So go tell the Chinese and Indian economies to calm it with pollution then and stop pounding our asses about it daily...WE KNOW

Maybe the fishermen have caught all the fish they used to eat.

Too much overfishing and pollution. Are the "warmistas" at it again?

What about all the killings for scientific purposes of whales?

We need to protect the seas and the animals in them.

Far too many ships are pumping chemicals into our oceans.

Maybe being involved with the EU and who's fishing where may have a bearing on it also ?

"Marine scientists have recorded a significant rise in the percentage of porpoise deaths due to malnutrition."

Must be Global Warming then....

I am surprised the Iraq war hasn't been blamed on global warming such is the level of scientific knowledge and journalism in this country.

another pseudo science story

oh dear...........our numbers indicate.........we have data going back 9 years

Somehow.........the media has taken the prediction sciences......like biology and physcology and food science as real science.

Some dink in California predicts something.......it makes the news....

What alot of crap

Its the elites, telling the newspapers to keep up with a story EVERY day to be tied in with global warming otherwise the people wont be up for the new taxes they're planning :)

Here we go again. We have a limited data, but, never mind, it must be global warming.

What about the fact that sandeels are being overfished in the North Sea, largely by European fishing boats? How about comparing the landings by these boats with the increase in starvation deaths of porpoises?

However, there is one bit in this story I don't understand: "Separate studies have found the number of sandeels living to adulthood falls during warmer winters, when they grow at too fast a rate to be supported by the available food".

If they grow at too fast a rate, surely the porpoises cannot be starving due to lack of sandeels. They should be well fed. That in itself would help keep the sandeel population down.

They should research the whole thing properly, and thoroughly before coming out with their junk science conclusions. How do these people manage to pass their exams if this is an example of their work?

always nice to see you Guga :)

Love it,

7 porpoises malnourished in 2002-2003 and we have a scare story about global catastrophe.

Dont get me wrong I am all for looking after the environment, but doesnt the press need to exercise a little ahem perspective ?

#10 Hope you liked the catroon I sent you. Most appropriate!

Comment@12. Try info@scottwebb.co.uk :)

All this story proves is what anglers and fisher persons have been banging on about for years. That if you hoover up sandeels(Salmon farm food pellets) by the thousands of ton, and they take 5+ years to reach breeding maturity. tThe the outcome will have a knock on effect to other species reliant on them and others up the chain, e.g. porpoises.

|It takes 3kg of sandeels to make 1kg of farmed salmon, Even with no catch COD what are they fed on? Sandeel protein!DUH!

Everyone seems upset about the demise of the porpoises.
We should also spare a thought for the sandeels too.
Granted, they may not be as 'sexy' as the porpoises but they are still living creatures and deserve some respect.
Also the porpoises could try plankton for a change.
Whales can't get enough of plankton.

Comment@15. Well said Paul, what the hell are you doing up at this time of the morning :)

MOAN RA PORPOISE! As 15 points out they aint sexy, But essential to the marine environment. STOP EATING FARMED SALMON OR NO CATCH COD! The CATCH IS THE FOOD MOST SPECIES NEED IS BEING FED TO COD AND SALMON IN THE MISTAKEN BELIEF IT@S BETTER FOR THE ENVIRONMENT. How can it be if you take away their staple and main food source?

Weren't the Danes using sandeels for fertiliser?

I thought the Danes had hoovered up all the sand eels?

A building analogy would be that if you take away a buildings foundations it collapses. So it appears quite logical that if you take away the prey sprecies everything above it in the food chain collapses with it.

Spot on number 20 I wish I could have said it better, but i couldnae, cos Ahm a blether......

19# + others
you are correct I rememebr less than 9 years ago the outcry about Danish hoovers clearing up all the sandeels but we were told that the eec rules permitted this. Oh and yes it was the east coast they were hoovering up.

JuanKerr and CJ0, You have hit the nail right on the head. What surprises me is that fertilizer and salmon pellets don't get a mention in the article or presumably the research.

Couldn't possible be industry biased research, could it. No, perish the thought.

Er, a few years ago scientists were blaming the collapse in the Puffin population on overfishing of the sand eel population. Now dolphins. Aren't the two related? This story seems to be just another piece of 'cod' science to soften us up for more taxes. Global Warming, my erse.

Sightly OT. I'm all for fishing and supporting local fishermen but one thing has got to stop - Scallop dredging. If you can find one square metre of sea bed on the west coast that hasn't been ripped to shreds destroying everything, you will be very lucky.

#9 Certain species migrate or change feeding grounds at certain times of the annual cycle. If when they get there , their staple diet has gone then starvation results. Not as you suggest that because the eels have matured early so the porpoise has plenty to gorge on, the porpoise simply may not be there at that time. Similar thing is happening to Polar bears. When the mother brings her cubs out of hibernation there is little food because the ice shelf is diminishing and therefore seal as the staple diet is much further away.
Global warming is a fact, happened before and it will sure happen again. Nothing we can do about it.
All the best

Global warming is not caused by humans, evidence has shown us that the planet has cyclical events like these every so often. If these animals are dying off because of global warming then it ain't our fault. Anyway, what is so bad about extinction of some animals? It has happened throughout history long before humans arrived on the scene. Survival of the fitest I say.

Two sides of the same discussion ...... global warming ..... a natural, cyclical event occurring every couple of millenia or therabouts ..... or man's definite and deliberate over-consumption of fossil-fuels, natural resources and over-populating of the planet, while destroying the ozone layer and depleting the biosphere.

Which way to go??

Personally, I think it's a lot of both.

I tasted porpouise once. It tasted like tuna.

Nisbet....ha ha..classic..was it in a salad or on bread? I had croc once, tasted like chicken..had kangaroo on the bbq once, it was crap.

What the hell is the difference between porpoise and a dolphin anyway?

These wee porpoises probably picked up a touch of the bird flu - that swan at Cellardyke is the likely culprit!

The bodies could be sold to Youngs, and shipped to Kiribatu for processing into scampi - so it's no all bad!!

I've come to realise how much of a haven these comments pages have become for so many lonely and ill-informed people. We all know you don't believe in global warming, however much evidence there is to the contrary. So let it be, and let's have some comments from more open-minded individuals.

#34..HIV..the evidence you talk about tells us there is global warming..we are not denying that..we just doubt that man is solely to blame..especially when there is a history of such events before man appeared on the scene.

33# good one.
34# grow up and do some research.
the headline says it all when it uses the word "are", perhaps those who see the big picture are beginning to get through to the greeniefied sheltered lives type who believe everything they are told.

GP...the doctor is in!!

#34 So, presumably you are so "open minded" that anyone who disagrees with your point of view is "lonely and ill-informed"

One thing can be concluded from this story is that staff on the Scotsman never read these posts. Every time a story appears in the Scotsman about global warming (the collapsing golf courses was a classic) these pages are filled with scorn for the quality of the journalism.

7 dead porpoises and the end of the world is nigh would be laughable in the Sunday Sport but this is meant to be Scotland's National Newspaper.

Are sand eels still being caught commercially and used for pet food; does anyone know? I remember reading this a few years ago.

[23] Tick Tock: What surprises me is that fertilizer and salmon pellets don't get a mention ...

Don't be surprised. Like a lot a researchers the funder calls the tune on the agenda. It shouldn't be the same for hacks but Hootsmon journalists don't seem to know or care much about professional standards and integrity.

There is something rotten in the state of Denmark. All the sand eels they caught. There's no escape for the wee things, they get hoovered up so that all that's left is a dead sea bed. I'd always had the impression that the Danes were one of the more environmentally-friendly nations of Europe. Shows how wrong you can be.

Come to think of it, I recall an article in this very publication not too many months ago about the sand eel issue. It too attracted a lot of comment.

Seems the hootsmon journalists don't even bother to speak to each other, otherwise Mr. U would have a better steer on this story.

Surely there is by far and enough environmental evidence to strongly support a ‘precautionary principal’ that demands urgency of action to translate known, open and transparent fact into action! As for Blair and cronies reliance on science and technology, now there’s laugh, asking boffins whose scientific outcomes are aligned to capitalism, a same capitalism that has helped poison us and our environment to come with a cure, is akin to putting Blair in charge of the peace movement. Bring back independence to the world of science, only then will I eat everything I see.

http://platosway.blogspot.com

Hmm, ok so we run a study more porpoises are dying and it might be because the sea is slightly warmer than it was. This in turn may be because of man made pollution.

WAKE UP!!!! We scoop millions of fish out of the sea every day and they're not going back....!!!!

We're on the bring of making the Cod an endangered species!!!! The Cod! The most basic, plentiful fish in the sea...

We're a strange bunch sometimes. Lets stop pretending that we care about these things because we only care about one thing. It's innate that the survival and prosperity of US is the only thing that concerns us.

44# the good thing is that none will be around to see who is correct.

37# bend over, it won't hurt and my hands are warm.
It will be just like a stealth tax you will hardly notice this to start with.

I actually went out with a fisheries protection vessel about ten years ago and boarded a Danish trawler that had 400 tonnes of sandeel on board. These were all caught on the 'wee bankie' about 12 miles off the Ness of Fife. The captain told us that they would return to Esjburg and unload and be back off Fife in 48 hours for another load. The sandeel would be processed into salmon pellets, soap and - get this - central heating oil.

At that time 0 around 1998 they were taking ONE MILLION TONNES of sandeel every year from the North Sea - mostly from the coast of Fife, then from Shetland.

Sandeel are the bottom of the food pyramid. They feed the cod, the haddock, the puffins, the wild salmon, gannets and porpoises. Any 12 year old can tell you that if you wipe out the base of a food pyramid - it will collapse.

What is fascinating is why the RSPB and other natural heritage agencies have ignored the massive Danish sandeel fishery - over 10 million tonnes in the last ten years - and hardly mention it these days. It MUST be 'global warming'.

Well it MAY be global warming, but the North Sea still feels bloody cold to me - go and stick your hand in and feel it. If porpoises are STARVING to death, and Puffins and Guillemots are starrving to death - and the Danes are taking a million tonnes a year of their favourite food - then even an idiot would say the PRECAUTIONARY PRINCIPLE shoiuld apply; stop fishing for sandeels!

The problem which wee Jack and Ross Finnie don't want to discuss is that all Scottish waters now belong to Brussels and they have NO authority to stop the Danes or the Dutch or the Spanish wiping out the fish stocks. So, since they have NO POWER to intervene - 'LETS SAY ITS ALL DOWN TO GLOBAL WARMING!!'.

It makes you want to weep.

ha ha

Perhaps the porpoise population has increased so much over the years they have literally eaten themselves out of house and home.

As a comparison, the seal cull was stopped in the UK and the population rose so much that A) they ate themselves out of the picture and B) a horrible disease swept through the population which never occured when the seal cull continued.

Just a thought.

I can't believe that this has nothing to do with the Danish industrial fishery for sandeels.

Sandeels eat plankton. Zooplankton i.e. animals, feed on phytoplankton i.e. plants. I grow phytoplankton in my hatchery within a recommended temperature range of 17 to 27 degrees centigrade. The range of temperatures in the North Sea is nothing near that. So unless the odd half defree rise over recent years has an unusual effect on how the zooplankton feed, I am at a loss to see this as just a simple climate warming issue. I think we should look at the industrial fishery.

As most writers to this thread will be retired and have the time to 'rant', so will also have experienced previous 'we are all doomed' theories.
I recall in my youth being concerned about the imminent ice age due it was believed at the time by nuclear tests as the main culprit. I am inclined to believe that any change in weather conditions is due to a natural cycle, at times benign and at times fierce, this swing has been observed and recorded through out history and there is very little that 'man' can do about it. Politicians with the aid of the BBC are promoting the view that environmental 'protection' legislation is necessary to save the planet and thus of course taxes have to be increased to ensure implementation. Hmmm !

Those cute cuddly bottlenose dolphins kill harbour porpoises, even throwing them out of the water and playing with them like footballs.

Previous sandeel scare was concerning guillemots. Disaster at sea: global warming hits UK birds: 30/7/04 (Independent )

A rise in sea temperature is believed to have led to the mysterious disappearance of a key part of the marine food chain - the sandeel, the small fish whose great teeming shoals have hitherto sustained larger fish, marine mammals and seabirds in their millions.

No mention of the 50% extra guillemots on Skomer earlier that year though.

Main cause of seabird losses? Predation by feral mink released from fur farms by animal activists. They are also destroying water vole populations.

British Trust for Ornithology:
"Between 1989 and 1996, Black-headed Gulls and Common Gulls decreased by 52% and 30%. There was no evidence that birds had left the area and, subject to certain assumptions, these decreases were largely accounted for by known predation of eggs and chicks by mink. (2) archipelagoes, sea lochs, firths and sounds lost all or nearly all breeding seabirds as a result of such movements from affected islands. Mink predation is widespread but difficult to detect and should be considered as a possible cause when seabird colonies near the mainland decline and disappear."

Never mind, the water might get colder again for the sandeels, remember this?

Scotsman.com Wed 22 Jun 2005, Is Scotland set to get the big chill?

TEMPERATURES in Scotland are set to plummet as a result of global warming, according to surprising new findings by Edinburgh scientists.

Ah, well, keeps the funding coming in.

The media are right to keep banging on about climate change for two reasons:
1. The people who are aware of the situation are not forcing the authorities to make meaningful changes (piddling taxes wont hack it).
And 2. These posts indicate that, even now, some silly-hearts just don't get it. Are they smarter than all serious scientists or dumber than daffodils?

For once we see the headline, by putting in the question mark, being less hysterical than the story. No evidence whatsoever is produced that the decline in sandeels is caused by warming & since eels are bottom dwellers & the lower sea tends to stay at 4 C for eons on end it seems particularly unlikely.

Fishing up millions of tons might conceivably be the cause as could the ever growing population of seals. Neither, however, fit the current political agenda so lets blame global warming for porpoises & the poor acting in River City while we are at it.

#56 All agree that the weather is changeable but definitely not all scientists agree that humanity is to blame. Unfortunately any dissenting scientific voice is ignored as this does not fit in with current fashionable 'thinking'!

#42 ....... Difference between dolphins and porpoise?

Check this out ....

http://nj.essortment.com/whatisdifferen_rkpa.htm

Something like the difference between me and you.

Me human ..... you monkey!!!

Back in 1798, a chap named Thomas Malthus - an English demographer and political economist - opined that if the world population kept growing at its then rate, then by 1850 not enough food could be produced to feed it. This theory greatly influenced government policy at the time. However, he was wrong. Malthus based his predictions on a steady state theory and completely ignored the possible impact of then unknown technologies. As we all know (or should), the development of mechanised farming and the growth of the chemical industry increased the food supply dramatically, so mass starvation has never happened.

Global Warming is just that - an unproven theory and takes no account of technological, political and demographic changes which affect the way we live. The trouble is that the earth's climate is enormously complex. There is no one model and no one theory that can adequately explain the variations we are seeing. We have a very imperfect set of climate data (accurate recording only goes back 150 years - nothing in climatological and geological time. Temperature estimates based on ice cores are just that - estimates). Only yesterday, a group of scientists were saying that the last few years of drought in the south of England may be part of a natural cycle, which comes around every 100 years or so - the last being from 1897 - 1910. If true, this blows the GW doomsayers out the water.

Now, there is no doubt that the planet is warming but the cause and effect are unproved. Just remember when Mount Pinatubo in the Phillipines erupted in 1991, it shoved out more greenhouse gases and particulates in a few days than mankind did for nearly 10 years. This was the biggest eruption of the 20th Century. It took about 7 years for the effects of that eruption to dissipate and it DROPPED global temperatures by about 0.5 degrees C.

The point is, as the the Danish Nobel prize winning physicist Niels Bohr, once said "Making predictions is very difficult

Spring was 3 weeks late in 2006 in my garden.Since that was due to Global Warming why shouldn't a few dead porpoises?

62# - that's strange I don't remember reading about your garden on the Scotsman front page. Wonder how they missed that.

"Smart mammals" - if the porpoises are so clever why didn't they migrate with the sandeels.

No.

If the Romans could grow grapes in Northumbria and Londoners could skate on thick ice formed on the Thames several centuries later is the present temperature rises not just part of a natural cycle?

If global warming is taking place why are scientists concerned that the gulf stream could stop warming the British Isles to reduce winter temperatures here to the freezing temperatures of others on the same latitude such as Moscow and Canada?

Sandeels? The Danes did it!

Rules 63
Sea level is rising about 0.6mm a year & has been since the lastice age. Thus a 20 meter rise will take about 30,000 years.

Natural optimist though I am I don't expect to be around then.

This is all a smokescreen. Tony and the govt are using this to tax us more and more and don't give a toss about global warming. As No 68 says the climate is to a certain extent cyclical. But while Tony taxes us the loss of rain forests by loggers around the Equator means that moisture has to fall somewhere else, and the "warm blanket" these forrests create has to go somewhere else.

#70 If the loggers have cut down all the equatorial rain forsests then surely the forests will not create your warm moist blanket - logical no?

Of course the shortage of sand eels MUST be the result of global warming. There is absolutely NO WAY it could be down to hoovering up everything from the bottom of the North Sea to manufacture fish meal!

Does anyone know if the temperatures of the other planets in our solar system are being monitored?

If they are then are they warming too or not?

63# It is much easier for Sweden to be carbin free givne their nuclear power plus the fact that they have no oil or coal reserves to use.
I agree we should all do our best and I for one would like us to stop the ungreen wind farms and go full nuclear power for Scotland's energy. If China and Inida also adopt this policy then th threat by them would reduce dramatically since next to USA they are the biggest CO2 polluters. We in scotland will have little impact but we should do what we can.

I believe mercury is very hot David1 but there are no porpoises there that we know of.

the difference between dolphins and porpoises:

dolphins don't do it on porpoise

hurr hurr hurr

A bit like the difference bewteen a buffalo and a bison?

You cannae wash yer face in a buffalo (this joke only works in Morningside really)

I believe #73, "experts" have found some signs of global warming on Mars also. How did they get an SUV up there then?

For all the environmental damage doubters (selfish) - Soon be plenty dead people washin up on the beaches as well - think about it it’s happened twice last year already.

whats 'significant number'. Im always wary when the sctosman does this, if you cant tell us the facts dont tell us conjecture.

What does a Porpoise taste like anyway ,a nd what difference will their dissapearance make to anything , apart from the quality of life of sandeels.

#79 What are referring to?

#73 - temperature detail of other planets are no doubt being collated. There will be no real historical data so it's probably not if any use at this point in time. Maybe in a couple of thousand years we'll be able to see trends and deviances... ;-)

#74 - well said. Nuclear power is the greenest of all. It pumps out no greenhouse gases. Did you know that if all the energy you used thoughout your life was nuclear produced, the amount of waste you'd generate would be about the size of a digestive biscuit?
The problem is in storing the waste, we can do this safely in deep underground repositories. This is by far a better option than continuing to pump billions of tons of sh1t into our atmosphere.

82. Could we eat the biscuit after we generated all the energy ?

83

Go for it. It would be easily spotted if you have the midnight munchies!

We could use the Energy biscuits to feed the Porpoises.

See folks, if we work together everything is possible.

sh1t is the chemical symbol for what ?

Evolution in action.

Survival of the fittest - or at least the ones who can adapt their diet to whatever food is available.

83# perhaps we couldn't but I bet that some organism exists that can and safely change it's make up to a non toxic material. we jsut have not found it yet.

You always have to take thing so seriously GP.

YOU eat the biscuit.

You take the biscuit also.

Porpoise and biscuits anybody?

#86 lol
you couldn't eat the waste of course, for safe storage it is vitrified (made into a glass substance through heat fusion). There you go, one wee glassy disc for your whole life's energy requirement... absolutely incredible technology! Almost completely ruined by the press and some misinformed hippies...

We have dolphins beaching on the Maryland coast too; I'm inclined to think it's a virus that is killing them, although loss of primary diet is certainly a possibility. Overfishing and the third world dumping its sewage directly into rivers and oceans is the most likely cause of the dolphin deaths. But of course, that isn't politically correct, because all the internationalists just loooooove Japan which is the major overfisher and killer of cetaceans; and of course it's non-PC to say that Africa, southeast Asia, all the middle east except Israel, and all of the Americas from Mexico south to Patagonia are major polluters of the oceans.

When those countries get their World Bank handouts, they spend it on AK-47s and Claymore mines rather than either teaching their populations about birth control or installing waste water treatment systems. That way they can blame the "Zionists and Crusaders" when their filthy habits catch up with them, or when a tsunami wipes half of them out because they bought missiles instead of tsunami warning systems.

Sounds good to me Gwegian. Sorry for being flipper.. sorry flippant.

Shocking piece of Journalism. Come on Mr Editor you must try harder!

Mr Urquhart should have sort of mentioned about the 'green' Danes hoovering up all the Sandeels. It doesn't need a PHD in Marine Biology to work out the damage it's caused.

Global Warming my arse!

Glaswegian: we don't take the tons of shIt and put it into the atmosphere. It is sent into deep space, where perhaps ultimately it will be caught by the Sun's gravity and considering how huge the Sun is, and how far its lethal heat reaches, the payload of spent nuclear material would be destroyed before it ever reached anyplace that could be considered the Sun's "surface."

It takes a rocket with a payload only a few seconds to leave the atmosphere. From there it whizzes through the stratosphere and the ionosphere, and is into low earth orbit (100 miles above the surface) in a very short time. It takes a day or so to get into geosynchronous orbit (22,000 miles from the Earth's surface) and after that, it's in deep space, and traveling at astronomical speeds once it escapes gravity.

Further, spent nuclear material is used in certain applications on earth, notably for military projectiles and also for medical purposes. I think as time goes on, technology will find more applications for the spent material and perhaps there will be no need either to bury it or to send it into space.

The only problem with taking the material into space is a launch failure, which could contaminate the launch area-- but the anhydrous ammonia which is used for the booster (i.e., rocket) fuel is really toxic and far more of a threat than the slightly radioactive spent fuel. That is why launch systems are on coasts where the prevailing winds won't blow any of the toxic cloud back over populated areas in the event of a launch failure.

When a space-bound rocket leaves Cape Canaveral, for instance, the cloud of exhaust from the rocket fuel hangs in the air for a few hours afterwards and is quite dramatic, particularly if the launch is near sunset.

95 . See other article. Its still legal in scotland to global warm our childrens arses.

Global warming on Mars, Jupiter, Pluto etc
http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/politics.cfm?id=48012007

Them crafty aliens has been hiding their SUVs.

Immaturity is the scourge of the Scotsman Message Boards!

I just keep hoovering up the 100's like a Danish fisherman!!

Paul Voltaire: Not all cetaceans eat plankton; in fact, all the dolphin family is carnivorous, from the smallest dolphins to the orcas. They all eat fish.

The largest whales have adaptive mouths that strain plankton out of the water. But there are relatively few pelagic whales on the planet compared to the very numerous dolphins.

The huge whale shark, though a fish, also has this adaptation; it is unusual among sharks in that it does not bite its prey, but strains plankton from sea water instead.

Like basking sharks off the coast of Scotland Martha?

Martha , Plankton is a small ex-mining (ex-everything) village in West Lothian.

It is famous for theft, especially garden tool theft.

Im off to vandalise Wiki.

Dolphins are very intelligent creatures.

Could it be that the Dolphins are simply too close to Scotland and are depressed beyond biscuits , and are taking their own lives?

Could it be that they have discovered that it doesnt matter how intelligent you are if you havent got arms and legs and have to live in a cold sea ?

Seriously I've nothing against Danes but we must save the Sandeel!

Bet Tony B is really worried about this issue having shown his lead on green issues haha...come on Flash Gordon...

a good arse spanking keeps the kids in check and its quite a lot of fun for the adults too.

Everything you do is a balloon

The dolphin is fine, it's the popoise that is struggling.

#107 - Jack, Jack, Jack...this is about 'scientists' deciding (not proving) the earth is warming...NOT about your spanking. Shake it off man...

I cant tell the difference Dave , they all look alike to me.

Ok, basking sharks (Cetorhinus maximus) too; but compared to the huge population of carnivorous sharks, those are the only two shark varieties of any size that strain their food instead of catching it alive-- unless someone knows of some other variety of filter-feeding shark.

phocus off, my man, I am shaking it off.

Everything you do is a balloon

They taste the same too.

#96 Martha - I didn't make myself clear - I meant to say the nuclear energy is cleaner than dumping billions of tons of sh1t into our atmosphere from burning fossil fuels.
Glad to see there a number of people on the board that get this.
Science will find a great use for radioactive waste - at the end of the day, it is free energy just waiting to be captured. THe problem is that the planet may be too fecked by the time the hippies eventually come round....

I dont know Martha.

i really dont know.

As for global warming: it was 35 degrees (Fahrenheit) this a.m. in Florida. Is that globally warm enough for you? Brrrrr! There's a huge cold front now marching down from western Canada and it will envelop the entire United States over the weekend. Temperatures will be at or below zero (F.) in many of the northern states. It's typical weather for this time of year.

Thirty-five years ago the great fear was of another ice age, when we had five or six horrible winters in a row and the temperature never got much above zero in January; snow flew at the end of May and summers were short, cold, and wet. The global warming idea hadn't surfaced at that point. Now it's all the rage. Like all fads, it'll wear off.

Glaswegian: oh, OK. I see what you were saying, and I agree with you.

The USA has stringent emission controls for factories and automobiles. But when you visit other countries, even our neighbors, especially Mexico, it's obvious that they don't give a rat's *** what they do to the environment. Mexicans, who spend weekends torturing animals for amusement, throw an incredible amount of debris-- condoms, other disgusting personal products, and plastic articles of all kinds-- directly into the sea. It washes up on the shores of San Diego and is considered a severe biological hazard. The Mexicans don't care. IF you ever visit Mazatlan on a cruise ship, take a gas mask. You'll need it.

According to the chief economist for Diamler-Chrysler everyone is over reacting to this climate change thing. Especially the Europeans. Now this is a person who should really know what's happening as first of all, he's an American and we all know they are experts on everything. Second he's an economist an obviously highly trained scientist, fully conversant with all aspects of what is going on. Right!!! This idiot's agenda is making money regardless of the consequences. If we keep listening to our politicians, economists, etc. there will be nothing left of this sorry old world.

AJ @ 100

Did you do it on porpoise?

Joanna , even before you tyed that you had your doubts didnt you? All day we have managed to avoid the most obvious pun.

You ruined it.

Balloony.....

Sorry, you're right ..... couldn't help myself....:))

#117 Martha, "The USA has stringent emission controls for factories and automobiles"

LOL. Pity they consume a huge disproportionate amount of the planets fossil fuels. Pity they have no intention of complying with the Kyoto agreement.

;)

110# then switch the lights on.

We could put the biscuits in the ocean and we would have Sea Biscuit.

117# are you sure the condoms are mexican?
Having been to San Diego some of the local off the US navy ships look like they may have something to do with the dolphins and the condoms.

I'm porpoised to say something............

From across the pond. Scottwebb and others are right about the taxes, but if you want to know the real reason behind the "global warming scare" is good old money. Has anyone calculated the billions of dollars/pounds, the global warming scare business sucks out of governments world wide? Would be interesting to know.
The over-fishing by commercial processors probably has more to do with the porposise's death than anything else. It has also reduced a number of fish on the US east coast.

A perfect example of so-called "scientists" jumping to conclusions. There are many, many factors that could cause this and from the article it seems that all that has been done is to put various potential causes together in such a way that it suggests "global warming".

If you re-arrange all these causes and fit them into a different picture, you will be able to "prove" anything you damn well like. It will not mean that it is the case.

In any case, "global warming" is a misnomer. Climate change is the correct term (but doesn't sound quite so scary). A proper scientist always uses the correct terminology so anyone who uses the term "global warming" is not, by definition, a proper scientist.

The climate IS changing, as it has done for millions of years and will continue to do. There are all sorts of factors that could contribute. Burning of fossil fuels is but one very minor one. What this article is trying to suggest is that nice, cute porpoises are dying because people drive their cars about. That is total nonsence. Why are people who profess this kind of rubbish given a platform?

UNBELIEVABLE! You blame these events on GLOBAL WARMING, what about the real reason - OVERFISHING. Or are you scared you might annoy your Scottish fishing industry readers? And you are meant to be journalists.

#119 Joanna
Did you have to reduce the tone to such a level, you've made Balloony crabby. You know how people hake fish puns and this was no plaice for it. So please clam it up next time!! :D

Thanks Chairman Gordon, starting to get a haddock now!!

I am sure there is some porpoises to this story but its not got me hoops.

#5, you are just a bit confused, the Iraq war is a symptom of the same disease that causes global warming. It is also symptomatic of that same disease that the "facts" presented as reasons for entering that war did not undergo as much scruitiny as this article about the survival of these fish has.

Guga - 9

The paragraphs below from the article state that the sandeels are dying (in the sand during the warm winter) before the have a chance to emerge in Springtime when the porpoises could (and other animals) could eat them.

"
Sandeels are anchovy-like fish which spend most of their lives buried in the sand before emerging for a few months in the spring when they become a vital food source.

Separate studies have found the number of sandeels living to adulthood falls during warmer winters, when they grow at too fast a rate to be supported by the available food.
"

The article has been condensed by a (presumabley non scientist journalist) for plebs like us to read and hopefully understand so alot of the details will have been removed to make it more concise.

Growth is generally limited by the "the law of limiting factors" - try a google on that one if you will ! So I presume the term "grow at too fast a rate" more likely means their enzymes are working too fast, resulting in a fast and early growth spurt, and their reaching maturity too early, and dying before the Spring.
If you notice the difference in the timing of the death of the porpoises (ie this is Winter not Spring so presumabley the starved fairly recently) this could be that the porpoises are not building up enough fat reserves in SPring to carry them through the winter.
All hypothese scientists would have to test.
(does anyone know the plural for hypothesis?). Ciaou

Glaswegian: the Kyoto Agreement is run by the same bunch of lunatics who are always screeching about Global Warming as if it were a proven scientific fact, which it is most definitely not.

Kyoto is about the transfer of large sums of money from developed to undeveloped nations. Given that the USA is usually a major funding source for this type of money transfer with no benefit to our nation and no hope of payback, and given what third world nations usually do with such handouts, I think our government, for once, did the right thing in refusing to participate in such a blatant con job.

As for our using "most" (is 25 percent most?) of the world's fossil fuels, we are a coal producing nation and we sell coal to many nations. We also produce oil and natural gas, but unfortunately are no longer self-sufficient. There are 300,000,000 people in this nation, using our own supplies and fossil fuels that we buy from other nations, notably the middle east, since we are a coal exporting nation and don't need to buy coal. We have provided the petrodollars that have fueled the middle east's development for the past 75 years. If you can call it development-- but at least they aren't living in goatskin tents anymore. Our buying of their natural resource (something Britain has done for centuries now with various commodities) provides jobs and skills for their people.

Most automobiles produced elsewhere do not meet American standards for emission controls, and have to be specifically designed for the USA before being shipped here.

Considering that a lot of our oil, in addition to other commodities was shipped to Britain during World War II at next to no charge, I would think your arrogant attitude would have been different. You are one of the reasons we are no longer oil-sufficient, although we still produce a lot of it.

Izy: the plural of hypothesis is hypotheses.

136 - Excuse my last comment above on Winter and fat reserves... I just read the article again and the data was collected over several years, not recent deaths.

Thanks Martha

Oh praise your Scottish ancestors for the creativity to formulate that delicious and invigorating drink called Scotch and endow me with the clim conditions and time period when the peat that insures that nectar’s marvelous flavor was crated. With the Scotsman providing the form and the ready availability of resident Scots I await this revelation.

The Little Ice Age only wound down 150 years ago. So now we're heating up again, as happened prior to the Little Ice Age (1350 to 1850 A. D.), when grapes were grown in England. Other species are adjusting to the change. Polar bears had 500 years to build up their population, as did seals and other marine life; the fact that such life experiences periodic fluctuations is hardly news.

Given the enormous human population of this planet, I would think that another Little Ice Age would be far more to fear than warming that will open up formerly non-arable land in northern countries, and permit the growing of stone fruits cereal crops, and other human foods farther north than is presently feasible. But if the climate suddenly cools again, then there will be starvation and death to a far greater extent than is now the case.

# 136

hypotheses

Just like thesis > theses

Global warming the cause of dead perpoises?

Lack of fish I'd venture!! As a kid I used to haunt Granton Docks and I remember how the fishermen of the Forth hated porpoises. Back then, great shoals of herring entered the estuary and as they made their way inland towards Grangemouth and Skin Flats, the shoals were surrounded by seals porpoises and masses of seagulls. There was a lot of heated discussion ,down Pittenweem way, as to whether SEINE NETTING should be banned as is was too efficient in catching whole shoals.

Out here on Canada's west coast our grey whales are in dire straits as are our resident ORCAS. Again lack of fish appears to be the main cause, but accentuated by the eardrum bursting sonar of nuclear submarines and the pollution of untreated sewage that BC's capital city daily pours into the sea.

there ye are:

http://easyweb.easynet.co.uk/kevinjr/seaswest/north_sea_f...

The European Commission’s annual proposals for industrial fisheries, such as sandeel and sprat,
highlight that seabirds, whales and other marine animals may be finding it difficult to
find the food they need to survive.

Industrial fisheries pursue these important fish species - which make up the bottom of
the food chain - not for human consumption, but to provide fish meal and oil for rearing
livestock and farmed fish.

the lack of small oily fish, such as sprat and sandeel, in the North Sea is cause for concern.
These species should only be allowed caught when scientific evidence proves the stocks
have replenished enough to sustain the fishery, as well as providing enough food for
seabirds.

In recent years there has been unprecedented breeding failures of sandeel-dependent
seabirds. Seabirds fared badly in East Scotland, where guillemots had an extremely poor
year.
This year at Fowlsheugh (Aberdeenshire) and the Isle of May (Fife), in scenes
reminiscent of the calamitous failure of 2004, by mid-July dead chicks littered the ledges
and the sea under the colony.

This shortage may well be driven by a rise in sea
temperature reducing the growth of sandeel populations. In turn, this scuppers seabirds
if there are few alternative prey - especially sprats - available.

all the species in the north sea are starving since we stopped feeding them our sewage

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/lpgtax/#detail
Sign the petition above. Insist on tax relief.

Meanwhile many ships continue to dump their tanks at sea, spilling no end of chemicals into the oceans.

The raiding of the sand eels by over fishing, and the polticians jumping on the green tax band wagon is a step too far. No wonder sea animals and birds are starving.

Travel is here to stay. The hardworking public have a right to travel without more money being taken from their pockets. Efficient engines matter.

#20 CJ0. Succinctly put. Thanks.

Just look at the massive wind turbines at Black Law. Many more to come. If a member of the public wanted to erect this would it normally get through planning permission? Look at the turbines at Black Law.
http://www.countryguardian.net/

See the many charities promoting wind farms, is that in their remit?
http://www.stopclimatechaos.org/about_us/9.asp

For global warming look at:http://www.sepp.org/

#61 Captain Fantastic. Thanks for the interesting post.

Polution in the sea is what is killing them. Happening here, as well ,with killer whales on Canada`s West Coast
AND ..golly ..gee.. when it come to "our turn"to die from "polution". (AND OUR TURN WILL COME)
Judging from the intelligence (or lack off) in the
many of the comments here..WILL IT REALLY BE "A LOSS?

Never mind all the microwaves and remote sensing applications from satellites burning the ocean and scientists use to scan the oceans.

scientists have only to look at themselves for much environmental destruction.

Here we go again.They blame it to pollution created by "humans and also because of cows". Why Are they so "obssessed" of global warming that happen "many times" before the industrialization of the planet? Is there "anything" we could blame other than "pollution and cows"? Is there any intelligent human being or scientist that can explain the" last ice age"? so we don't have to "keep on guessing" and guessing what is really happening to Planet Earth? or they just want a "finacial support" for the research by the scientists about the story of never ending global warming, global warning and global warming, then, "explain the last ice age"?

More like the fact that the EU (and most of the East Cost of the UK) uses the North Sea like an sewer for everything that can be put in it.
Remember the 'Cod Wars'? The change in the sea temperature made the fish normally the preserve of the Dogger Bank trawlers from UK, move north to Iceland, and that was before a panic about Global Warming.

Usually, when the food that is native to certain area for a certain animal is removed, that certain animal goes elsewhere and adapts. I would think that the reason a whale or dolphin beaches itself is because it loses direction and in the process of migration it does not detect the depth. Do you think that the fish commit suicide? Pay attention to the military moves in the area.

I'm sure this is the same story I read about Glasgow; poverty, violence, etc. but some council working party actually managed to pin-point a reactor in Turkestan as the cause, and shift the blame,true, ok. The "warming" has undoubtably catalysed aspects of anti-social behaviour and eel eating and can't be stopped.