FLORIDA: Key Largo - M.M.C. - Update on "Castaway" the Dolphin - "Chat-Line experiment".

KEY LARGO, Fla. – A marine mammal rehabilitation facility opened a dolphin “chat-line” of sorts Saturday, hoping to teach a deaf dolphin's unborn calf to communicate.

Castaway, as the stranded Atlantic bottle nose dolphin has been named, has been recovering at the Marine Mammal Conservancy since Jan. 30Th. 2007. A battery of tests has confirmed she is deaf.

Dolphins need to hear echoes of sounds they produce to find food, socialize and defend themselves against predators.
“We asked ourselves 'How do we get the calf to speak when we have a deaf mother?'” said Robert Lingenfelser, the conservancy's president.

They decided to electronically connect Castaway's habitat with a lagoon at Dolphins Plus, a research and interactive educational facility a few miles down the Keys Overseas Highway. Underwater speakers and microphones were installed at both locations and connected via phone lines.

Castaway should deliver her calf in about a month.

“Even before it is born, we want the calf to have an idea of what normal dolphin vocalization is,” Lingenfelser said.

On the Net:
Marine Mammal Conservancy: www.marinemammalconservancy.org

FLORIDA : Key Largo - Marine Mammal Conservancy - Update on "Castaway" the Dolphin.

"Hearing tests confirm Castaway is deaf." -

Castaway the dolphin's future likely will be determined today, when official hearing tests results are released and conference calls are planned among veterinarians and marine mammal experts.
David Mann, an assistant professor with University of South Florida who specializes in auditory systems of fish and marine mammals, conducted a hearing test Monday on the pregnant, bottlenose dolphin that stranded in Vero Beach at Castaway Cove in November and refused to be released off Fort Pierce last month.

Once the official report is released, Lingenfelser said he will be in conference calls with officials from the National Marine Fisheries Service, who determine where the dolphin will stay and whether she will have her calf at the small Keys facility.
Experts also will begin discussing what exactly caused Castaway's deafness, he said.

Lingenfelser said the cause of Castaway's hearing problems won't be known until she dies and veterinarians can perform a necropsy, or autopsy for animals. Along with drug complications, it could have been a stroke or a brain aneurysm, he said.
No hearing tests were performed at Mote because it is federal policy not to test pregnant dolphins, he added.

If Castaway is considered non-releasable by federal officials, Lingenfelser said he would prefer officials move Castaway to a public display facility before she gives birth.
Otherwise, she and her calf would have to stay at the conservancy for months, closing it to other stranded animals that need rehabilitation, he said.
But regardless, she and her calf will be able to live long lives, Lingenfelser said.
"We don't euthanize animals, not unless they're suffering," he said. "Whoever takes her on should be applauded. We'll take care of her, no worries."

More Info. on the Marine Mammal Conservancy http://www.marinemammalconservancy.org/

FLORIDA : WYLAND in KEY LARGO -PHOTO UPDATE !!

BLOG UPDATE: 4-Sided "Whaling Wall" Completed in Key Largo

*Photo by Andy Newman/Florida Keys News Bureau

Marine artist Wyland unveils a mural in Key Largo that features Castaway, the dolphin. But just before he snipped a ribbon, he revealed that sometime after Feb. 20 he would “quietly add a few more fish and a stingray to honor my friend Steve Irwin.” Irwin, best known for his television series ‘The Crocodile Hunter,’ tragically died in September 2006, after being pierced in the chest by a stingray spine while snorkeling at the Great Barrier Reef in Australia.

Wyland also announced that lighting would be added to illuminate the mural so the artwork could be appreciated 24 hours a day.

A panoramic 7,500-square-foot representation of the living coral reef that parallels the Keys, the Wyland mural wraps around a four-story, four-sided building at mile marker 99.2 in the median of the Overseas Highway that bisects Key Largo.

"This is a mural that is really the gateway to the Florida Keys," said Wyland, whose name is legally one word. "I’m a diver so I take all that inspiration and all that beauty and simply paint it up on the wall for people to enjoy.”

Wyland, who has residences in California, Hawaii and the Keys, has spent more than 20 years diving in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. He credits the Keys reef, the only contiguous coral expanse in North America, for inspiring much of his work.

The completed mural features islands, sunset, manatees, manta rays, corals, indigenous fish and bottlenose dolphins in honor of a stranded pregnant dolphin, Castaway and her unborn calf currently being treated at a Key Largo Marine Mammal Rehabilitation Center.
Like Wyland's previous walls, the Key Largo mural is designed to motivate environmental awareness and stewardship, particularly in children.

"Art is something that can touch people’s emotion," said Wyland, who began the Key Largo wall Feb. 1. "You can choose not to go into a gallery or a museum, but you can’t ignore a giant mural like this. If people see this beauty, I know they’ll want to get involved in protecting it.”

During breaks from creating the mammoth mural, Wyland painted separate canvases with kids, noting the importance of inspiring youngsters to preserve the world’s oceans.

Wyland, who began painting "Whaling Walls" in 1981, plans to continue his series internationally until he has completed 100 murals.

He intends to paint his last huge artwork, projected to be more than two miles long, in Beijing, with children from around the world, prior to the 2008 summer Olympics.
For more information, visit www.wylandfoundation.org.