February 19, 2016 - SCOTLAND - Pictures have been released of a dead 15ft (5m) basking shark which washed up at Skelmorlie, North Ayrshire.
The Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) said the fish, which weighed "a few tonnes" was found near the A78 Shore Road.
North Ayrshire Council was notified along with Largs Coastguard Rescue Team which photographed the shark.
Basking sharks can be up to 40ft long and are the largest fish found in British waters.
They are the second largest fish in the world, after the whale shark, according to the Shark Trust charity.
An MCA spokeswoman said: "This was reported to us by a member of
the public in the evening of 23 January. The shark was dead when it
washed up. It was 15ft long and weighed a few tonnes.
"North Ayrshire Council was contacted and we sent Largs Coastguard
Rescue Team to confirm it. All relevant agencies were informed." - BBC.
Sperm whales are found in all the world’s oceans. Adult males can reach more 20m in length and weigh 57 tonnes. Photo: China News
February 16, 2016 - 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.
Two sperm whales die after beaching on coast of East China
Two sperm whales have died after beaching themselves on the East China
coast in the past two days, the China News Service reported.
On Sunday, villagers found one dead whale beached near Yangkou, in
Jiangsu province, while another whale lingered in the deeper water of a
channel nearby.
The second whale then became stranded and died on Monday afternoon, about 10km from the first while.
The other whale was towed away for inspection elsewhere. Photo: China News
Sperm whales are found in all the world’s oceans. Adult males can reach more 20m in length and weigh 57 tonnes. Photo: China News
One of the whales was an adult male about 15m long and weighing about 33 tonnes. Photo: China News
Authorities and experts measured the giant carcasses to try to determine the cause of death. Photo: China News
Fisherman Yin Qiufeng said he spotted the whale on the beach early on Sunday.
"[At first] I thought it was a capsized ship, but at a second glance I
found it was a huge fish," Yin said. "In the beginning I didn't dare go
too close to have a better look because I thought it was still alive,
but later I found out it was already dead."
The authorities fenced off the first whale to take its measurements. An
expert at the scene said it was a male adult about 15.3m long and
weighed about 33 tonnes, Xinhua reported.
WATCH: Huge sperm whale found dead on the beach in eastern China.
The body of the other whale retrieved transported to another place to be dissected.
Another dead whale found on coast in Odisha, India; fifth this month
The carcass of a whale was found near Mangala river mouth in Puri on Tuesday morning. (Express photo by Debabrata Mohanty)
In the fifth case of whales washing ashore on Odisha coast, the carcass
of another giant whale was found near Mangala river mouth in Puri on
Tuesday morning.
Divisional Forest Officer Puri wildlife division Chittaranjan Mishra
said the forest department officials have seized the decomposed body of
the 38-feet-long whale.
"We will bury the body of the whale after ascertaining its cause of
death and and send some of its parts to Bhubaneswar to know the species
of the whale. We have sought the experts' opinion," he said.
Odisha forest and wildlife department officials have written a letter to
the Ministry of Forest and Environment for investigation into the cases
of whale carcasses washing ashore.
Recently, four carcasses of whales were found on the
Ganjam, Kendrapara and Puri coast. While a 33-feet long Sperm whale
beached on coastline of Ganjam district early this month, a 66-feet long
female whale washed ashore at Chinchira beach, an unmanned island under
Rajnagar block of Kendrapara district on February 6.
On February 9, carcass of a 50-feet long whale was found from the coast
near Motagaon in Brahmagiri area of Puri district. Last week, a 6 feet
long pilot whale washed ashore of Island beach near Purunabandh village
of Ganjam district.
January 26, 2016 - ARGENTINA - An invasion of poisonous snakes washed downriver in recent floods forced
authorities to close beaches to summer holidaymakers in northern
Argentina, officials said on Monday.
Floodwaters in the Rio Plata and Rio Parana carried a species of water
lily and with it countless crawling, slithering creatures, south to
beaches at the mouths of those rivers near Buenos Aires.
"We are raising awareness of the risk and danger present today. There
are otters and species of snakes that are poisonous," said Matias Leyes,
an official in the coastal town of Quilmes, south of the capital.
"The beaches of Quilmes have been closed as a precaution. We were
cleaning up the coast during the week and while doing so we saw the
snakes under the water lilies."Inland river beaches were also closed over the weekend in the northern city of Rosario, Santa Fe province.
Locals there spotted displaced animals such as otters, a wild boar and a fox cub as well as snakes, scorpions and stinging insects.
Water covered the beaches and even the terraces of seaside barsin Rosario, as summer temperatures reached 40°C.
"It is dangerous because when there is not much beach there is more risk
of coming into direct contact with rodents or snakes, whose dens are
all flooded," said Gonzalo Ratner, a top civil defence official in
Rosario.
Experts have blamed severe flooding in recent weeks in Argentina,
Paraguay and Uruguay on the El Nino extreme weather phenomenon. - News 24.
People crowded round while scientists examined one of the whales. Reuters
January 25, 2016 - UNITED KINGDOM - A fifth sperm whale has been washed up on the east coast of England.
It follows the death of a beached whale in Hunstanton, Norfolk, on Friday and the discovery of three carcasses near Skegness over the weekend.
The sperm whales are believed to be from a pod spotted off the Norfolk coast.
The fifth whale was found at Wainfleet, Lincolnshire, on Monday afternoon, the Maritime and Coastguard Agency reported.
It was found on the site of a former bombing range, and warnings have been issued for people to stay away.
The Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust tweeted: "There is no public access to the area and it is extremely dangerous with tidal creeks and the potential for unexploded ordinance. Many of the lanes to the marshes are private and not accessible."
Marine biologists were using a probe to examine one of the Skegness whales earlier on Monday when there was a "huge blast of air", said BBC reporter David Sykes.
One of the whales had the letters CND spray-painted on its tail. Getty Images
Another was daubed with the words "mans fault". Getty Images
People are being advised not to get too close to the dead whales. Getty Images
The two other whales were found at Gibraltar Point. Kurnia Aerial Photography
The letters CND had also been spray-painted by someone on the whale's tail.
CND (Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament) said the action was not carried out by the organisation at a national level.
January 24, 2016 - 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.
3 more sperm whales wash up along the North Sea coast at Skegness beach, UK
Whales are thought to be part of same pod as another discovered on the Norfolk coast on Friday
Three dead sperm whales have been discovered washed up on the Lincolnshire coast.
One of the whales was found dead on Skegness beach at about 6.30am on
Sunday morning, while the two others were discovered a few miles south
at about 8.30pm on Saturday evening.
Coastguard rescue teams from Sekegness and Chapel St Leonards were
called to cordon off the area and members of the public are being
advised not to come close to the dead animals.
We are dealing with 3 #Whales washed ashore on Skegness beach.People
are asked not to go near to them.We will remove once we have permission
This comes after another sperm whale, estimated to be 45ft long and weighing 30 tonnes, died on Friday after becoming stranded in shallow waters off the coast of west Norfolk, despite rescue workers' efforts to release it.
The three whales who died on the Lincolnshire coast are thought to be
part of the same pod spotted by the rescue team on Friday, but it is the
whereabouts of the rest of the pod remains unknown.
Sad, extraordinary sight of dead #whale that has washed up on Skegness beach @looknorthBBC pic.twitter.com/p8IveIlr3k
— Tolu Adeoye (@ToluAdeoyeNews) January 24, 2016
3 Male Whales washed up at #Skegness #sealife @itvcalendar @itvnews pic.twitter.com/DbVQFetRAk
— Simon White (@MeSiwhite) January 24, 2016
Natalie Emmerson, from Hunstanto Sealife Sanctuary, told ITV News: "It
is entirely possible that these whales at Skegness are from the same
pod. If all have washed up dead it is too much of a coincidence.
"It is possible that they were on the rocks and injured themselves as they managed to free themslves."
The Grimsby Telegraph
reports scientists from the Natural History Museum in London have
already been to the scene to carry out an investigation into the whales'
deaths. - The Independent.
Whale calf washes up on Marbella beach, Spain
Dead whale calf found on beach at La Cabane.
The whale calf is the latest in a succession of dead or sick marine animals washed up on Marbella beaches.
Passersby on the beach at Los Monteros on Tuesday came across a dead
whale calf on the shore. The two-metre long sea mammal showed no sign of
injury leading experts to believe it was suffering from some kind of
disease. The calf was removed from the beach and incinerated after an
autopsy had been carried out.
The whale calf is the latest in a succession of dead or sick marine
animals washed up on Marbella beaches. A few weeks ago, a dead giant
turtle appeared in El Alicate. - Surin English.
Pictures of the deep-sea fish were posted on
Facebook on Friday morning by the Te Papa Museum, after the fish was
sent in to be identified by Claudia and Glenys Howse
January 20, 2016 - 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.
Bizarre black frog fish that walks along the ocean floor is caught off New Zealand coast
A weird black fish that looks like a creature from another planet has surfaced in New Zealand.
Pictures of the deep-sea fish were posted by Te Papa Museum's Facebook page on Friday after the fish was caught by Claudia and Glenys Howse in the Bay of Islands.
'This weird creature is likely to be a species of Frogfish, but we won't know until we have a chance to examine it closely!'
'Frogfishes have the fastest bite of any vertebrate. Their mouths
expands at the speed approaching a .22 rifle bullet - and that's in a
medium 800x denser than air,' reads Te Papa Museum's post.
Black frogfish: This weird creature is likely to
be a species of Frogfish, but we won't know until we have a chance to
examine it closely
According to the complete Australian fishing encyclopedia, frogfish are
ambush predators and can eat almost anything that will fit into their
large mouths. This includes other fish as well as crabs and shrimp.
The photo stirred hundreds of bewildered comments from people, 'That looks like an alien!', 'Can you eat it?' asked one man.
'More like a frog-fish-bird!' Wrote Robyn Wendt,
The frog fish follows a string of rare and freakish fish
that have also surfaced from Australian seas of late. Including a
goblin shark in New South Wales and the frill-shark in Victoria, another
rare and peculiar fish in South Australia.Garry Warrick, a professional fisherman from Barmera, told Daily Mail Australia he had never seen anything like it in 30 years of working in the area.
'It was very unusual. I have been fishing here for 30 years, and I have
come across a few deformed fish, but never anything quite like this.'
In January, a group of fishermen pulled a terrifying prehistoric shark from the water near Lakes Entrance in Victoria's.
The eel looking creature, known as a frilled shark, was dubbed for its
six pairs of frill-like gills along with its dorsal fins, similar to the
predatory fish.
Earlier this month, an extremely rare species of shark considered a
'living dinosaur' was uncovered off the coast of New South Wales to the
bewilderment of local fishermen.
The species, known as a goblin shark, are incredibly elusive as
they typically reside in waters near the ocean floor at around 1,200
metres deep
WATCH: Creepy black alien frog-fish in New Zealand.
The creature was captured in a net by two fishermen, just 609 metres
below the water's surface near Green Cape off the South Coast of New
South Wales. - Daily Mail.
Giant 7-metre shark seen off Adelaide's coastline, Australia
The seven-metre shark was seen near Marino Rocks on Adelaide's coastline on Sunday
It is more likely though that the supposed seven-metre shark seen on
Sunday afternoon was a victim of what he calls the 'exaggeration
effect,' he said.
'Honestly, a five-metre shark is an absolute giant and it looks twice as
big - you can only imagine what a six-metre shark does to people's
perceptions.'
The person who observed the Great White near Adelaide is quite
experienced, which has given the sighting some credibility, but you can
only verify its actual length when it's measured, Mr Fox said.
The pictures posted caused a stir on social media, with some swearing
never to step foot in the ocean again, and others arguing the great
white was unlikely to be that large and labelling the sighting a
'fisherman's tale'.
'I wanna swear in terror but this is a family page so I won't and I bite my tongue,' one kayaker wrote.
'Bugger that, they can have the water, I will stay on shore,' one frightened man posted.
A 7-metre shark is the same length as two-and-a-half cars
'I think it's ridiculous that some people actually think that we have it
all figured out...do you actually think that we know the max size for
these sharks or just the max that we have recorded? These are marvels of
nature and I'm sure there are larger than 7 out there as well. Ohhhhh
silly people....nature always wins,' a woman wrote to the hundreds of
people debating the shark's size.
'Don't really matter if it's 4-5-6 or 7 meters. It's a BIG shark! When
your in the water with a White, what's a small one?' another man argued.
Shark Alerts South Australia said the crew used their six-metre jet boat to estimate the great white's size.
Mr Fox said that there have been more shark sightings along the Southern Australia coastline, which could be attributed to conservation efforts and the decline of people hunting sharks.
'With the expanding population were going to intercept them a lot more often,' he said.
They sharks accumulate where they feed and the seals and whales they eat aggregate in those insular areas, he said.
Pictures of the shark caused a stir on social media and many debated the estimated size of the shark (pictured)
Although the shark population is expanding, there hasn't been a 'large increase in shark attacks,' Mr Fox said.
'That's surprising because you would expect that with a lot more
sightings and interactions that there would be more attacks then there
are.'
A six-metre tiger shark was killed last year while it was swimming near Lennox Head, on the northern New South Wales coast.
A fisherman named Matthew came forward and said that he caught and
killed the shark after it ate a hammerhead shark he was trying to lure
in.
A six-metre tiger shark (pictured) was killed last year while it was swimming near Lennox Head, NSW
Another six-metre pregnant Great White was filmed swimming near mexico's Guadalupe Island in 2013.
The shark, which was estimated to be 50-years-old, was regarded to be
the largest ever caught on camera and was featured on Discovery Channel
show Jaws Strikes Back.
The female Great White had several scars that researchers identified her
by, a hole in her right trunk and damage to her dorsal fin and tail. - Daily Mail.
January 16, 2016 - NORTHERN EUROPE - It’s been a devastating week for the whale population across
Northern Europe as 12 whales died on or off the coast of the Dutch
island of Texel and the German islands of Wangerooge and Helgoland this
week.
Five sperm whales washed up on the shores of Texel on Tuesday night.
Attempts were made to save them but had to be discontinued during the night due to weather conditions which made it impossible to move the giant mammals.
Marian Bestelink, a spokeswoman for the Dutch Economic Ministry, said: “Experts found that the whales died during the night.”
“We are going to investigate why they beached and then we will remove them,” Bestelink said Wednesday as cited by AFP, adding that the process would probably take several days.
The beaching of whales has always been a problem for Texel due to its geographical location, according to Gizmodo.
The water in the North Sea is extremely shallow which doesn’t allow the whales to fully make use of their sonar and so they can get lost or exhausted and wash up on a beach.
The clean-up operation has already begun on the island of Wangerooge.
"These whales have quite simply made a mistake," Thilo Maack, a marine biologist with Greenpeace, told German TV. "They didn't pass Scotland but turned off into the North Sea. That happens sometimes."
It is the first time that so many whales have been beached in German waters, Maack added.
Before being taken away, the carcasses first need to be dissected to prevent explosion.
A buildup of gases in the whale’s body could cause the whale to explode if it is left lying there too long.
The warmer the temperature, the higher the danger that the corpse might explode, as heat accelerates the decomposition process.
It is unlikely that the sperm whale bodies on the North Sea coasts might rupture, experts told DW News.
"It's not that warm at the moment," says Mathias Heckroth, who works for the conservation and research organisation Mellumrat.Sperm whales are the largest-toothed whales on earth.
Male sperm whales are usually larger than the females. They can measure up to 20 metres long and weigh over 50 tons. - RT.
December 22, 2015 - TEXAS, UNITED STATES - A whale died early Tuesday afternoon after drifting in and floundering
helplessly in the surf on West Galveston Island as dozens of onlookers
watched.
The whale died at about 12:30 p.m., according to a spokeswoman for the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, about five hours after
it was spotted. Volunteers had been planning to euthanize the ailing
marine mammal once the tide moved it closer to shore.
Officials plan to observe the whale overnight before performing a necropsy on Wednesday.
The whale likely drifted onto the beach in front of the Terramar Beach
subdivision because it was ill, said Heidi Whitehead, operations
coordinator for the nonprofit Texas Marine Mammal Stranding Network.
"At this point, it's a matter of watching for the whale to come ashore," she said before the whale died.
She had said it was too dangerous to approach the whale - estimated to be 30 to 40 feet long -- until that time.
"Just the sheer size of an animal like this makes it dangerous," she
said. "It can be dangerous for someone to approach and it rolls on top
of them."
Mike Romeyn, 45, who lives in the Terramar subdivision, said a neighbor
notified him that a whale was on the beach and he called the network at
7:23 am.
The network's Mel Thompson confirmed that a passerby walking on the
beach spotted the whale at about that time. Late Tuesday morning, the
whale was barely visibly in the surf on an overcast day.
It is unknown how long the whale may been caught in the shallows.
Thompson said it's unusual to have such a large whale so close
to shore. The group regularly helps dolphins stranded on beaches or in
shallow water, but rarely have whales been seen in such dire conditions
in the area.
Often, unhealthy whales can get confused or have little control to swim
in heavy currents and end up close to shore, said Dr. Chris Marshall, an
assistant professor in the marine biology department at Texas A & M
University in Galveston. Also, whales in distress may seek calmer
waters in shallows.
"If they are sick or something is why they come up in shallow waters," Marshall said.
In February 2011, a pygmy sperm whale found stranded in shallow surf
along Galveston's West End was euthanized as a way to end its suffering.
A veterinarian who examined the whale determined that the animal
couldn't live in captivity and was in no condition to be released. - Houston Chronicle.
December 21, 2015 - MASSACHUSETTS, UNITED STATES - Massachusetts Audubon Society volunteers recovered about 120
"cold-stunned" sea turtles during the weekend after strong winds caused
them to wash up on the shores of Cape Cod Bay.
The majority of the reptiles found on the beaches of Wellfleet, Truro,
Eastham, and Brewster were Kemp's ridley sea turtles, a critically
endangered species and the rarest type of sea turtle.
It was an unusually large late-season stranding for the turtles,
who most often get stuck on Cape Cod shores around Thanksgiving as they
try to make their way south to warmer waters for the winter.
Young sea turtles often feed in Cape Cod Bay during the summer but can
get trapped in the "hook" of the Cape and become hypothermic as
temperatures drop, according to Mass Audubon.
Despite their rarity, Kemp's ridleys are the type of turtle most often found stranded on Massachusetts beaches.
In other years, most turtles still stranded in the bay by now would
likely be dead, said Bob Prescott, a spokesman for Mass Audubon's
Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary. But because of warmer-than-normal
temperatures, 60 percent of the animals were still alive when rescuers
arrived.
Rescuers placed cold-stunned turtles in fruit boxes. Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary
"It's normally way less than that at this time of year," Prescott said, adding that his volunteers are "very, very fussy about rescuing any turtle with a spark of life."
Volunteers drove the surviving turtles to the New England Aquarium's
animal care facility in Quincy for medical care and rehabilitation,
where they will be warmed up slowly over the next few days, Prescott
said.
Turtles that died of hypothermia before rescuers arrived will undergo necropsies for scientific research.
Volunteers had already rescued more than 200 turtles since the beginning of November, prior to this weekend.
While the tally falls well short of last year's record 1,200 turtle strandings, Prescott said this year could still surpass the 413 stranded in 2012, the second-largest stranding year. - The Boston Globe.
A yellow bellied sea snake washed ashore in Huntington Beach on Dec.
13. It is the third sea snake ever recorded in Southern California and
was probably driven north of
its normal tropical habitat by El Niño. (Lisa Gonzalez/Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County)
December 20, 2015 - CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES - Wildlife rescuers have a new problem on their hands: for the
second time in two months, a rare venomous sea serpent has washed up on a
local beach hundreds of miles from its normal haunts.
The dead 27-inch-long male yellow bellied sea snake was discovered last week during a Surfrider Foundation coastal cleanup campaign in Huntington Beach.
A 2-foot-long yellow bellied sea snake was discovered in October after slithering onto Silver Strand State Beach in Ventura County. It died shortly after being taken to a local U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service office.
The species, known to scientists as Pelamis platura, was first seen in Southern California in San Clemente in 1972 during an El Niño.
WATCH: Surfrider Foundation warns of yellow-bellied sea snake.
Greg Pauly, herpetological curator at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, believes the reptile in Huntington Beach may have been prompted to navigate north of its normal tropical habitat by the spread of abnormally warm ocean temperatures because of a strong El Niño this year.
“It is incredible and fascinating to have two of these aquatic, highly venomous snakes suddenly show up around here,” he said. “But this is not an invasion, and no one has ever died from the bite of this animal.”
“Their fangs are tiny and they can barely open their mouths wide enough to bite a person,” he said. “So, unless you pick one up, the biggest safety concern with going to the beach is with driving there and then driving home.”
The yellow bellied sea snake has a bright yellow underside and a flat, paddlelike tail with black spots. It is the most wide-ranging snake species on Earth, cruising the warm tropical waters off the coasts of Africa, Asia, Australia, Central America and Mexico, and Baja Calif.
Pauly advises people who come across these snakes to keep a safe distance, then take photographs and send them to the museum at nature@nhm.org.
- LA Times.
The dead whale that had drifted off to the surf break of Meedhoo late Friday evening. PHOTO/ HAVEERU USER
December 19, 2015 - MALDIVES - Residents of Meedhoo in the southernmost atoll of Addu are working on
salvaging a dead whale that had drifted in Saturday morning.
Ali Mohamed, a member of the council in Hulhu-Meedhoo ward of the city,
told Haveeru that residents had come to notice the dead whale at around
7.30am. It measures about 50 feet in length, he added.
The councillor stressed that soldiers, policemen and employees of the
port in the city are helping the residents salvage the dead whale.
PHOTO/ HAVEERU USER
"If they don't succeed in doing so, we'll have to bring the body ashore and dump it," he said.
A resident from Meedhoo said the head of the whale is mostly visible
from the surface. Rest of its body is believed to have been decomposed,
he added.
According to the resident, the dead whale had drifted in to the surf break of Meedhoo late Friday evening. - Haveeru Online.
December 16, 2015 - AUSTRALIA - Two NSW fishermen have had a harrowing encounter with one of earth's biggest ocean predators, with their boat bearing the chomp marks to prove it.
Stephen Crust, 63, and son Andrew Crust, 36, were fishing on Sunday (13 December) when a white pointer at least half the length of their boat attacked, supposedly unprovoked, prompting fears for local residents.
The "bloody big" beast bit and repeatedly rammed the craft with its head near Pulbah Island in Lake Macquarie, NSW, the son toldThe Central Coast Gosford Express Advocate.
"It was big enough to take an arm off or even kill you," Andrew Crust said.
"And it kept coming back rocking the boat, giving it a bloody good shove.
"It's a bit of a worry if this shark is about when people are out skiing or doing anything on the water."
The frightened duo managed to capture video and photographic evidence of
the attack. One of the photos shows a shark chewing on on the boat's
motor and another, taken after the incident, seems to show the scratch
marks it left.
The father, Stephen Crust, said he managed to hook the shark with his
rod during the attack, and tried to reel it in for 30 minutes, but it
lived to bite another day.
"I hooked him with my heavy ocean gear, and it was a great fight until he snapped the line." - The New Daily.
December 15, 2015 - EARTH - Here are two of the latest incidents of whales washing up dead on beaches across the globe.
Dead humpback whale washes up Hatteras Island beach, North Carolina
A humpback whale has been found dead on a beach near the end of Hatteras Island.
National Park Service spokeswoman Cyndy Holda tells the Virginian-Pilot that the juvenile male was found Monday and is 33 feet long.
Holda says staffers from the Cape Hatteras National Seashore, the Marine
Mammal Stranding Network and the North Carolina Wildlife Resources
Commission are conducting a necropsy on the carcass to determine cause
of death. The whale will be buried in parts on the beach.
The animal showed no outward signs of trauma. Holda says the biologists took samples to test for toxins.
Marine biologist Karen Clark says humpback whales migrate south from New
England to the south Atlantic this time of year. Juveniles often linger
off the Outer Banks coast to eat. - 13 News Now.
Dead killer whale washes up on beach in South Africa
Dead killer whale
A dead killer whale has washed up on the shore in Plettenberg Bay, Western Cape.
"It washed up on the beach dead and then was removed by the [municipal]
cleansing department," National Sea Rescue Institute spokesperson Craig
Lambinon said.
"Samples of it have been taken away by the department of environmental affairs."
The animals commonly known as killer whales are also called orcas.
Lambinon said the whale was found on Sunday.
It was not yet clear if it was the same juvenile orca whale
which had been successfully released back into the ocean after it was
discovered beached on the Robberg Beach shores last week.
That orca whale, approximately six metres in length, was found on the
beach on Friday evening and members of the public had helped throw water
on it to keep it wet, Lambinon said on Saturday.
That whale was believed to be the same whale that had been seen in Plettenberg Bay, swimming close inshore, a few days before.
A veterinarian arrived and efforts to get the whale back into the water
began, but they were short-lived when the whale re-beached.
The rescue crew were then able to get the whale into deeper water and swam with it coaxing it into deeper water.
In an effort to discourage re-beaching, a line was formed in the water,
by the crew, as the whale continued to try to head back to the beach.
The efforts proved to be successful and the whale returned to the ocean.
The whale was seen again swimming along the beach front and a member of
the public reported seeing the whale feeding, said Lambinon at the time. - News24.
December 11, 2015 - FLORIDA, UNITED STATES - A dead dwarf sperm whale washed ashore on Ponte Vedra Beach Wednesday, authorities said.
The whale was found in the sand about a mile south of the Jacksonville
Beach-St. Johns County line at some point Wednesday, according to the
St. Johns County Sheriff's Office.
The whale, which measured about 6.5 feet long and 800 pounds, had been
dead awhile before it was found, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation
Commission biologist Nadia Gordon told First Coast News.
A field necropsy was completed, Gordon said. - First Coast News.
December 11, 2015 - NORTH CAROLINA, UNITED STATES - Officials at UNCW released the findings from the necropsy performed
Tuesday of a female great white shark that washed up on Wrightsville
Beach Monday morning.
The five-hour necropsy began by photo documenting the 10-foot, 687-pound
juvenile animal for matching against images of known great white sharks
in the North Atlantic.
The animal had multiple shark bites along the flank and ventrum, and was
missing the left flipper. Samples were collected to determine if these
wounds occurred pre- or post- mortem. There was one deep linear
laceration on the right side that was in the process of healing and was
not implicated in the death of the shark.
Officials then began the internal exam by opening the right abdomen and
removing the large left and right lobes of the liver, which represented
15 percent of the shark's weight.
WATCH: Great white washes up on Wrightsville Beach, undergoes necropsy.
Multiple muscle samples were collected along the length of the shark to help determine the predator's swimming efficiency.
The stomach was also opened and scant remains of a large drum fish were
found. Gut content samples were also collected for multiple biotoxin
tests.
Officials were not able to determine a cause of death for the animal,
but hope test samples collected during the necropsy will help identify
factors that led to its death.
According to Wrightsville Beach Police Chief House, the shark was found
dead near Crystal Pier at the Oceanic Restaurant. UNCW's Marine Mammal
Stranding program moved the shark from the beach.
Thomas Lankford, associate professor at UNCW's Biology and Marine
Biology Department, said the bites were probably from other animals
trying to scavenge the deceased shark.
Lankford explained great white sharks aren't an unusual sight off the coast of North Carolina, but it's quite rare for one to wash ashore.
Tuesday's necropsy drew quite a crowd as students from UNCW took
pictures of the female shark. A crew worked to clean the shark and
examine it for parasites and injuries before opening it up.
The shark's body parts are sent to labs around the country for research and testing to determine how the shark died.
"This is a very rare event in our area," Professor Dr. Ann Pabst said.
"This is the opportunity to learn a great deal of the biology of this
really poorly understood and really threatened marine species. What's
really interesting about what's going on behind us is that there are
many students involved with this."
According to Pabst, UNCW specializes in these type of investigations and is also very helpful to send out for research.
"We are all part of the same network, but at UNCW we tend to do more of
the necropsies and the investigation of the stranded animals. All of our
colleagues help in that process, but I think it's one of those things
where each organization takes a specific role and our role is to be able
to do more of the necropsy based research," Pabst said. - WECT.
November 22, 2015 - CANADA - Three fin whales have been found dead on a beach near Bella Bella on the central coast of B.C.
The dead whales were spotted by a helicopter pilot flying over Bird
Point, northwest of Bella Bella, who then notified Fishers and Oceans
Canada (DFO) on Saturday.
Paul Cottrell, Pacific Marine Mammal Coordinator with the DFO, assessed
the whales and says there does not appear to be any obvious cause of
death.
"It is very rare and odd that you get three large whales together in one small area," says Cottrell. "We want to know why it happened, whether it is a natural event, killer whale predation or something else."
Cottrell says, to his knowledge, it has never happened in B.C. before, which is a source for concern.
The fin whales are listed as threatened under the Species At
Risk Act, meaning it is illegal to harm or disturb them. They are filter
feeders and are the second-largest animal on the planet after blue
whales.
"Any time you get three animals that wash up and die together and it is a
threatened species, we are going to work hard to figure out what
happened," he says.
A necropsy was conducted on Tuesday and results are expected in several weeks.
The researchers also took stomach tissue samples to see what the whales
ate prior to their death to determine if there was a natural biotoxin
they may have ingested.
Cottrell says they estimate that the animals were dead for at least seven days before the necropsy was performed.
"Given the location and where they ended up, all close together, we are
thinking that the animals likely live stranded and died there together,"
says Cottrell. "The odds of the animals dying out in the ocean and
floating all together into that small cove are pretty small. But we are
still looking at everything at this point."
The three dead animals were all male and juvenile fin whales.
Cottrell says while there have been sightings of fin whales close to
Bella Bella before, these animals are not well studied, and it is hard
to tell if the three whales were travelling as a family before they
died.
Cottrell says they encourage anyone who spots a dead marine animal or an
animal in distress, to call their hotline at 1-800-465-4336 and report
the sighting. - Global News.
April 14, 2015 - BRAZIL - The
bad news for Rio de Janeiro ahead of the 2016 Olympics keeps coming
after scores of dead fish appeared in the Rodrigo de Freitas lagoon.
With just over a year to go before the city hosts the Games' rowing and canoe competitions, officials with the legislative assembly of Rio de Janeiro Monday launched an investigation into the causes of death both in the lagoon and in other lakes and bays in the state in which this phenomenon has occurred.
The group will work in partnership with the State Environmental Institute (INEA) and the Secretariat of State for the Environment.
Officials defended the belief that the latest rains caused a temperature change of the water and the excess of decaying organic matter, which would have led to lack of oxygen killing the fish.
The note released by officials highlighted that the amount of dead fish has generated a bad smell and inconvenience to those who live near the lagoon and all the tourists that flock to the area.
Last week newly obtained footage from newspaper O Globo showed a sailor crashing into trash floating on Guanabara Bay.
The incident took place on February 14 and involved professional sailors Breno Osthoff, 20, and Rafael de Almeida Sampaio, 35.
According to Osthoff, the impact was so great the boat was forced onto its side.
Rio de Janeiro has pledged to reduce pollution in the notoriously fetid bay, but last month in an interview with the country's largest sports channel SporTV, Mayor Eduardo Paes admitted that the bay will remain mostly polluted for the games.
"The Olympics are also in a time that has very little rain, then this amount of debris that comes from five municipalities in the metropolitan region, with poor sanitation, is also controllable...I do not see as a problem for the Olympics," said Paes.
Last year biologists said rivers leading into the bay contained a superbacteria that is resistant to antibiotics and can cause urinary, gastrointestinal and pulmonary infections. - CNN.
Residents attempt to save melon-headed whales beached on the shore of Hokota cityPhoto: Toshifumi Kitamura/AFP
April 14, 2015 - JAPAN - Virtually all the 156 dolphins that beached themselves over the weekend on the coast of north-east Japan have died, while the incident has also triggered speculation that another major earthquake is imminent.
Local coast guard officials managed to rescue three of the pod of
melon-headed whales – also known as electra dolphins – from the beach
close to the town of Kashima, but the majority have been buried where
they beached themselves.
The
stranding of so many dolphins has prompted comparisons with a similar
incident in 2011, when 50 melon headed whales beached themselves on a
nearby coast just six days before a magnitude-9 earthquake struck
offshore, triggering a massive tsunami that devastated hundreds of miles of coastlineand leaving around 18,000 people dead.
Commentators have also pointed out that 107 pilot whales beached themselves inNew Zealand
in February 2011, just two before a major quake hit the city of
Christchuch, while the December 2004 quake in the Indian Ocean was
preceded by more than 170 whales being stranded on beaches in Australia and New Zealand.
Scientists have suggested that dolphins and whales are sensitive to
disturbances in the Earth’s electromagnetic field that are linked to
movements in tectonic plates.
Melon-headed dolphins stranded on the coast in Hokota (Reuters)
Toshiaki Kishiro, head of the
Cetacean Resources Group at Japan’s National Research Institute of Far
Seas Fisheries, agreed that might be one explanation for the dolphins
coming ashore, but added that there may be other reasons.
“It is
possible, but there is no firm evidence to ratify that theory”, Mr
Kishiro told The Telegraph. “This area of Japan has had many similar
cases of beachings in the past, and especially of this species, so we
are trying to find out why it happens.
“Another explanation that
has been put forward is that the dolphins have become confused by
naturally occurring magnetic fields, or that they were trying to evade
other species, such as killer whales.
"It has also been suggested that they were moving away from noise
caused by ships or that their health may have been affected by parasites
that caused them to become disorientated," Mr Kishiro added.
Scientific explanations have not halted the speculation, however, with
messages on social media sites warning: "Is the next one coming? Be
ready for a quake" and others recommending that people stock up on
bottled water, tinned foods and batteries. - Telegraph.
April 13, 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.
Pygmy sperm whale and calf die after beaching on Neptune Beach, Florida
A mother Kogia whale and her calf died Sunday after beaching themselves
on Neptune Beach, according to a biologist at Florida Fish and Wildlife
Conservation Commission.
Allison Perna, a marine mammal biologist, said a person on Neptune Beach
spotted the two whales about 7:50 a.m. and alerted the commission. The
person reported seeing sharks in the water, but witness accounts of the
mother being beaten hasn't been confirmed.
Two biologists with the commission and a team from the Jacksonville Zoo
marine mammal response team attempted to rescue the beached whales, but
were unsuccessful.
Biologists will now do a necropsy on the animals for clues as to what caused the beaching.
WATCH: Two pygmy sperm whales beach on Neptune Beach.
Zoo chimpanzee knocks drone out of the air with a stick in the Netherlands
Take that!
A chimpanzee at Burgers Zoo in the Netherlands has been filmed using a
stick to strike a drone that flew into his enclosure. The animal can be
seen patiently waiting on a branch for the drone to approach. He then
uses a stick to knock the drone out of the sky.
The video shows the drone tumbling to the ground only to be picked up
and examined by the primate. However, the flying object does not manage
to capture the chimpanzees attention for long.
The drone was used for filming for the Dutch television programme and
nbsp;Burgers Zoo Natuurlijk. The zoo reports that while the drone was
completely destroyed by the attack, the GoPro attached to it turned out
to be fine.
WATCH: See CHIMP swat drone from the skies with tree branch.
Flying Asian carp 'attack' Missouri rowing team at Creve Coeur Lake
Rowers attacked by flying fish
Benjamin Rosenbaum captured footage of the struggle between
Washington University's rowing team and the Asian carp of Creve Coeur
Lake.
A man filming a Missouri school's rowing team practice captured the
moment dozens of Asian carp started leaping from the water, striking
some of the rowers.
Benjamin Rosenbaum was filming the Friday rowing practice for the
Washington University freshman team in Creve Coeur Lake, outside of St.
Louis, when dozens of Asian carp started jumping from the water,
surrounding the boat.
WATCH: Rowers attacked by Flying Asian Carp.
Some of the fish struck the rowers and landed in their boat.
"The fish was flopping on my legs. It was so slippery that I couldn't get a grip on it," team member Devin Patel told CNN.
The rowers said no one was injured, but the smell of fish lingered once the waters went quiet.
Hailstorm kills and injures over 200 birds across Ahmedabad, India
Sunday's hailstorm killed a large number of birds. Parrots, kites and
crows were among the 217 birds which died or were found critically
injured at Vasna barrage, in Paldi and other parts of new west zone. At
the Jeevdaya Charitable Trust, Gira Shah, one of the trustees of the
veterinary hospital, was attending to 70 birds.
"Casualty figures have crossed 200. It is one of the rare instances when hail has killed so many birds,"
said Shah. Nanu Desai, an animal lover from Vasna barrage area, said:
"Close to 60 crows in our neighborhood died. Around 22 parrots and 10 to
20 kites had also lost their lives."
- The Times of India.
Woman attacked by bear in India
A 45-year-old woman was attacked by a bear in Kalvarayan Hills here on Sunday.
The victim was identified as Lakshmi, wife of Annamalai, of Thalakkarai of Kelnadu Panchayat.
On Sunday morning, while she was walking through forest area, a bear suddenly attacked her inflicting injuries.
On hearing her screams, people nearby rescued her from the bear.
She was taken to the Government Hospital in Attur and later to
Government Mohan Kumaramangalam Medical College Hospital in Salem.Forest officials said that human-animal conflict was rare in the area.
However, they are closely monitoring the area, they said.
- The Hindu.
Attack by monkey claims woman's life in India
Shops at Loi Bazaar remained shut on Saturday over local
administration's failure to curb monkey menace as a 50-year-old woman
fell from the roof of a three-storey building after being allegedly attacked by a monkey the previous night.
Police said Anjani Devi had gone to the terrace of her Govind Bagh house
on Friday to see if there was water in the overhead tankwhen a
few monkeys pounced on her. The woman, in her attempt to defend
herself, toppled from the roof. Family members and neighbours took her
to the hospital but was declared dead a day later.
Infuriated over the death of the woman, shopkeepers of Loi Bazar downed
their shutters on Saturday to mark their protest. Ashok Varshney, city
president of the Vyapar Mandal, said their agitation would continue till
the administration initiates a monkey-catching drive.
The administration has planned certain measures to counter the
growing problem. A month back, divisional commissioner Pradip Bhatnagar
had announced to set up a monkey sanctuary between Agra and Mathura, and
open a sterilization centre for monkeys at Churmura.
Despite civic functionaries claiming that funds have been released,
these projects are haven't taken off yet. In fact, some municipal
officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, conceded helplessness in
their pursuit to tackle the nuisance.
This is not the first incident where a monkey attack proved
fatal. In November 2014, an elderly saint, identified as Mahant Lal
Baba, 75, of Madhav Kunj, died in circumstances similar to Anjani Devi's
case. Ashram inmates told police that the baba fell from the roof and
died instantly of brain haemorrhage.
A few days later, a woman was attacked by a troop of rowdy monkeys. She fell from the second floor and broke both her legs.
The die-offs occur each spring along beaches from Oregon to California.
Velella velella typically live in the open ocean, but when warm water
and storms draw them near shore, the wind blows them onto beaches, where
they die in piles.
The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife says Velella velella do sting
their prey while in the water, but they are harmless to humans. - KGW.
