BP Off Hook in Gulf Dolphin Deaths?

Cold water flowing into Gulf may have killed baby dolphins

MOBILE, Ala. -- Cold water may have killed the dolphins washing up in Mississippi and Alabama, scientists with the Dauphin Island Sea Lab said Wednesday.

They point to an apparent correlation between large pulses of chilly water that flowed into Mobile Bay during January and February and the subsequent discovery of dozens of stillborn dolphin calves in area waters.

Data on water temperature and river flows show periods in each month when bay waters dipped into the 40s for days at a time. Shortly after bay temperatures dropped precipitously, dead stillborn dolphins began washing ashore in Alabama....

...“The timing for everything works out pretty well. We had the one significant snowfall event in the middle of January. After that, the timing is right in terms of the snow melting and arriving in Mobile Bay as a freshet, this pulse of cold, fresh water that arrives and then dissipates,” said Monty Graham, a marine biologist with the Sea Lab.

 I'll bet BP ends up paying anyway.