ANIMAL BEHAVIOR: Migratory Patterns And Disaster Precursors - Two Sperm Whales Die After Beaching On Coast Of East China And Another Dead Whale Found On Coast In Odisha, India, The Fifth This Month?! [PHOTOS + VIDEO]

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.

Scientists were not sure why the two whales were stranded. - South China Morning Post.

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.

- The Indian Express.

MONUMENTAL EARTH CHANGES: Stunning Geological Changes at China's Largest Freshwater Lake - Dramatically Drying Up of the Riverbeds of the Poyang Lake, Affecting the Lives of Millions of People and Covering Thousands of Square Kilometers!

For visitors expecting to see China's largest freshwater lake, Poyang is a desolate spectacle. Under normal circumstances it covers 3,500 sq km, but last month only 200 sq km were underwater. A dried-out plain stretches as far as the eye can see, leaving a pagoda perched on top of a hillock that is usually a little island. Wrapped in the mist characteristic of the lower reaches of the Yangtze river, the barges are moored close to the quayside beside a pitiful trickle of water. There is no work for the fisheries.

A plant is seen on the cracked bed of the dried area of Xieshan, which is part of
Poyang lake in east China's Jiangxi province.

According to the state news agency Xinhua, the drought – the worst for 60 years – is due to the lack of rainfall in the area round Poyang and its tributaries. Poor weather conditions this year are partly responsible. But putting the blame on them overlooks the role played by the colossal Three Gorges reservoir, 500km upstream. The cause and effect is still not officially recognised, even if the government did admit last May that the planet's biggest dam had given rise to "problems that need to be solved very urgently".

"Every year, when the Three Gorges reservoir stores water – to power the dam's turbines during the winter – the flow rate in the Yangtze drops. This in turn increases the rate at which the level of Poyang lake falls, and the period of low water comes sooner," said Ye Xuchun, a researcher at China's Southwest University. In partnership with scientists at the Lake Science and Environment laboratory at Nanking University, he has published a comparative analysis of water levels in the Three Gorges basin and at the lake's northern extremity, near the city of Hukou, where the outflow from Poyang joins the Yangtze.

The authors conclude that the artificial regulation of the reservoir, which must be kept full to optimise electricity output, reduces the water level in the lower reaches of the Yangtze. This means that the big river no longer "plugs" the lake's northern outlet, so the other rivers feeding into Poyang simply pass through the dwindling lake and run on downstream. This was the case in 2006, a very dry year that coincided with the period when the Three Gorges reservoir was filling up. "When the depth of the reservoir was increased by 15 metres, to reach 155 metres in October, the lake dropped very low at Hukou," the scientists said.

The beginning of 2012 has proved even worse. The region's environmental balance was "seriously affected", said Dai Nianhua, deputy head of the Lake Poyang Research Centre in Nanchang, the provincial capital. When the water level is too low there are no fish, so there is no food for the migrating birds that usually break their journey at Poyang. The government has decided to drop fish and shellfish into the lake from helicopters.

The economic impact is just as disastrous. "Freighters can only cross the lake empty," said a worker at the shipyard in Xingzi, whereas usually the lake is a hive of activity in rural Jiangxi province. Some people are now suggesting that a dam should be built where the lake joins the Yangtze, but no one knows what side-effects that might have.

As for the fisheries, they have upturned their boats on the shore or abandoned them on the dried-out bed of Poyang. Guo Jintao, a resident of Yumincun, a village with about 100 fishers, has not been out on the water for over a year. He started fishing when he was 13 and in 50 years he has not seen the lake this dry. He and his wife have switched to casual labouring in the building trade.

"Next year we'll see. If there's enough water, we'll go fishing again, otherwise we'll carry on with our new work," Guo said. His wife, Zhang Jingzen, 55, finds stacking bricks hard work. "I prefer fishing. Our family's been fishing for four generations," she said. The family used to earn $1,600 to $3,200 a year, but last year's earnings only amounted to $800. The local authorities offered them around $600 in compensation. Another fisherman, intrigued by our conversation, butted in to say that he only got $80 from the municipal council, whereas the province had allocated $160 for each member of the fishing community.

"The incomes in fishing villages are dropping as fast as the water in the lake. Some residents will have move on to other trades," said Xu Bin, the author of a thesis on the socio-economic consequences of the lake's environmental disorders. He warns: "The soil of China is dry, so the Yangtze is vital. Poyang is one of the key elements and its current predicament is a warning for the future." - Guardian.

MONUMENTAL EARTH CHANGES: Stunning Geological Changes at China's Freshwater Lake and Rivers - Dramatically Drying Up of the Riverbeds, Affecting the Lives of Almost 40 Million People and Covering Thousands of Square Kilometers!

Cracks are seen on the dried riverbed of Poyang lake, China’s largest freshwater lake, in Duchangcounty in East China’s Jiangxi province. The surface water of the lake has shrunk to less than 200 square kilometers, one-twentieth of its peak level, due to water shortages in the upperreaches of the Yangtze river.  Having experienced many geological changes, Poyang Lake is now wide in the south and narrow in the north, like a huge gourd tied on the waist of the Yangtze River.

China’s two largest fresh water lakes – Dongting Lake in Hunan and Poyang Lake in Jiangxi – are both drying up dramatically and almost 40 million people had been affected in the five provinces, the ministry said, citing reports from local civil affairs departments. Poyang Lake, located in Jiangxi Province is the largest freshwater lake in China. It is fed by the Gan, Xin, and Xiu rivers, which connect to the Yangtse through a channel.  Sand dredging has become a mainstay of local economic development in the last few years, and is an important source of revenue in the region that borders Poyang Lake. But at the same time, high-density dredging projects have been the principal cause of the death of the local wildlife population. Dredging makes the waters of the lake muddier, and the porpoises cannot see as far as they once could, and have to rely on their highly-developed sonar systems to avoid obstacles and look for food. Large ships enter and leave the lake at the rate of two a minute and such a high density of shipping means the porpoises have difficulty hearing their food, and also cannot swim freely from one bank to the other.

Covering an area of 4,000 square kilometers, Poyang is China’s largest freshwater lake. So far it has escaped major industrial pollution, thanks to relatively slow economic development in Jiangxi. The lake is fed by five rivers and connects to the lower reaches of the Yangtze. Lake waters flow into the Yangtze during dry seasons, while in the rainy seasons Lake Poyang is replenished with floods. The yearly changes in water level also help maintain one of the most important wetlands in the world. Poyang’s dynamic ecosystem provides a unique and critical habitat for a variety of waterbirds, many of which are endangered species. About 98 percent of the world’s Siberian cranes depend on the lake for survival each winter, according to the International Crane Foundation. It is also home to more than 120 species of fish and 300 species of birds. Its precious near-natural state is now endangered by the province’s plan to build a 2.8- km-wide dam with sluice gates across the narrowest part of the channel that links Poyang and Yangtze. The reason cited by the provincial government is that the lake and surrounding areas have suffered from low water levels almost every winter in the past decade.

The seasonal decline in winter water level now starts earlier and lasts longer. In an extreme cases, parts of  Lake Poyang turned into grassland in June as central China battled the worst drought in a century. Changing climate patterns on the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze, water storage behind the Three Gorges Dam, and increased water consumption by nearby communities are responsible for the frequent low water level. From 1952 to 2010, extremely low water levels (shallower than 8 meters) were recorded seven times. Six of them came after 2003, when the Three Gorges Dam started to hold back water for electricity generation according to official statistics. China’s Three Gorges Dam, the world’s largest water control and hydropowerproject, is scheduled to inject water into the lower reaches of the Yangtze River in early January 2012. The dam has run steadily for nearly two months since it reached its designedhighest mark, a water level of 175 meters. Monitoring statistics show that  the water inflow into the dam was about 5,000 cubicmeters per second, equal to the water discharged to the lower reaches. The Yangtze River has its dry season each winter and spring. According to the project design,the dam will fluctuate in the dry season to release about 22.1 billion cubic meters of its storagecapacity, with emergency scheduling in some extreme conditions. The dam in central Hubei province completed its first full-capacity test last October. The Three Gorges Project was launched in 1993 with a budget equivalent to $22.5 billion. - China Daily.