Earth Changes
© Siobhan Pirie
One of the Unst sperm whales
One of the Unst sperm whales
The environmental agency has been in discussion with local police about what potentially could be a wildlife crime.
However, they have not officially reported it and police confirmed on Wednesday afternoon that they are not investigating.
SNH advised that it was a crime to possess any artefact from a protected animal be it a sperm whale or a Siberian tiger.
Meanwhile, the council environmental health department is warning people to stay away from the carcasses while plans are being put in place to dispose the two whales, possibly at the weekend.
Ideally, the two 40-tonne carcasses will be towed off Scolla Wick, near Muness, and taken to nearby Sandwick beach where they could be buried.
The recurring cold weather is likely to persist into the first part of April and will cause difficulties for collegiate and high school baseball games, soccer, golf, lacrosse, track and field and other outdoor sporting activities.
Cold air is again building up over the Arctic and is forecast to push southeastward across the Canada Prairies late this week. The new surge of cold air will enter the Upper Midwest early this weekend and is projected to reach the interior South and East Coast by early next week.
A second push of cold air will push southeastward during the middle part of next week.
According to AccuWeather.com Long Range Weather Expert Mark Paquette, "It is almost unthinkable, but it appears that a flow of air straight from the Arctic will develop again."
© (Hilton Head) Island Packet
Dolphin in Broad Creek
Dolphin in Broad Creek
The dolphin was found alive on the beach between Sea Pines and Marriott's Grande Ocean Resort at about 8 a.m., but it died before marine biologists could reach it, said marine mammal stranding program scientist Wayne McFee.
McFee said no cause of death has been determined, but a necropsy would be performed Tuesday in Charleston.
A likely cause is the morbillivirus strain that has ravaged dolphin populations along the East Coast. McFee said 95 percent of the dolphins tested for the virus have tested positive.
A suspected outbreak of avian botulism is killing thousands of birds in Waikato.
The disease, which causes paralysis in birds, has been recorded in Matamata-Piako District, Waipa District and Waikato District this summer.
There have also unconfirmed reports of bird deaths in the Hauraki District.
About 3000 birds are estimated to have died from the disease in the Waikato region, Fish & Game gamebird manager David Klee said. Along with game ducks, the bacteria was killing black swans, grey teals and the New Zealand dabchick, among others, he said. "It's pretty indiscriminate, anything that sits on those ponds, seems to be affected." Although blood samples had not been taken, Mr Klee said the bird deaths all showed "clinical symptoms" of botulism.
Affected birds were showing signs of paralysis, they were flightless and, in the critical stage, had "lolling" and "drooping" heads.
Most outbreaks were occurring at municipal wastewater treatment plants - and in particular older, less used, oxidation ponds.
© AFP
Mystery...A scientist inspects the remains of a dolphin washed ashore in Lambayeque, Peru. About 400 dolphins were found dead in a wide extension of beaches during the month of January.
Mystery...A scientist inspects the remains of a dolphin washed ashore in Lambayeque, Peru. About 400 dolphins were found dead in a wide extension of beaches during the month of January.
The leader of the fishermen, inique Francisco, said that is everyday and find some dead dolphins stranded on the beaches and saw the mouth of the drains would be the cause of marine pollution affecting marine life.
In the place were also some dead sea turtles, plus some runners dying birds. The fishermen expressed their complaint because the authorities do not raise the corpses of animals for burial
According to locals, the wildfire had begun from Dumre Dharapani-5 and 7-based jungle on Monday afternoon. It had spread to wards 6, 8 and 9 of the forest area by Wednesday.
The community forest is spread over 409 hectares and according to inspector Ramesh Dev of Khotang district police office.
Virtually the entire forest has been engulfed by the fire, putting nearby settlements like Magargaun of Dumre Dharapani and others at risk.
Though the locals and the police are attempting to stop the fire from spreading, their attempts have failed so far, said a local.
"Locals and a team led by Dumre Dharapani's Assistant Sub-inspector Dhanlal Shrestha have been trying to control the fire for the past three days but to no avail," said local Ganesh Ghimire.
Scientist Keith Rittmaster of the North Carolina Maritime Museum in Beaufort says most everything scientists know about the Dwarf Sperm Whale has been found out by studying ones that have washed ashore, like the one from this past weekend.
Rittmaster says it is hard to even determine how many Dwarf Sperms there are in the world, since they are hard to spot and definitively identify at sea. Dwarf Sperm Whales look very similar to Pygmy Sperm Whales, which are more common.
A mystery 'storm cloud' caught on weather radar after erupting off a U.S. military missile testing ground in New Mexico has left weather experts baffled.
Conspiracy theorists have speculated that the plume-like cloud, which seems to appear out of nowhere, could have been kicked up by the explosion from an unreported weapons test.
Deepening the mystery, U.S. National Weather Service offices in Albuquerque and El Paso have confirmed the reading, but say they have no idea where it could have come from.
Conspiracy theorists have speculated that the plume-like cloud, which seems to appear out of nowhere, could have been kicked up by the explosion from an unreported weapons test.
Deepening the mystery, U.S. National Weather Service offices in Albuquerque and El Paso have confirmed the reading, but say they have no idea where it could have come from.
The farms that supply much of the nation's produce are literally running out of water.
Maps indicate that the areas of California hardest hit by the mega-drought are those that grow a large percentage of America's food. Those regions include Monterey County, which produced nearly half of the lettuce and broccoli grown in the United States in 2012.
It's not just vegetables that will be affected; nuts and fruits will be hit just as hard or harder.
"There will be thousands of acres of fruit and nut trees that will die this year because of lack of water," David Sunding, a professor of natural resources at the University of California at Berkley, told the San Jose Mercury News. "The reduction in yield will drive up prices."
Comment: Possibly related to this earthquake reported closeby 3 days earlier? An under the ocean outgassing event maybe?