manatees
© APManatees congregate around a power-plant's warm-water discharge flow in Florida last December.
What's more depressing than 2 million dead baby fish? Try 279 floating manatees - and not floating in the good way.

Florida officials are blaming the manatee deaths of last year on "cold chill," the same weather condition that Maryland scientists think was responsible for the recent huge fish kill in the Chesapeake Bay. The frigid waters also killed 21 manatee newborns.

Adding in the deaths due to cold, a total of 767 manatees perished in Florida in 2010. It was the deadliest year on record for the canal-cows, according to Martine DeWit, a state veterinarian.

Manatees suffering from the extreme cold don't seem to expire in a forgiving numbness. Says the AP:

[I]f they don't find warm water, lesions form on their body, similar to frostbite. The animals die from infection stemming from weakened immune systems or hypothermia, DeWit said.

Many cities in Florida had record-breaking cold Decembers last year, which not only destroyed manatees but also some $115 million in crops. Back on the home front, weather-graphics whiz Jesse Ferrell, proginitor of the disturbing bird-shaped bird flock, says that the 2 million fish that died in the bay were swimming in the coldest water in the world.

Here are photos from the bay shores, courtesy of the Maryland Department of the Environment. The first was taken at Northwest Creek and the rest are from Sandy Point.

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dead fish