Dear Julio and Marmamers I just returned from Mundo Azuls first month of field work photo-identifying bottlenose dolphins in the area between Perus Capital Lima and the Island Asia (100 km of coastline) and the area between Paracas and Tambo de Mora (40 km). According to our preliminary analysis of the several thousands of pictures taken, in the first area we managed to determine several distinct populations with a total of at least 180 dolphins. In Paracas/Pisco we managed to photo identify at least 85 dolphins with some aditional ones in the area between Pisco and Tambo de Mora. I would like to confirm Julios observation. Of the 85 dolphins we identified in the area Pisco/Paracas, which is heavily afected by contamination, at least 16 of the 85 dolphins we encountered showed this skin condition. Diving studies of Mundo Azul in 2004 and 2006 collecting a total of 400 bottom samples and invertebrate samples have shown that a great area (approximately 15 square kilometers within the bay) are near biologically dead or bilogically dead, with the bottom being covered by a thick layer of gelee like organic matter (information concerning this contamination, satelite images and research results can be obtained on our english web site within the part on marine contamination - www.mundoazul.org <http://www.mundoazul.org/> - click on the british flag in the upper right corner in order to enter in the engish version). This year we also could confirm a heavy contamination with petroleum accumulated in the seafloor south of Pisco. In the other populations that we identified so far we could not find one single specimen showing a similar skin condition. With exemption of a small group near the capital in an area where a main sewage pipe enters contaminating the sea with the sewage of a few milion people. We do not yet have a lot a pictures from this group as sea conditions during our stay in the are have been very tough but the few pictures we were able to take so far showed at least one dolphin with a similar skin contidion like the dolphins in Paracas. From this we can conclude that there definitely can be assumed a connection between the contamination and the skin disease, as Julio points out. As our field investigaion in the area goes on I am sure that I can provide more input for the list on this topic. I therefore would be also very interested to get more information on this type of skin disease and would like to ask listmembers to also forward their information to our emal: mundoazul@terra.com.pe I would like also to raise another interesting topic concerning the Paracas population and ask list members for literature and comments on similar behavior in other populations. The bay of Paracas is very shallow. We could observe dolphins to perform the following feeding behavior in water depths of 1.5 to 5 meters. A single dolphin or groups of up to three dolphins swam in tight circles with the snout aparantly in the sediment and the fluke out of the water (sometimes vertically) steering up a lot of sediment. We thought of several possible explanations: they might have fished bottom dwelling fish or have steered up sediment in order to confuse fish and catch them in the murky water caused by this behavior - it could also be that the steered up sediment and organic material attracts fish which then can be caught by the dolphins. The later seems a probable hypothesis as we could also observe a similar behavior related to fishing boats. Artisan fishing boats entering the harbor of Paracas are used to pump out their bilges and throw the fishblood and remains into the water when cleaning their wooden boats. This organic material seems to attract fish which then is consumed by the dolphins. We observed that whenever a fishing boat enters in the port a huge number of dolphins (up to ten) follows the boat and then fishes around the anchored boat witin the water that is contaminated with the organic waste, while fishermen continue to throw over board bloodwaer and clean their boats. I would be very interested to learn if similar behaivors have been observed in other places. I am sure that Julio can confirm this behavior and maybe would be interested to also receive information from listmembers about similar fishing behaviors in other places. All the best Stefan Austermühle Mundo Azul