June 19, 2014 - EARTH - The following constitutes
the latest reports of unusual and symbolic animal behavior, mass
die-offs, beaching and stranding of mammals, and the appearance of rare
creatures.
Thousands of dead fish washed up on Victoria's Ninety Mile Beach were probably killed by cold Antarctic water, according to the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA).
Many beachgoers had reported the dead fish between Seaspray and Marlo in Gippsland, identifying mainly the leather jacket species and also trevally.
The EPA said it was investigating but test results did not indicate water pollution was the cause.
It said the fish were most likely killed by cold Antarctic waters moving up the east coast.
The fish prefer warmer waters.
Large numbers of dead fish have also washed up on Tasmania's east coast.
- ABC Australia.
The hailstorm that hit Maharashtra earlier this year killed more than 65,000 birds and mammals in various parts of the state, according to a special report prepared by the Bombay Natural History Society.
A total 26 species of birds and nine species of mammals were killed in Marathwada and Vidarbha during the period from March 1 to 10 and on May 1 and 2, BNHS stated in the report that was released on Tuesday.
Mass mortality was reported in 27 areas with high mortality in 14 areas, each covering about 25 sq km.
"A high number of deaths were reported for birds that prefer residing near human habitation. Some of these are mynas, owls, parakeets and kites," the report states.
The highest rate of mass mortality was observed at the roosting sites of birds such as rosy starling, the house sparrow and rose-ringed parakeet. Birds such as coucal, bulbul, drongo, quail, lark, egret and bee-eaters were found dead across the study area.
"We observed carcasses of more than 1,500 rose-ringed parakeets at Mandava village in Risod tehsil of Washim district. These parakeets were roosting on a series of teak trees near a farmland. After the hailstorm their carcasses were lying over an area spread over one hectare," the report states.
Among the other species seriously affected were egrets, cormorants, storks, ibises, doves, quails, grey herons and the barn owl.
More than 3,000 unidentified bird species were also observed at various locations in Osmanabad tehsil, Loha in Nanded district, Jafarabad in Jalna, Jamner in Jalgaon district.
The painted stork and black-headed ibis that are among species under threat listed by the International Union of Conservation of Nature, suffered severely.
Among the mammals affected were the Indian blackbuck, nilgai, jungle cat, chinkara, langur, black-naped hare, five-striped squirrel, flying fox bat and short-nosed fruit bat. - DNA India.
Dozens of seabirds have been found dead in a region of Snæfellsnes, and the cause eludes the experts.
Vísir reports that since last month, over 50 common eiders have been found dead near a nesting area in Fróðárrif, located on the Snæfellsnes peninsula in west Iceland. However, no apparent cause of death could be found. This prompted the West-Iceland Centre of Natural History (NSV) to conduct further investigations.
Menja von Schmalensee told attendees at an NSV meeting last Wednesday that, in the course of these investigations, an additional 70 dead birds were found in the area. These birds included kittiwakes, cormorants and more eiders. Even more inexplicably, many dead flounders were also found near the area, having washed up on the shores nearby.
Jón Einar Jónsson, the director of the Institute of Research Centres at the University of Iceland, visited the area with NSV employees. Although scavenging creatures had picked apart many of the dead birds, a few specimens were still intact, and newly dead. Some of these specimens have been sent to the US, to be examined by experts in bird diseases there.
Jón points out that the eider and the kittiwake have little in common with each other, apart from the fact that they both drink fresh water around this time of year. This could point to ponds in the area as being a possible source of the deadly culprit. - Grapevine.
Thousands of small fish in a large detention pond in Willband Creek Park in Abbotsford have been found dead, for the second consecutive year, and the cause is proving to be a mystery for fisheries officials. The three-spined stickleback – about the size of a sardine – washed up along the shoreline of the pond in the park located at Highway 11 and Bateman Road.
The deaths occurred at the same time – mid-May to early June – that they did in 2013. Following last year’s reports of the dead fish, ministry of environment officials ruled out obvious possibilities such as contamination.
Further testing of the water temperature, pH levels, conductivity and dissolved oxygen determined that none of those issues was connected to the deaths. The incident was declared a mystery and chalked up to a one-time incident. But this year’s reoccurrence has re-ignited the mystery. Doug Gosling, a member of the Stoney Creek Salmon Stalkers who was involved in pushing for answers in last year’s incident, was initially concerned that a contaminant was responsible for the deaths.
But an advisor with Fisheries and Oceans Canada tested the fish and the water and ruled out any toxic sources, saying the only species dying in the pond are the stickleback, while other fish and wildlife are unaffected.
As in 2013, further testing did not reveal any other sources for the large kill. However, officials might be getting closer to an answer. Similar stickleback deaths occurred in Washington State in June 2013, when the fish were washing up on Mercer Island beaches.
Fisheries experts there believed the deaths were part of a natural cycle in which the sticklebacks spawn annually and then die off, leaving a mass of dead fish that wash up on the shore. But fisheries officials doing research on this year’s stickleback deaths in Abbotsford have not been able to find any information that a mass natural die-off is part of their cycle. They are continuing to look into the issue. - BC Local News.
The homeowner who found around two dozen animals dead on her property near Old Hickory Lake said more animals have died. NewsChannel 5 first reported about the animals deaths Monday. Property owner Michelle Desirey said the day before her husband had seen ducks suddenly fly into the rocks and die. "He saw two wild ducks fly in that never got in the water. They landed on the rocks and immediately had something like a seizure, and then just died right there,” she said. "In five minutes they were all dead. It was heartbreaking.”
Over the next 24 hours they found more than 20 dead ducks. Monday, they even found a dead raccoon and woodpecker in the same area. Desirey said three more ducks died Tuesday. The family raises domestic ducks and has worried that whatever is killing the wild ones could kill theirs, as well. Officers from the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency have been investigating. Desirey said they were staying away from the lake until they knew more about what was killing the wildlife.
"We're not going to fish or eat any fish out of the lake. We're probably not going to swim in the lake,” she said. TWRA officials were working to determine if it was something the water, or on someone’s property. While they wait, Desirey said they won't even be launching their boat until they get an idea of what could be killing so much of what makes living on Old Hickory so special.
WATCH: More Animals found dead near Old Hickory Lake.
"It's not the same lake that it has been for the last forty years,” she said. TWRA officials told NewsChannel 5 they were sending the dead ducks to the Southeastern Cooperative Wildlife Disease Study at the University of Georgia in Athens for testing. Lab results may not be available until next month. - News Channel 5.
The new case of highly pathogenic AI was reported at a duck farm in Hoengseong, about 90 kilometers east of Seoul, earlier this week, and hundreds of ducks and chickens have already been slaughtered in order to prevent a spread of the animal disease into nearby regions, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs.
The confirmed bird flu case, the latest in 20 days, came as the government was set to announce later this month that the animal disease is completely under control.
South Korea suffered an AI breakout in February, possibly caused by migratory birds from China. Over 13.8 million birds here have been slaughtered since the outbreak was first reported at a duck farm on Feb. 16.
Health officials here have said the bird flu poses no immediate threats to humans, with no human infection of the strain reported so far. - Korea Times.
A lake southwest of Chicago has
been closed to the public after officials discovered that virtually all
of the fish in it did not survive the long, brutal winter.
Site superintendent of Milliken Lake at the Des Plaines State Fish and Wildlife Area near Wilmington spoke to The Daily Journal in Kankakee (http://bit.ly/1joPUzK ).
He says officials found a nearly "total kill" that was worse than he'd seen since he arrived nearly 30 years ago.
Site Superintendent Jeff Wepprecht says that the public won't be allowed into the popular fishing area until the 20-acre lake is restocked.
A recording at the agency's office says there will be no fishing or picnicking allowed for the rest of the 2014 season. - 14 News.
The fish were found in a 1,000ft stretch of the Trent and Mersey canal in Stone. The Environment Agency is now looking into whether pollution is the cause. The canal is near the former coal-fired Meaford Power Station where a £300 million power station is planned.
Developers acquired the site in 2004 but it has stood largely empty since then. An investigation has been launched by the Environment Agency to find out what has killed the fish, including pike, bream and carp. The agency and Canal River Trust spent hours yesterday (Thur) pumping oxygen into the water in a bid to save the remaining fish.
Environment Agency spokesman Hannah Brookes said:“We are currently dealing with a fish kill incident on the Trent and Mersey Canal near the former Meaford Power Station in Stone, Staffordshire. "Our investigation into the cause of this incident is ongoing. We are also assessing the environmental impacts – our current estimates indicate that over 700 fish have died and approximately 300 metres of the canal has been affected." - Express and Star.
Thousands Of Dead Fish Found On Ninety Mile Beach, Victoria, Australia
 |
| Dead fish washed up onshore at Seaspray in Gippsland |
Thousands of dead fish washed up on Victoria's Ninety Mile Beach were probably killed by cold Antarctic water, according to the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA).
Many beachgoers had reported the dead fish between Seaspray and Marlo in Gippsland, identifying mainly the leather jacket species and also trevally.
 |
| Beachgoers reported the dead fish found along Ninety Mile Beach. |
The EPA said it was investigating but test results did not indicate water pollution was the cause.
It said the fish were most likely killed by cold Antarctic waters moving up the east coast.
The fish prefer warmer waters.
Large numbers of dead fish have also washed up on Tasmania's east coast.
- ABC Australia.
65,000 Birds And Mammals Killed By Hailstorms In India
 |
| Carcasses of rosy starling in Baramati, Pune district, and an Indian peafowl at Umarga, Osmanabad district. |
The hailstorm that hit Maharashtra earlier this year killed more than 65,000 birds and mammals in various parts of the state, according to a special report prepared by the Bombay Natural History Society.
A total 26 species of birds and nine species of mammals were killed in Marathwada and Vidarbha during the period from March 1 to 10 and on May 1 and 2, BNHS stated in the report that was released on Tuesday.
Mass mortality was reported in 27 areas with high mortality in 14 areas, each covering about 25 sq km.
"A high number of deaths were reported for birds that prefer residing near human habitation. Some of these are mynas, owls, parakeets and kites," the report states.
The highest rate of mass mortality was observed at the roosting sites of birds such as rosy starling, the house sparrow and rose-ringed parakeet. Birds such as coucal, bulbul, drongo, quail, lark, egret and bee-eaters were found dead across the study area.
"We observed carcasses of more than 1,500 rose-ringed parakeets at Mandava village in Risod tehsil of Washim district. These parakeets were roosting on a series of teak trees near a farmland. After the hailstorm their carcasses were lying over an area spread over one hectare," the report states.
Among the other species seriously affected were egrets, cormorants, storks, ibises, doves, quails, grey herons and the barn owl.
More than 3,000 unidentified bird species were also observed at various locations in Osmanabad tehsil, Loha in Nanded district, Jafarabad in Jalna, Jamner in Jalgaon district.
The painted stork and black-headed ibis that are among species under threat listed by the International Union of Conservation of Nature, suffered severely.
Among the mammals affected were the Indian blackbuck, nilgai, jungle cat, chinkara, langur, black-naped hare, five-striped squirrel, flying fox bat and short-nosed fruit bat. - DNA India.
Unexplainable Seabird Deaths Puzzle Scientists In Iceland
 |
| Eider. Diliff/Wikimedia Commons |
Dozens of seabirds have been found dead in a region of Snæfellsnes, and the cause eludes the experts.
Vísir reports that since last month, over 50 common eiders have been found dead near a nesting area in Fróðárrif, located on the Snæfellsnes peninsula in west Iceland. However, no apparent cause of death could be found. This prompted the West-Iceland Centre of Natural History (NSV) to conduct further investigations.
Menja von Schmalensee told attendees at an NSV meeting last Wednesday that, in the course of these investigations, an additional 70 dead birds were found in the area. These birds included kittiwakes, cormorants and more eiders. Even more inexplicably, many dead flounders were also found near the area, having washed up on the shores nearby.
Jón Einar Jónsson, the director of the Institute of Research Centres at the University of Iceland, visited the area with NSV employees. Although scavenging creatures had picked apart many of the dead birds, a few specimens were still intact, and newly dead. Some of these specimens have been sent to the US, to be examined by experts in bird diseases there.
Jón points out that the eider and the kittiwake have little in common with each other, apart from the fact that they both drink fresh water around this time of year. This could point to ponds in the area as being a possible source of the deadly culprit. - Grapevine.
Thousands Of Dead Fish Is A "Mystery" In A Lake In Abbotsford, Canada
Thousands of small fish in a large detention pond in Willband Creek Park in Abbotsford have been found dead, for the second consecutive year, and the cause is proving to be a mystery for fisheries officials. The three-spined stickleback – about the size of a sardine – washed up along the shoreline of the pond in the park located at Highway 11 and Bateman Road.
The deaths occurred at the same time – mid-May to early June – that they did in 2013. Following last year’s reports of the dead fish, ministry of environment officials ruled out obvious possibilities such as contamination.
Further testing of the water temperature, pH levels, conductivity and dissolved oxygen determined that none of those issues was connected to the deaths. The incident was declared a mystery and chalked up to a one-time incident. But this year’s reoccurrence has re-ignited the mystery. Doug Gosling, a member of the Stoney Creek Salmon Stalkers who was involved in pushing for answers in last year’s incident, was initially concerned that a contaminant was responsible for the deaths.
But an advisor with Fisheries and Oceans Canada tested the fish and the water and ruled out any toxic sources, saying the only species dying in the pond are the stickleback, while other fish and wildlife are unaffected.
 |
| Geese at Willband Creek Park walk by a number of dead three-spined stickleback pooled on the shoreline to their right and left. - Image credit: Vikki Hopes |
As in 2013, further testing did not reveal any other sources for the large kill. However, officials might be getting closer to an answer. Similar stickleback deaths occurred in Washington State in June 2013, when the fish were washing up on Mercer Island beaches.
Fisheries experts there believed the deaths were part of a natural cycle in which the sticklebacks spawn annually and then die off, leaving a mass of dead fish that wash up on the shore. But fisheries officials doing research on this year’s stickleback deaths in Abbotsford have not been able to find any information that a mass natural die-off is part of their cycle. They are continuing to look into the issue. - BC Local News.
Mass Die-Off Of Wildlife "Suddenly" Around A Lake In Tennessee, United States
The homeowner who found around two dozen animals dead on her property near Old Hickory Lake said more animals have died. NewsChannel 5 first reported about the animals deaths Monday. Property owner Michelle Desirey said the day before her husband had seen ducks suddenly fly into the rocks and die. "He saw two wild ducks fly in that never got in the water. They landed on the rocks and immediately had something like a seizure, and then just died right there,” she said. "In five minutes they were all dead. It was heartbreaking.”
Over the next 24 hours they found more than 20 dead ducks. Monday, they even found a dead raccoon and woodpecker in the same area. Desirey said three more ducks died Tuesday. The family raises domestic ducks and has worried that whatever is killing the wild ones could kill theirs, as well. Officers from the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency have been investigating. Desirey said they were staying away from the lake until they knew more about what was killing the wildlife.
"We're not going to fish or eat any fish out of the lake. We're probably not going to swim in the lake,” she said. TWRA officials were working to determine if it was something the water, or on someone’s property. While they wait, Desirey said they won't even be launching their boat until they get an idea of what could be killing so much of what makes living on Old Hickory so special.
WATCH: More Animals found dead near Old Hickory Lake.
"It's not the same lake that it has been for the last forty years,” she said. TWRA officials told NewsChannel 5 they were sending the dead ducks to the Southeastern Cooperative Wildlife Disease Study at the University of Georgia in Athens for testing. Lab results may not be available until next month. - News Channel 5.
Hundreds Of Poultry Killed Due To Avian Flu In South Korea
An additional outbreak of bird flu has been
confirmed, the government said Saturday, dashing hopes that the avian
influenza (AI) in the country is under control.The new case of highly pathogenic AI was reported at a duck farm in Hoengseong, about 90 kilometers east of Seoul, earlier this week, and hundreds of ducks and chickens have already been slaughtered in order to prevent a spread of the animal disease into nearby regions, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs.
The confirmed bird flu case, the latest in 20 days, came as the government was set to announce later this month that the animal disease is completely under control.
South Korea suffered an AI breakout in February, possibly caused by migratory birds from China. Over 13.8 million birds here have been slaughtered since the outbreak was first reported at a duck farm on Feb. 16.
Health officials here have said the bird flu poses no immediate threats to humans, with no human infection of the strain reported so far. - Korea Times.
"Worst" Fish Kill In 30 Years At The Milliken Lake In Illinois, United States
Site superintendent of Milliken Lake at the Des Plaines State Fish and Wildlife Area near Wilmington spoke to The Daily Journal in Kankakee (http://bit.ly/1joPUzK ).
He says officials found a nearly "total kill" that was worse than he'd seen since he arrived nearly 30 years ago.
Site Superintendent Jeff Wepprecht says that the public won't be allowed into the popular fishing area until the 20-acre lake is restocked.
A recording at the agency's office says there will be no fishing or picnicking allowed for the rest of the 2014 season. - 14 News.
Hundreds Of Dead Fish Found In A Canal In Staffordshire, England
 |
| More than 700 fish have been found dead in a Staffordshire canal
near to a former power station, sparking an investigation by environment chiefs. |
The fish were found in a 1,000ft stretch of the Trent and Mersey canal in Stone. The Environment Agency is now looking into whether pollution is the cause. The canal is near the former coal-fired Meaford Power Station where a £300 million power station is planned.
Developers acquired the site in 2004 but it has stood largely empty since then. An investigation has been launched by the Environment Agency to find out what has killed the fish, including pike, bream and carp. The agency and Canal River Trust spent hours yesterday (Thur) pumping oxygen into the water in a bid to save the remaining fish.
Environment Agency spokesman Hannah Brookes said:“We are currently dealing with a fish kill incident on the Trent and Mersey Canal near the former Meaford Power Station in Stone, Staffordshire. "Our investigation into the cause of this incident is ongoing. We are also assessing the environmental impacts – our current estimates indicate that over 700 fish have died and approximately 300 metres of the canal has been affected." - Express and Star.
