Ten billion litres of environmental water will be released into the lower Goulburn River in a bid to clean up the river and protect native fish, the Department of Sustainability and Environment said yesterday.

But locals say the move is too little too late. People at Mildura and Robinvale are reporting fish up to 1m floating belly up down the river and crayfish climbing up river banks to breathe.

Jodie Ross, who runs the general store in Wemen, southeast of Mildura, said the black water started in Swan Hill and reached Wemen on New Year's Day. She said the dying fish were a devastating sight for river communities.

"We are seeing hundreds of dead fish floating by and even the live ones are coming up to the top as though they are very weak," she said.

Ms Ross said the river bank was lined with dead shrimp and yabbies.

A mass fish kill that prompted Lubbock officials to add a chemical to city water was being blamed on a toxic algae bloom - and certainly not being connected to recent reports of mass animal deaths around the country, officials said Thursday.

Between 10,000 and 20,000 gizzard shad were found dead last week in Lake Meredith, prompting Lubbock officials to continue adding a chemical to Lubbock water to prevent a possible fishy odor from reaching Hub City faucets. The fish kill triggered state officials to investigate the mass deaths.

The likely culprit: golden algae, a water-dwelling organism that, under certain conditions, can release a toxin fatal to fish, said Charlie Munger, a district supervisor for the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department.

Munger said low water levels at Lake Meredith likely increased salinity and PH levels in the dwindling lake. That chemical imbalance, along with cold temperatures, likely was enough to affect the algae's ability to survive and trigger its defense mechanism - releasing toxin to kill other organisms to provide nutrients.

Biologists see no indication that water quality or pollution played a role in death of 2 million spot fish

It could be two weeks before state officials know for certain what killed an estimated 2 million fish in the Chesapeake Bay. Or, they may never find out the exact cause.

Biologists with the Maryland Department of the Environment sent tissue samples from the fish, mostly juvenile spot 3- to 6-inches long, to state labs to pinpoint the reason they died. But for now, they believe a rapid drop in temperature in December caused cold-water stress, said MDE spokeswoman Dawn Stoltzfus.

Stoltzfus said there are no indications that water quality or pollution contributed to the kill, but the tissue samples will be analyzed for contaminants. Samples also will be sent to the Department of Natural Resources for bacteria analysis. However, she cautioned that "most, if not all, of the fish may be too decomposed to expect meaningful results."

The bay's surface water temperature late last month - 32.9 degrees--was the coldest in 25 years, according to state records. Historical lows were recorded at 13 locations on the bay, from the mouth of the Elk River to Rock Hall and Kent Island to Point Lookout. Spot have little tolerance for temperatures below 35.6 degrees.

The last four months of 2010, nearly 500 earthquakes rattled Guy, Arkansas.^[1] The entire state experienced 38 quakes in 2009.^[2] The spike in quake frequency precedes and coincides with the 100,000 dead fish on a 20-mile stretch of the Arkansas River that included Roseville Township on December 30. The next night, 5,000 red-winged blackbirds and starlings dropped dead out of the sky in Beebe.^[3] Hydraulic fracturing is the most likely culprit for all three events, as it causes earthquakes with a resultant release of toxins into the environment.^[4]

A close look at Arkansas' history of earthquakes and drilling reveals a shocking surge in quake frequency following advanced drilling. The number of quakes in 2010 nearly equals all of Arkansas' quakes for the entire 20th century. The oil and gas industry denies any correlation, but the advent of hydrofracking followed by earthquakes is a story repeated across the nation. It isn't going to stop any time soon, either. Fracking has gone global.

Hydraulic fracturing (fracking) pumps water and chemicals into the ground at a pressurized rate exceeding what the bedrock can withstand, resulting in a microquake that produces rock fractures. Though initiated in 1947, technological advances now allow horizontal fracturing, vastly increasing oil and gas collection.^[5] In 1996, shale-gas production in the U.S. accounted for 2 percent of all domestic natural gas production, reports Christopher Bateman in Vanity Fair. "Some industry analysts predict shale gas will represent a full half of total domestic gas production within 10 years."^[6] In 2000, U.S. gas reserve estimates stood at 177 trillion cubic feet, but ramped up to 245 tcf in 2008. These new technologies prompt experts to increase global gas reserve estimates ninefold.^[7]

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.

A nationwide scare involving mass deaths of fish and birds has now hit ground locally. A giant fish kill has occurred at Folly Beach, and according to a report by The Post and Courier, one standing at the end of the pier can see a seemingly never ending line of dead fish in both directions.

Officials with the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources (DNR) have confirmed that thousands of dead fish washed ashore behind the former Holiday Inn at Folly Beach and say the fish are all of the same species -- Menhaden.

"We're still waiting to see if DNR can come up with some kind of a clue as to why this happened." Folly Beach Mayor Tim Goodwin said.

If the Fish are not washed away by the tide, Folly Officials will be responsible for the clean up.

Bill Troy was out for his morning jog when he noticed thousands of the silver sided fish washed up on the shore.

Victoria's farmers are preparing for a "second generation" of the locust plague that has swarmed across the state since spring. Hundreds of rural landowners across northern and western Victoria have reported locust egg beds of up to 15 metres long.

The Department of Primary Industries (DPI) has had about 430 reports of locust egg beds, which, once hatched, will become the "second generation" of the locust plague. DPI state locust controller John Balfour said most of the reports of egg beds were across the north, central and Wimmera areas of the state, with some reported in other areas.

"The current concentration of egg beds is across the Horsham, Ararat, Stawell areas, through to Castlemaine, Bendigo and then on through Shepparton and further east towards Rutherglen and Wodonga," Mr Balfour told AAP.

The egg beds can be up to 15 metres long, consisting of eggs laid by the plague of locusts that have swarmed across Victoria since spring. A farmer in Katunga, in the state's central north, has also reported the first hatching of a second generation egg bed.

After taking a break for the holidays, oil spill cleanup crews returned to find thousands of tar balls awash on Alabama's shores.

"Being off ten days like we were, got a little catch up to do here," said Wilber Ledet, project manager with CrowderGulf.

Ledet said as soon as his crews remove the tar balls on the north side of Fort Morgan, replacements find their way ashore.

"We get a beach clean, and we're thinking it's done," he said. "And a good wind comes back, and there it is again."

As the mainstream media attempts to downplay the latest die-off event, which has now gone global, it is worthwhile to keep track of the story lines. Feel free to add your own to the comments section, and we will update accordingly.

Mainstream Explanations: Lightning, hail, mid-air collision, power lines, and New Year fireworks for the birds . . . but disease for the fish. This is even rolling eyes in the mainstream media. Birds are incredibly sensitive to their environment (think canary in the coal mine), and the thought that they were caught by surprise, or that they "fowled" up their flight pattern is patently ridiculous. And where are the roasted birds from this lightning strike? And what about fish dying in the same region? Just a "disease" coincidence. One mainstream headline has to be enshrined as the saddest attempt at sensationalism, while revealing an obvious natural conclusion Falling Birds Likely Died From Massive Trauma. Really?

Meteor showers: We are in a period of intense seasonal meteor showers, and several perennial YouTubers reported hearing sonic booms in the area that could have indicated a local shock wave. This would be one non-conspiratorial, natural cause that actually makes sense, but it is hard to connect to both birds and fish, unless it produced a disabling frequency. There were indeed other sound anomalies according to the report highlighted above.

The Mid-Atlantic and northeastern U.S. were not the only areas dealing with holiday snowfall.

Ireland [usually] enjoys a "temperate ocean climate" (Cfb) based on the Koopen climate classification system. Such climates normally enjoy cool, cloud-covered summers and mild winters. Ireland's climate is also [usually] moderated by the warm waters of the Gulf Stream, which flows off the western shore. Snow commonly falls only in the highest elevations; dustings may occur elsewhere a few times each year. Significant accumulations anywhere in the country are rare.

The winter of 2009-2010 was unusually cold and snowy. Called "The Big Freeze" by the British media, it brought widespread transportation problems, school closings, power failures and twenty five deaths. A low of -22.3°C (-8.1°F) was recorded on January 8, 2010, making it the coldest winter since 1978/79.