 penguins for treatment this year and many are drenched in petroleum, Muniz said. The Campos oil field that supplies most of Brazil's oil lies offshore.

The 100 penguins that were brought to the zoo's clinc this year were drenched in what?

And, the Republicans are pressing for what?

Now do you see the connection?

I'm suggesting that this, only different specie's, could be in our future if Americans allow more Offshore oil drilling.

Is this kind of irresponsibility to other life on our planet in America's future??

So since someone wants to drill oil it automatically means penguins get hurt? I guess when it storms in California it automatically means that lightning will hit the forest and cause a forest fire. Guess we need to build a device to stop all thunderstorms there.

If people always focused on the negatives then nothing would ever get done. Thats why people have risk analysis.

If clinton had not vetoed legislation oil would be flowing today and gas would not be $ 4 a gallon. The trouble with America is that if we have one accident we throw the whole technology out the window instead of analyzing the accident to prevent more and holding the perpetrators responsible. Nuclear energy Three Mile Island and Valdez oil spills come to mind.

Now we are 25 years behind in nuclear energy and gas is over $4 a gallon .

Really? We don't ship oil in tankers anymore? Hmmm.

We dont have Penguins here, but we do have a lot of endangered species that will be hurt by drilling.

Lightning on the other hand is a natural occurrence. It is not man-made and animals have been dealing with it for years.

You're just being ridiculous now!

The point was that because of the one tanker spill Oil drilling in the US practically stopped. As did the development of nuclear energy.

It's 2008. There's got to be some compromises made to make nuclear viable again.