Earth ChangesS


Hourglass

Suffering Dolphins in Barataria Bay

Georgianne Nienaber
12160.org
Sun, 20 Jun 2010 17:45 UTC
oil dolphin
© Jerry Moran Dorsal Fin Encrusted with Oil in Barataria Bay
Toxic poisons are stalking the dolphins in Barataria Bay, Louisiana, and no one is discussing or reporting the fact that the oiled mammals are struggling in the waters near Grand Terre Island. There are no published photos or videos that we have been able to find, and no stories that describe the oil-encrusted dorsal fins and odd behavior that suggest an under-reported or deliberately hidden environmental catastrophe.

We were on the water with New Orleans photographer Jerry Moran and Reel Screamers Guide Service on June 11, when we noticed two groups of dolphins. One group was swimming through a bubbling slick consisting of the dispersant COREXIT and oil, and the other was in the shallows and rooting in the mud. Dolphins will dig for flounder on the bottom, so it did not seem remarkable at the time, but we did note that they appeared unusually agitated. The group swimming in the oily dispersant near our boat was sluggish but there was nothing we could do to discourage them from swimming there. Oil was everywhere, above and below the surface, and there was no escape. We shrugged it off, snapped a few photos, and went on to photograph oiled pelicans on Cat Island and Queen Bess.
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Arrow Down

Stranded Danish Whale Dies


The Associated Press
Mon, 21 Jun 2010 11:19 UTC
Image
© Benny F. Nielsen/AP PhotoA fin whale is seen stranded in a shallow fjord on the western coast at Vejle on the western coast of Denmark Wednesday June 16, 2010.
A fin whale that was stranded in a Danish fjord for days has died and scientists were trying to pinpoint the cause, they said Monday.

A team of veterinarians, natural science experts and students have dissected most of the 58-foot (17.6-meter) whale, which died Sunday, Joachim Engel of Denmark's Natural History Museum said. Scientists will analyze its heart and other organs to establish the cause of death.

"That is what they will be trying to find out, whether it was sick. We don't know," biologist Anders Kofoed said.

The team dissected the animal on a pier in the Vejle Fjord, 135 miles (220 kilometers) west of Copenhagen, where the animal had been stranded since Wednesday.
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Binoculars

Why Chimpanzees Attack and Kill Each Other


PhysOrg
Mon, 21 Jun 2010 13:00 UTC
Image
© Thomas Lersch/WikipediaCommon chimpanzee in the Leipzig Zoo.
Bands of chimpanzees violently kill individuals from neighboring groups in order to expand their own territory, according to a 10-year study of a chimp community in Uganda that provides the first definitive evidence for this long-suspected function of this behavior.

University of Michigan primate behavioral ecologist John Mitani's findings are published in the June 22 issue of Current Biology.

During a decade of study, the researchers witnessed 18 fatal attacks and found signs of three others perpetrated by members of a large community of about 150 chimps at Ngogo, Kibale National Park.

Then in the summer of 2009, the Ngogo chimpanzees began to use the area where two-thirds of these events occurred, expanding their territory by 22 percent. They traveled, socialized and fed on their favorite fruits in the new region.
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Blackbox

Times Picayune: BP confirms blowout preventer is "tilting"

Oilflorida
Times Picayune
Mon, 21 Jun 2010 11:18 UTC
Oil spill containment efforts could be putting strain on damaged well, New Orleans Times-Picayune, June 18, 2010:

Meanwhile, observers monitoring the video feeds from the robotic vehicles working on the sea floor have noticed BP measuring a tilt in the 40-ton blowout preventer stack with a level and a device called an inclinometer.

Odone, the BP spokesman, confirmed that his company has been monitoring the lean of the blowout preventer, which BP believes began tilting when the Deepwater Horizon rig sank and the riser pipe got bent. ...
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Bizarro Earth

Oil from BP spill may reach Ireland


Belfast Telegraph
Mon, 21 Jun 2010 01:22 UTC
ocean current diagram
© Unknown
Remnants of the massive BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico could be headed towards Ireland, according to an American computer-modelling study.

The study, by the National Centre for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colorado, found that the Gulf Stream could carry oil from the Louisiana coast far into the eastern Atlantic ocean.

Based on computer animation, the study shows how the oil could be carried in the upper 65ft of the ocean, taking into account weather and currents.

If the oil spill is contained by the end of August, the impact on Ireland will be negligible, said NCAR oceanographer Synte Peacock. But if it continues, no-one knows what the impact will be, she said.
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Black Cat

BP's disasterous oil spill colors the fabric of Gulf coastal life

Lesley Clark
The Miami Herald
Mon, 21 Jun 2010 00:50 UTC
florida beach oilspill
© GettyThe clean-up begins on Florida's Pensacola Beach
Lisa Harbin shuts off the air conditioners at a Coden, Ala., bait-and-tackle shop to save money, worried about staying in business, fishing now but a memory. The live bait well has been drained and she's not sold a single ticket to the Mystic Striper Society Fishing Rodeo.

On Grand Isle, La., college students working a pelican emergency room don't have time to think about the fate of the oiled birds they've triaged before a crate harboring another shivering, oiled avian arrives.

And in Waveland, Miss., Nadine Brown frets about a falloff in tourists at the bar she rebuilt with more than just a little grit after Hurricane Katrina washed it away, along with most of the waterfront city's downtown.

For many in the weathered fishing villages and tiny towns along the Gulf of Mexico, the unrelenting eight-week siege of oil is taking a toll on the psyche. A drive along the coast from Louisiana to Florida finds towns still littered with hurricane debris, families struggling to recover and a mounting worry that oil will finish off what Katrina did not.

In Bayou La Batre -- the "Seafood Capital of Alabama'' -- Kenny Dang, 32, fears for his parents. "All they've ever known is shrimping,'' he said, coming in from a day aboard the family vessel -- this time spotting for oil off Alabama's coast.

In Pensacola, where enjoying the water defines life, marina owners like John and Anita Naybor -- who had to rebuild a marina, and their home, after Hurricane Ivan grimly consider the future.
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Bizarro Earth

Sakurajima Busts Eruptions Record


Japan Times
Mon, 21 Jun 2010 00:22 UTC
Kagoshima (Kyodo) A pair of explosive eruptions Sunday on Mount Sakurajima in Kagoshima Prefecture brought the total to 550 this year, setting a new annual record, the local meteorological observatory said.

Given that the volcano has been erupting roughly twice as frequently since last year, the number of eruptions could reach 1,000, the observatory said.

The previous record of 548 was set last year.

The volcano released around 3 million tons of ash between January and April alone, more than the roughly 2.35 million tons released in 2009.

"While there is no ominous sign of a large-scale explosion, volcanic activity is expected to intensify," the observatory said in a statement. "It is advisable to watch out for large rocky ash falling in surrounding areas."
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Bizarro Earth

Pine Trees Losing Needles Still a Mystery

Jeff Meyers
Press Republican
Sun, 20 Jun 2010 00:04 UTC
Needle Losing Pine
© Alvin ReinerAmy Ivy examines a white pine branch that has dropped most of its older needles. Weather is thought to be the cause. The current year's needles seem fine.
Plattsburgh - White pines across the region have been mysteriously dropping their needles en masse.

Pines typically drop about 20 percent of their needles in the fall as the plants prepare for the long, dormant winter. However, white pines across the tri-county area seem to have shed up to 100 percent of their needles this spring.

Other Trees

"We've had a couple of incidents that seem to be weather related," said Department of Environmental Conservation Forester Bruce Barnard.

"It first showed up in sugar maples and cherry trees when there was a freeze following the warm weather we had earlier this spring.

"That froze the leaves as they were coming out, and the leaves shriveled and dropped off."

Those species seem to have rebounded as the leaves are now returning, he added.
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Fish

Methane Eruption Warned May Kill Gulf of Mexico

Matthew Brown and Ramit Plushnick-Masti
The European Union Times
Sat, 19 Jun 2010 11:00 UTC
oil spill
© AP Photo/Gerald HerbertThe oil damaged shoreline in the Northern reaches of Barataria Bay is seen amidst work boats in oil polluted waters as Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal's tours oil damage in Barataria Bay, La., Thursday, June 17, 2010.
New Orleans - It is an overlooked danger in oil spill crisis: The crude gushing from the well contains vast amounts of natural gas that could pose a serious threat to the Gulf of Mexico's fragile ecosystem.

The oil emanating from the seafloor contains about 40 percent methane, compared with about 5 percent found in typical oil deposits, said John Kessler, a Texas A&M University oceanographer who is studying the impact of methane from the spill.

That means huge quantities of methane have entered the Gulf, scientists say, potentially suffocating marine life and creating "dead zones" where oxygen is so depleted that nothing lives.

"This is the most vigorous methane eruption in modern human history," Kessler said.
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Wolf

Despicable Cruelty! BP "Burning Sea Turtles Alive"

Danile Tencer
Raw Story
Sun, 20 Jun 2010 15:16 UTC
Image
© AP PhotoA sea turtle caught up in the oil spill waits for treatment.
A rare and endangered species of sea turtle is being burned alive in BP's controlled burns of the oil swirling around the Gulf of Mexico, and a boat captain tasked with saving them says the company has blocked rescue efforts.

Mike Ellis, a boat captain involved in a three-week effort to rescue as many sea turtles from unfolding disaster as possible, says BP effectively shut down the operation by preventing boats from coming out to rescue the turtles.

"They ran us out of there and then they shut us down, they would not let us get back in there," Ellis said in an interview with conservation biologist Catherine Craig.

Part of BP's efforts to contain the oil spill are controlled burns. Fire-resistant booms are used to corral an area of oil, then the area within the boom is lit on fire, burning off the oil and whatever marine life may have been inside.

"Once the turtles get in there they can't get out," Ellis said.
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