Animals
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Attention

Diver attacked by shark while spearfishing in the Bahamas

Al Pefley
cbs12.com
Sat, 19 Aug 2017 10:46 UTC
Shark attacks
A scary encounter for a local diver. He was bitten by a shark while spearfishing.

He's a professional, which proves shark attacks can happen to anyone.

CBS 12 learned the victim works for a charter company that offers shark dives.

This was their day off, and some employees and their friends set out for a day of fun, that turned chaotic.

"It was a young guy come off on a stretcher with his hand all bandaged up and you could see the blood," said Maureen Castagno, a bystander.

Bystanders watched in horror, as the shark bite victim got off a boat called Shark Addicts, and was taken away by paramedics.

"It looked pretty bad," Castagno said.
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Attention

Harbour seal climbs aboard kayak, attacks paddler near Chatham Island, British Columbia

Ceilidh Millar
Chek
Sat, 19 Aug 2017 13:19 UTC
seal attack
It started out as a regular Thursday kayak trip for Alan Campbell and Debbie Leach.

On Aug. 10, Campbell and Leach along with two other kayakers left from Telegraph Cove and headed towards Chatham and Discovery Islands.

"We were grouping up when the attack occurred" explained Campbell.

The excursion turned into a frightening experience when Leach noticed a large harbour seal charging at their kayaks.

"I didn't really think anything of it at first," said Leach.

"Usually the seals are shy and just swim away, but then it grabbed my rudder and pulled my foot pedal right out of the socket."

The seal tried to mount two of the kayaks without much success until it reached Campbell.


Comment: See also this report of another attack by the same species that occurred on the same day about 10 miles from the above incident: Seal bites man in Friday Harbor, Washington

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Attention

Pygmy sperm whale discovered washed up on Daufuskie Island, South Carolina

Maggie Angst
The State
Fri, 18 Aug 2017 11:57 UTC
The pygmy sperm whale found washed up on Daufuskie Island
© Amber KeuhnThe pygmy sperm whale found washed up on Daufuskie Island
When Joanne and Mike Loftus spotted a whale struggling in the surf Thursday night on Daufuskie Island, they helped push it back out to sea.

Watching it swim away, the two were excited.

"We thought we saved its life," Mike said.

When the pair went back out Friday morning for turtle patrol, they saw that the 11-foot male pygmy sperm whale had washed up dead.

Mike said he learned an important lesson from the experience.

"When you see a beached whale, you're supposed to stay away and call authorities, because it could be diseased, ... and if you push it back out, it could be attacked by sharks and have a violent death, instead of the death it's supposed to have," he said.
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Attention

Family returns home to find house covered in blood after their German Shepherd attacked an intruder

Chloe Farland
The Independent
Wed, 16 Aug 2017 00:00 UTC
family dog attacks intruder richmond virgina
Guard dog has never been aggressive before and is known to play with children in the area
A family came home to find the inside of their house covered in blood after their German Shepherd attacked an intruder while they were out.

When Tristan Murrin and his mother walked to the front door of their house, they did not notice anything wrong.

But once they stepped inside their Richmond home in Virgina, US, they discovered a scene likes something out of a horror film.

Mr Murrin told WRIC: "We noticed something when we walked in. I walked in with my mother and there were blood spots on the grounds, we looked upstairs and we could see trails of blood coming from upstairs going all the way down."
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Attention

Minke whale found dead in Blue Hill Bay, Maine

Henry Schulz
Mount Desert Islander
Thu, 17 Aug 2017 17:03 UTC
Area whale experts at a property in Tremont prepare to perform a necropsy on a minke whale found dead in Blue Hill Bay on Sunday
© Henry SchulzArea whale experts at a property in Tremont prepare to perform a necropsy on a minke whale found dead in Blue Hill Bay on Sunday
The stench of a decomposing minke whale assailed the nostrils of a crew working on a necropsy here Tuesday. The whale had been found floating dead in Blue Hill Bay on Sunday. It was not the same individual freed from entanglement with fishing gear a week before, researchers with Allied Whale at College of the Atlantic confirmed.

"We got a picture of the dorsal fins for both and went to the office yesterday and confirmed it wasn't the same," said Emma Ober of Allied Whale.

The whale was brought to the home of Dan DenDanto, a research associate for Allied Whale, for a necropsy. The COA research vessel Osprey towed the carcass to the Seal Cove docks Monday, where it was transferred to a trailer for transport to DenDanto's yard.

Volunteers made precise incisions in order to search for the cause of the animal's death. Oil flowed out of the minke whale's blubber like olive oil being poured into a sink. "The oil coming out is due to the internal pressure, and when cuts are made, it relieves the pressure, and that's why the oil flows out like that," DenDanto said.
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Attention

'It's very alarming': Another dead North Atlantic right whale discovered off Cape Cod; total now 13

Bobbi-Jean MacKinnon
CBC News
Thu, 17 Aug 2017 16:51 UTC
The dead whale has been identified as a reproductive female named Couplet, pictured here in 2003 with one of her calves.
© M. Zani/New England AquariumThe dead whale has been identified as a reproductive female named Couplet, pictured here in 2003 with one of her calves.
Another dead North Atlantic right whale has been spotted off Massachusetts, bringing the total number of confirmed deaths in North America this summer to at least 13.

The U.S. Coast Guard documented and reported the latest carcass on Monday, Jennifer Goebel, public affairs officer for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Greater Atlantic region, confirmed on Wednesday.

The dead whale is currently floating in the southern Gulf of Maine, about 160 miles (about 258 kilometres) east of Cape Cod, she told CBC News.

This is the third dead North Atlantic right whale discovered in U.S. waters, said Goebel. The news comes just one week after another whale was found floating off Martha's Vineyard, the Massachusetts island south of Cape Cod.

Between 10 and 12 dead whales have been found in the Gulf of St. Lawrence since June 7. Preliminary necropsy reports suggest ship strikes and fishing gear entanglements as possible causes for the deaths. A final report is expected by mid-September, and will be made public.

Only about 500 North Atlantic right whales are left in the world, according to fisheries officials.
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Attention

Dead minke whale discovered off coast of Narragansett, Rhode Island

Michelle San Miguel
turnto10.com
Thu, 17 Aug 2017 12:06 UTC
The carcass of a minke whale was found off Narragansett, Wednesday, Aug. 16, 2017.
© WJARThe carcass of a minke whale was found off Narragansett, Wednesday, Aug. 16, 2017.
Environmental officials are trying to remove a dead whale off the Narragansett coast.

The carcass of a minke whale was first spotted on Monday near Hazard Rock.

The Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management is waiting for the high surf brought on by Hurricane Gert to subside before officials try to retrieve the carcass.

The whale is floating within a fishing trap. Sarah Callan, assistant stranding coordinator at Mystic Aquarium, said DEM told her that it is a legal, stationary fishing trap.

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Bizarro Earth

Polluted river turns stray dogs blue in India

Badri Chatterjee
Hindustan Times
Sat, 12 Aug 2017 12:06 UTC
Blue dog in India
© Arati Chauhan
Untreated industrial waste being released into the Kasadi river may be turning stray dogs near Navi Mumbai's Taloja industrial area blue.

Reason: Strays often wade into the river for food, therefore the waste may be dyeing their fur a bright shade of blue.

A water quality test at Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation found the waste treatment was inadequate. The levels of biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) - the concentration of oxygen required to sustain aquatic life - was 80 milligram a litre (mg/L). Levels of chloride, which is toxic, harms vegetation, aquatic life and wildlife, were also high.

The area has nearly a 1,000 pharmaceutical, food and engineering factories.

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Wolf

Police record huge increase in dangerous dog offences in Kent, UK; from 16 in 2011 to 745 in 2016

Ellis Stephenson
Kent Online
Wed, 16 Aug 2017 19:06 UTC
Police recorded more than 700 offences involving dangerous dogs.
Police recorded more than 700 offences involving dangerous dogs.
There has been a huge rise in the number of dog attacks in Kent, with action taken against almost 750 owners last year alone.

Figures given to KentOnline following a Freedom of Information request reveal 745 offences were recorded of an owner or person in charge of a dog dangerously out of control causing injury in 2016 - a massive 46-fold increase in five years.

Two more offences were logged involving a person owning or being in charge of a dangerous dog that injured an assistance dog last year - one less than in 2015.

In contrast the total number of offences involving dangerous dogs logged in 2010 stood at 19, dropped to 16 in 2011, rose to 97 in 2012, jumped to 321 in 2013, reached 455 in 2014 and then 597 in 2015.

The statistics come as the owner of a dog who attacked nine-year-old Reggi Jarvis faces sentencing this week.

The youngster was bit by a Japanese Akita.

His mum Lecretia Barnes said: "The impact on our family was massive.
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Attention

Millions of animals dead as floods, algae blooms and disease takes it toll around the globe

Gary Walton
The Big Wobble
Tue, 15 Aug 2017 18:37 UTC
dead fish
10th August 2017 - 90 TONS of fish have died in fish farms in Vung Tau, Vietnam.

Nearly 90 metric tons of farm-raised fish in the southern province of Ba Ria- Vung Tau have been killed once again, leaving local residents with the heavy burden of loss and debt.

9th August 2017 - Hundreds dead Shearwater birds found washed up on Long Island beaches in New York, America.

Hundreds of great shearwaters have turned up dead on beaches on Long Island and southern New England this summer, and no one seems to know why. In addition to the birds on Block Island, birders and biologists have reported dead shearwaters on Rhode Island beaches in Tiverton and Charlestown.
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