Welcome to My Blogspace........

Buy Products





Google

Sunday, June 28, 2009

Swimming with an Ocean Playmate

This highly intelligent aquatic mammal, reputed to have saved the life of many a shipwrecked sailor, has always been depicted as one of man’s best ocean friends. The largest of the beaked dolphins, it is named for its short, stubby beak which resembles the top or neck of a bottle. Bottlenose dolphins are believed to be highly intelligent and live in social groups, called schools or pods. They communicate with each other using distinctive whistles, clicks and body language.


Love of Mother

The Chief breeding season is between March and April. Dolphins will pair up briefly during this time when the male shows a preference for the company of a particular female. Courtship can be violent with much forceful bumping of heads.



Calves are born in midsummer in European waters and between February and May in Florida. So, strong is the attachment between mother and calf that females have been seen supporting dead calves at the surface of the water, as though trying to help them to breathe.


Acrobat of the sea

Bottlenose dolphins travel in family groups of one to 10 in coastal regions and p to 25 offshore, although schools of up to 500 have been recorded. Within these schools, they tend to spend time with like individuals. Females and young calves frequently band together, so do males. Often seen riding the bow wave of a boat and breaching (doing belly-flops), the bottlenose can leap several metres out of the water. It sleeps about eight hours a day, swims at speeds of around 20 km (12 miles) an hour and dives for up to 20 minutes at a depth of 300m (1,000 ft). Males fight viciously over females during the breeding season.





Danger Under the sea

Although still generally plentiful, bottlenose dolphins have been virtually wiped out in some places. They are hunted for meat and other products in parts of the world. In the pacific they are often drowned in tuna nets, although new dolphin-friendly nets are now being used more widely.

Recently there has been concern about man-made marine noise such as shipping sonar, which upsets whales and dolphins ability to feed, navigate and communicate. Evidence suggests that a military submarine detection system in which Low Frequency Active Sonar floods the oceans with noise is threatening the survival of whales and dolphins by destroying their hearing or causing their ears or lungs to haemorrhage.

Inventive Hunters

In the wild, bottlenose dolphins feed on around 8-15 kg (15-33 lb) of squid, shrimp, eels and other fish per day. They often hunt as a team, herding small fish ahead of them and picking off the stragglers; in some waters, they follow shrimp boats to feast on leftovers. Hunting techniques can vary a lot depending on location.


In South Carolina, USA, for instance, dolphins chase fish on to the shore and then roll up on the beach to catch them. However, in the Gulf of Mexico, bottlenoses have been seen stunning fish by tossing them in the air with their tail flukes and then picking them up from the surface. Some researches believe that they can stun their prey by producing loud noises.

Source and content is courtesy of different people...

Monday, June 22, 2009

Saina Nehwal wins the Indonesian Open..

Hello friends, everyone was busy in scrutinizing the performance of Indian cricket team in ICC T20 World Cup 2009. But in the mean time Saina Nehwal on June 21 won the Indonesian Open and created history by becoming the first Indian to win a Super series tournament.

Saina Nehwal was ranked No.8 and her opponent Lin Wang was ranked World No.3. Wang is from china took the first set comfortably 21-12 but after that set onwards Saina took control of the second set and won it 21-18 and the final set was won by Saina comfortably 21-9. Saina clinched title and score was 12-21, 21-18, 21-9. Jakarta audience saw a new champion from India first time.




Presently Saina Nehwal coach is former All England Champion Pullela Gopichand. Saina Nehwal lost to Lin Wang in Singapore Open last week and it was good revenge taken by her in this tournament. After this win, Badminton Association of India announced a cash prize of Rs. 2 Lakh as recognition but this amount is very small compared to what the cricketers of India is given. Anyhow, I salute Gopichand for coaching Saina Nehwal very well.


Finally I am happy for Saina Nehwal because her hard work and dedication paid off for her. She made India proud and hats off to her lifting the spirits of Indians. I hope one day people of India show more interest in sports like Badminton, Boxing, Hockey, Soccer, Tennis and Table Tennis other than cricket. Audience has power to change the fate of any sport and it is sad that Indonesian Open is not covered live by any major channel in India. I had to see some clips in news channel instead of watching the full match.

By Madhu Vamsi...