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Amazon River Dolphins Threatened with Extinction

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© Kevin Schafer/Barcroft A pair of Boto, or Amazon river dolphins in Rio Negro, Amazonia, Brazil.
The pink dolphins of the Amazon are being threatened with extinction as fishermen kill them to use their flesh as bait.

Scientists believe that 1,500 dolphins are being killed annually in the western Amazon to fuel a lucrative trade in catfish, which feeds on dead animals.

"The population of the river dolphins will collapse if these fishermen are not stopped from killing them," said Vera da Silva, the top aquatic mammals expert at the government's Institute of Amazonian Research.

"We've been studying an area of 27,000 acres for 17 years, and of late the population is dropping seven per cent each year."

The dolphins, which can be eight feet long and weigh the same amount as an adult man, are the largest of four species known to exist in South America and Asia. The cause of their pinkish hue is debated, with some scientists saying it is due to blood vessels being close to the skin and others citing scarring as the reason for their coloring.

Question

Forty-Ton Whale Lands on Yacht During Cape Town Sailing Trip

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© The TelegraphThe 40-ton whale crash-landed on couple's boat.
A couple who took a yacht for a quiet sailing trip were stunned when a 40-ton whale crash-landed on their boat off Cape Town.

The pair were enjoying calm seas off the South African coast when the animal flipped into the air and smashed into their mast.

Ralph Mothes, 59, and Paloma Werner, 50, were helpless as the beast thrashed around on their 33ft vessel before slipping back into the water.

Miss Werner said: "It really was quite incredible but very scary. The whale was about the same size as the boat.

"We'd spotted it about 100 metres away and thought that was the end of it. Then suddenly it was right up beside us.

"I assumed it would go underneath the boat but instead it sprang out of the sea. We were very lucky to get through it, as the sheer weight of the thing was huge.

Bizarro Earth

Philippines: 4th Earthquake Magnitude 6.5 - Moro Gulf, Mindanao

Mindanao4_240710
© USGSEarthquake Location
Date-Time:
Saturday, July 24, 2010 at 05:35:01 UTC

Saturday, July 24, 2010 at 01:35:01 PM at epicenter

Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location:
6.194°N, 123.596°E

Depth:
563.9 km (350.4 miles)

Region:
MORO GULF, MINDANAO, PHILIPPINES

Distances:
135 km (85 miles) SSW of Cotabato, Mindanao, Philippines

175 km (110 miles) W of General Santos, Mindanao, Philippines

180 km (110 miles) S of Pagadian, Mindanao, Philippines

975 km (600 miles) SSE of MANILA, Philippines

Attention

URGENT: State of Emergency Declared in Louisiana, U.S., as Storm Moves Over Oil Spill



Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal has issued an emergency declaration, intended to speed state help to parishes that need it after the storm hits. He said mandatory evacuations are not expected, but parishes might call for voluntary evacuations in some low-lying areas.

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Mysterious Plague Killing Off Bats, Bugs Get Free Rein

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© Marvin Moriarty/U.S. Fish and Wildlife ServiceThis little brown bat is seen hibernating in Greeley Mine, Vermont with the white fungus visible on its muzzle, wings, and ears.
Experts Don't Know How To Stop Spread of Deadly Fungus

A spreading plague has killed more than a million bats across the eastern U.S., and wildlife experts have no clue how to stop it.

As it rolls across the country and into Canada, the mysterious fungus threatens to disrupt the ecological balance, which could result in the spread of bugs that destroy crops and force swatting barbequers to flee indoors.

Called White-Nose Syndrome because of the white substance found on the noses of bats, it causes bats to move around and burn calories during the winter months when they should be hibernating and reserving energy. Scientists are not exactly sure why the fungus affects bats, where it came from originally, or how to stop its spread. One thing is for sure -- bat populations are being decimated by the fungus. Among some bat species, the mortality rate is 99 percent.

"There might be regional extinctions of particular bat species," said Noelle Rayman, assistant national White-Nose Syndrome coordinator at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, told ABCNews.com.

Info

There's a Hole in This Possible Earthquake Pattern

FAULTLINES
© Don Bartletti/Los Angeles Times/MCTA few miles from the epicenter of a 7.2 earthquake on April 4, 2010, a passenger snaps a photo of a huge crack in the road in Mexicali, Mexico. The road to Ejido Cucapah, one of several farming villages south of Mexicali, is etched with sinkholes, cracks and buckled pavement.

Los Angeles - As University of California at Davis physicist and geologist John Rundle ponders the map of recent California earthquakes, he sees visions of a doughnut even Homer J. Simpson wouldn't like.

The doughnut is formed by pinpointing the recent quakes in Eureka, Mexicali and Palm Springs.

Seismologists call the possible pattern a Mogi doughnut. It's the outgrowth of a concept, developed in Japan, which holds that earthquakes occur in a circular pattern over decades - building up to one very large quake in the doughnut hole. Rundle and his colleagues believe that the recent quakes, combined with larger seismic events including the 1989 Loma Prieta and 1994 Northridge temblors, could be precursors to a far larger rupture.

They just don't know exactly when.

The idea of predicting earthquakes remains controversial and much debated among California's many seismologists. But as technology improves and the understanding of how earthquakes distribute energy grows, experts are gingerly offering improved "forecasts," some of which have been surprisingly prescient.

For example, Southern California was hit earlier this month by a 5.4 quake that struck in the mountains about 30 miles south of Palm Springs - several weeks after seismologists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and elsewhere warned that pressure was building in the San Jacinto fault zone, which is where the temblor occurred.

That forecast underscores new thinking by seismologists about how earthquakes occur.

Bizarro Earth

Philippines: 3rd Earthquake Magnitude 7.4 - Moro Gulf, Mindanao

Mindanoa3_230710
© USGSEarthquake Location
Date-Time:
Friday, July 23, 2010 at 23:15:08 UTC

Saturday, July 24, 2010 at 07:15:08 AM at epicenter

Location:
6.749°N, 123.268°E

Depth:
616.7 km (383.2 miles)

Region:
MORO GULF, MINDANAO, PHILIPPINES

Distances:
120 km (75 miles) S of Pagadian, Mindanao, Philippines

120 km (75 miles) WSW of Cotabato, Mindanao, Philippines

135 km (85 miles) E of Zamboanga, Mindanao, Philippines

900 km (560 miles) SSE of MANILA, Philippines

Bizarro Earth

Philippines: 2nd Earthquake Magnitude 7.6 - Moro Gulf, Mindanao

Mindanoa_230710
© USGSEarthquake Location
Date-Time:
Friday, July 23, 2010 at 22:51:11 UTC

Saturday, July 24, 2010 at 06:51:11 AM at epicenter

Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location:
6.482°N, 123.533°E

Depth:
575.6 km (357.7 miles)

Region:
MORO GULF, MINDANAO, PHILIPPINES

Distances:
115 km (70 miles) SW of Cotabato, Mindanao, Philippines

150 km (90 miles) S of Pagadian, Mindanao, Philippines

170 km (105 miles) ESE of Zamboanga, Mindanao, Philippines

945 km (580 miles) SSE of MANILA, Philippines

Bizarro Earth

Philippines: Earthquake Magnitude 7.3 - Moro Gulf, Mindanao

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© USGS
Date-Time:
Friday, July 23, 2010 at 22:08:11 UTC

Saturday, July 24, 2010 at 06:08:11 AM at epicenter

Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location:
6.708°N, 123.479°E

Depth:
604.5 km (375.6 miles)

Region:
MORO GULF, MINDANAO, PHILIPPINES

Distances:
100 km (65 miles) SW of Cotabato, Mindanao, Philippines

120 km (75 miles) S of Pagadian, Mindanao, Philippines

155 km (95 miles) E of Zamboanga, Mindanao, Philippines

915 km (570 miles) SSE of MANILA, Philippines

Bizarro Earth

Canada: Earthquake Magnitude 4.1 - St. Lawrence Valley Region - Quebec

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© USGS
Date-Time:
Friday, July 23, 2010 at 17:24:21 UTC

Friday, July 23, 2010 at 01:24:21 PM at epicenter

Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location:
46.501°N, 71.621°W

Depth:
18 km (11.2 miles) set by location program

Region:
ST. LAWRENCE VALLEY REG., QUEBEC, CANADA

Distances:
45 km (30 miles) SW of QUEBEC, Quebec, Canada

55 km (35 miles) NNW of Thetford Mines, Quebec, Canada

75 km (45 miles) ENE of Trois-Rivieres, Quebec, Canada

120 km (75 miles) N of Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada