March 29, 2015 - 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.
10,000
baby sea lions dead on one California island — Experts: “It’s getting
crazy… This is a crisis… Never seen anything like it… Very difficult to
see so much death” — TV: “Numbers skyrocketing at alarming rates” —
“Woman is burying the rotting mammals” after digging graves at beach
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Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/environment/article12965981.html#storylink=cpy
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NBC L.A., Mar 12, 2015 (
emphasis added): “
The sea lion emergency is back all along the California shore“… [Pups] are washing ashore
at a rate so alarming, rescuers said Thursday,
this year is the worst yet… more than 1,600 marine mammals [have been picked up].
KTLA, Mar 10, 2015: Stranding numbers for the months of January and February were
more than 20 times the average [said NOAA].
ABC 10 News,
Mar 14, 2015: Friday, Konnie Martinkis was burying her third sea lion…
There were at least five within just more than a football field’s length
that were dead… she contacted the city… but it just decomposed as more
showed up… she will continue building those graves.
Coast News, Mar 12, 2015: [NOAA]
said not to feed it [that] will only prolong the animals suffering.
KABC: Numbers are
skyrocketing at alarming rates…Sunday, six sea lions were found dead
NY Times,
Mar 12, 2015: “It’s getting crazy,” [Wendy Leeds, animal-care expert at
the Pacific Marine Mammal Center] said… Sharon Melin, a wildlife
biologist with [NOAA said] “We do expect the population to take a drop…
probably a really good hit”… Michele Hunter, the center’s director of
animal care, said, “It’s very difficult to see so much death.”
Sacramento Bee, Mar 7, 2015:
Tens of thousands of pups birthed last summer are believed to be dying on the islands…
some [are] desperately trying to climb onto small boats or kayaks…
Scientists noted a worrisome anomaly in 2013, when 1,171 famished pups
were stranded…
scientists blamed the phenomenon on unseasonably cold waters… On San Miguel… Melin said researchers believe “probably close to
10,000 are dead, and we expect more to die over coming months”… the
mortality rate is similar on San Nicolas.
Time: Experts at NOAA say that the culprit is
rising ocean temperatures [note "
unseasonably cold"
ocean temps were the culprit during the record strandings in 2013]… a
NOAA climate expert said that they do not believe the stranding increase
is tied to climate change.
Marine Mammal Center,
Mar 5, 2015: It’s clear these sea lions are trying to tell us
something. Their very presence here in such great numbers at this time
of year is sounding an alarm up and down the coast… it signals something
complex happening in our ocean… sea lions are very sensitive to their
environment… alerting us to major changes in the ocean…
The scene on the Channel Islands this year is grave, worse even than what researchers saw in 2012, before the Unusual Mortality Event in 2013…
“What’s scary is that
we don’t know when this will end,” says Dr. Shawn Johnson, Director of Veterinary Science at The Marine Mammal Center. “This
could be the new normal—a changed environment that we’re dealing with now.”
LA Daily News, Mar 13, 2015:
“By the end of January, we had as many as we did in (all of) 2013,” [Marine Mammal Care Center's David Bard] said…
“We’ve never seen anything like this with back-to-back events that are affecting the same part of the population,” Melin said.
Dr. Melin: “Based on what we are seeing…
we should be bracing for a lot more animals”
CBS Los Angeles,
Mar 9, 2015: [California Wildlife Center’s Jeff Hall] says the event
has escalated into a crisis. “I would personally consider this a
crisis,” Hall said… The epidemic has prompted a number of volunteers to
step forward, including… television personality Kat Von D [who said] “I
think there’s a lack of awareness of what’s going on in the
environment.”
TV broadcasts here: NBC | KTLA | ABC | ABC | CBS
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ENE News.
Hundreds of thousands of dead fish wash up in Santa Marta, Colombia
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One of the hypotheses that the authorities handle is that fishing with explosives would be one of the causes of the tragedy. PHOTO COLPRENSA
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Thousands of fish dead in Puerto Luz, one of the beaches in the sector of El Rodadero, has generated an environmental emergency in the area.
Units of the Navy made a tour over a wide area of El Rodadero Beach and found the dead species. "This carnage begins at Puerto Luz and extends to the Aquarium El Rodadero, we don't know that it has happened, but this is extremely serious," said an official of the coast guard unit.
The emergence of the "massive" stain of dead fish alerted the residents of the area, who were reported and gave transfer as well as their concerns to environmental authorities without finding an answer to the problem in the latter.For the residents of the sector is location of dead fish is presenting three days ago and denied that there are versions of listening to explosives.
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| PHOTO COLPRENSA |
Most troubling for the residents of the area of the spa and, especially for tour operators is the species began to decompose
Absence of environmental authority
But what most amazes residents, business owners and operators is the absence of environmental authorities, in these cases Corpamag and the Dadma.
"The companies before mentioned it has responded, only the National Navy coast guard unit paid attention to as reported by today newspaper of Magdalena, and came to realize this situation and there Yes the entities came to inquire", said one of the people who reported the fact.
Arrival of the coast guard
On Saturday at 6:00 in the morning, four men of the Navy, sailed in search of the alleged fishermen using dynamite for fishing, but the scene was another, found tons of fish floating and thousands of dead species.
Against the background of dead fish was to call Corpamag to have this presence in the scene, but until noon is failed if they ended up doing.
Causes
Some fishermen in the sector ensure that the mortality of fish is due to illegal fishing with dynamite that serves to catch bonito and the cachorretas, among others, these species being the most affected by the explosive wave.
According to the sector of Puerto Luz residents, is the first time that arises a fact as such, since for this time the fish pass through the Caribbean coast "but had never before seen so much carnage as these days, by the number that are thought to be due to a natural phenomenon". -
El Colombiano. [Translated]
2,000 birds dead, over 80,000 to be killed due to outbreak of avian flu in Minnesota, United States
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| Tens of thousands of turkeys in Minnesota have been infected with bird flu. Photograph: Alamy
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An outbreak of a bird flu strain that’s deadly to poultry deepened Saturday when state and federal officials confirmed a third
Minnesota turkey farm has been infected, this time in one of the state’s top poultry-producing counties.
The federal Animal and Plant
Health
Inspection Service said a commercial flock of 39,000 turkeys in Stearns
County of central Minnesota has been infected with the highly
pathogenic H5N2 strain of avian influenza, which also killed tens of
thousands of turkeys at two other farms in Pope and Lac qui Parle
counties of western Minnesota.
Saturday’s announcement came one
day after officials announced the outbreak at the Lac qui Parle County
farm, where the virus quickly killed 22,000 of the 12-week-old turkeys
in one barn. That farm must kill 44,000 birds in two other barns as a
precaution to prevent the disease from spreading.
The confirmation
at the Pope County farm on March 5 marked the first detection of H5N2
in the Mississippi Flyway, a major bird migration route. H5N2 was also
found within the next several days in commercial and backyard flocks
in Arkansas, Missouri and Kansas. The same strain also has turned up in several western states in the Pacific Flyway.
The
Stearns County farm has been quarantined and the remaining turkeys
there will be killed and kept out of the food supply, according to the
Minnesota Board of Animal Health, which said it planned to release
further information Saturday afternoon.
More than 40 countries
have banned poultry imports from Minnesota, the country’s top turkey
producing state, since the virus was first detected in the state.
According
to the Minnesota Turkey Growers Association, Stearns County is the
state’s no 2 turkey-producing county, behind only Kandiyohi County in
western Minnesota, where the virus has not been reported. Stearns County
is also one of the state’s top chicken and egg producers, according to
the Minnesota Department of Agriculture.
Scientists consider wild
migratory waterfowl to be a natural reservoir for avian influenza. While
they don’t generally get sick from flu viruses, they can spread them
through their droppings. But top researchers say they don’t know how the
virus got to Minnesota. -
The Guardian.
Minnesota finds third bird flu infection in commercial poultry
The
U.S. Department of Agriculture on Saturday confirmed the third
infection of a virulent strain of avian flu in a commercial poultry
flock in Minnesota, the nation's top turkey-producing state.
A
case of H5N2 flu was found in a flock of 39,000 turkeys in Stearns
County, which is northwest of Minneapolis, according to a notice from
USDA. State officials quarantined the infected farm, and birds there
will be culled to prevent the spread of the disease.
Recent
infections of avian flu in states stretching from Arkansas to Oregon
have prompted overseas buyers to limit imports of U.S. poultry from
companies such as Tyson Foods Inc, Pilgrim's Pride Corp and Sanderson
Farms Inc.
The USDA is
developing a vaccine to protect poultry from new strains of avian flu,
including H5N2, but has no plans to distribute it yet. -
Yahoo.
Marine mammals seen killing and eating sharks off the coast of South Africa
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| Scientists have reported multiple cases of cape fur seals attacking blue sharks and eating their guts off the coast of South Africa. © Chris Fallows |
It brings new meaning to the phrase 'shark attack'.
While most people will be familiar with images of seals being violently
smashed out of the water snatched in the jaws of a shark, it appears
some are exacting their revenge on the ocean predators.
Scientists have reported multiple cases of cape fur seals attacking blue sharks off the coast of South Africa.
The seals, which are normally prey for great white sharks,
have been seen attacking and killing medium-sized blue sharks, devouring their guts before leaving the rest of the carcass.
Divers also report seeing the fur seals attacking other species of shark and rays.
The
behaviour has left marine biologists baffled as to why the seals, which
normally hunt smaller fish, have turned to attacking the torpedo-shaped
sharks.
The blue sharks are around the same
size as the seals and it is thought to be the first time a seal has been
seen preying on such a large predator.
It was first observed by marine photographer Chris Fallows, who runs a dive boat operation from Cape Town in South Africa.
Dr Neil Hammerschlaf, a marine biologist at the Rosenstiel School of
Marine and Astmospheric Science who was involved in the study, said the
seals appear to be eating the guts of the sharks as they contain the
most energy.
He said this behaviour may have serious
implications for blue sharks, as their numbers are already in decline
due to over fishing.
'Seals are generally considered prey of
larger sharks,and blue sharks have been observed pursuing juvenile and
adult male Cape fur seals, though no kills have been witnessed,' he
continued.
'There are relatively few reports of pinnipeds
(seals) preying on sharks in general and in all cases these involved
smaller sharks.
'The
consumption of large sharks by a Cape fur seal is a departure from the
prevalent view of this species' diet, which is generally reported to
consist of a diverse diet of small fish species, cephalopods and birds.
'The prevalence of the behaviour reported here is unknown - it could
reflect opportunistic predation by a generalist predator or it might be a
common tactic.
'These observations are important not just for
understanding the interactions between these two species but more
broadly for their implications in understanding the trophic ecology of
pinnipeds - many populations of which have increased while numerous
shark populations have declined.'
Fur seals have been known to
mob great white sharks in large numbers but this is thought to be a
defensive tactic to scare them away from breeding colonies.
In
this case the fur seals have been observed attacking the blue sharks,
which are open ocean predators that can grow to be about 9ft long (2.82
metres), on their own.
Mr Fallows, who runs Apex Expeditions, first noticed the behaviour in 2004 while on a dive off Cape Town.
In 2012 he again saw a large Cape fur seal attack five blue sharks from a shoal of ten over a two hour period.
The sharks were estimated to measure between 3.6ft (1.1 metres) and 4.5ft (1.4 metres) in length.
Mr Fallows said: 'They swim up to them and grab them. There is no protracted chase.
'It is almost as though the sharks are not expecting this to happen and do not overly react to the seals advances.
'We have seen them feeding on three other small species of sharks. We have also observed them feeding on rays.
'I would think it is possibly a learned behaviour based on limited normal food availability.'
A study on the behaviour is now published in the
African Journal of Marine Science.
Scientists believe the seals could be attacking the sharks partly to remove competition for the fish they normally eat.
Dominic Tollit, a marine mammal consultant with the Sea Mammal Research Unit in Canada, told
New Scientist that attacking such a large and heavily armed predator is a high risk strategy if simply looking for food.
He said: 'Would you attack a lion if you're hungry, or would you go for something smaller?' -
Daily Mail.
Elephant attacks 2 children and kills boy in Bangladesh
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| Charging elephant. |
A
minor boy was killed and a girl injured by a wild elephant at Kalachand
village in Chakaria upazila of the district yesterday.
The deceased is Delwar Hossain, 4, son of Md Yousuf of the village.
Police quoted victim's father Yousuf as saying that a wild elephant
from the adjacent hills entered the village around 12:00noon.
It attacked the kids while they were playing in the yard beside their houses, leaving Delwar dead on the spot and Aysha injured.
Critically injured Aysha, 5, daughter of Abdul Khaleque, was admitted
to a clinic in the upazila headquarters, said Probhash Chandra Dhar,
officer-in-charge of Chokoria Police Station. -
The Daily Star.
Cougar kills 3 domestic animals in 2 weeks in Half Moon Bay, California, United States
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| A mountain lion. © National Park Service |
Three
animals were killed by a mountain lion in San Mateo County where
reported sightings of the big cat have increased in nearly two weeks,
county officials said.
The most recent sighting was on Friday
night around 7:30 p.m., when deputies responded to a report of multiple
mountain lion sightings in the 900 block of Miramontes Street in Half
Moon Bay, county emergency officials said.
On Thursday,
emergency officials said that since March 9, three animals were killed
by a mountain lion in the area of Ranch Road West and Cloverdale Road in
Pescadero, according to emergency officials.
The public is
advised to not approach a mountain lion, especially one that is feeding
or in the company of its offspring, emergency officials said.
People are advised to not hike or jog during the dawn, dusk and night hours when mountain lions are most active.
Anyone who encounters a mountain lion should not run, but face the
animal, make noise, throw rocks or other objects and appear larger by
waving their arms. -
CBS.
4 TONS of fish found dead in ponds in Xiangtan, China
Xia city streets, yuetang district peace village, farmers claimed losses of more than 100,000 yuan
The
ponds and ditches in common; canals of suspected contaminated, the
environmental protection departments have been involved in the
investigation
Red
Xiangtan station on March 29 NET (Xiangtan newspaper reporter Ouyang
tiě qiáng) on March 27, yuetang district, the fish farmer Yuan Xiaoming
Xia peace village city streets reflect to us: he's a show a large number
of dead fish in the ponds, causing huge economic losses. He suspected
to be with his family near the recycling shop (plastic factory) caused
by the discharge of waste water.
4000 kg all the fish die off losses of more than 100,000 yuan
Yuan
Xiaoming said that contracted his home village the two ponds is 10
years. On March 14 this year, an area of about 22 acres of fish ponds,
suddenly there are a lot of fish, "white". Yuan Xiaoming and his family
worried, but there's not much.
In
the next few days, dead fish floated to the pond edge in succession,
allowing a family is to be deplored, "this is what we all expect a year.
”
"In
the past, have seen the phenomenon of dead fish ponds, that is generally
between October and after April, due to the hot weather, fish of
oxygen. It's March, not the season of dead fish. "Yuan Xiaoming said
that he studied, a canal flowing across the pond where the water was
black. Therefore, pointing the finger at him and his family to a nearby
recycling shop.
27th,
we see in the field, pond water is black and some dead fish rotting
smell, big six or seven pounds heavier, less than one or two small.
"4000 kg of dead loss at more than 100,000 yuan. "Yuan Xiaoming sad to say.
Dead fish is not why they wish to over 5000 Yuan to avoid trouble
After the event, Yuan Xiaoming and his family find ways to local authorities to find a solution.
On
March 23, at yuetang District Environmental Protection Bureau, Yuan
Xiaoming mediation with the recycling shop owner. Sponsored cycle shop
owner to 5000 Yuan, but do not think there are associated with the
recycling shop. Yuan's family were recognized, but thinks this is not
sponsored but compensation and low amounts, therefore does not accept
the mediation.
27th,
we came to the recycling shop for information. Here is for processing
the waste plastic, currently underway to build a large pool of
wastewater treatment.
Boss
Mr long said, they were relocated this year, March 16 before we start
production, which started on March 14 ponds and fish died, "I thought
this is not the reason, there are many units and farms nearby. ”
As to why willing to sponsor the 5000 Yuan, Mr long said that they simply wanted to avoid trouble.
On
that day, we contacted yuetang District Environmental Protection
Bureau. Officials said they learned of the incident, immediately
involved in the investigation, is now part of the water quality
sampling, still waiting for the results. They will also coordinate with
local government organizations. - Sina. [Translated]
100 Pelicans found dead 'due to avian flu' in the Danube Delta, Romania
More
than 100 dead pelicans in Romania's Danube Delta were found to be
infected with H5N1 bird flu virus, Romanian authorities were quoted as
saying on Friday by state news agency Agerpres.
Bulgaria, Romania's southern neighbor also said it discovered the strain in two dead pelicans near the border.
Romanian officials imposed a 10 km (6 miles) monitoring zone around the outbreak. -
Reuters.
Fish kills continue to wash ashore along the Derwent river in Tasmania, Australia
Extra
sensor equipment has been placed in Hobart's River Derwent to try to
find out why schools of dead fish have been washing up on shore.
There have been at least five fish kills this month, the most recent on Wednesday.
The Derwent Estuary Program believes saltwater barracouta are chasing bait fish upstream, and getting stranded in freshwater.
Director Christine Coughanowr said pathology samples had proven the fish are not diseased.
"The main thing we're looking at is low oxygen and low salinity," she said.
"We'd
like to consult with some fish biologists, particularly marine fish
biologists, just about whether there's reasons why there might be more
couta up there than usual."
The latest fish kills were reported near New Norfolk.
"We
have installed a backup sensor in the upper part of the river, that was
actually in when the last fish kill happened," she said.
"So we'll hopefully have more information on what the salinity and oxygen levels were doing at the time of this last kill.
"We'll probably leave it in for a couple of weeks." -
Yahoo.
