Earth ChangesS


Bizarro Earth

U.S. Southwest's yellow-billed cuckoo named a threatened species

Astrid Galvan
Yahoo News
Fri, 03 Oct 2014 21:21 UTC
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This August, 2013 photo provided by Point Blue Conservation Science shows a yellow-billed cuckoo
Tucson, AZ - The yellow-billed cuckoo has been disappearing from its home in the Western U.S., a decline that prompted the federal Fish and Wildlife Service to announce Thursday that the bird has been listed as a threatened species. The yellow-billed cuckoo will now be protected under the Endangered Species Act.

The bird resides in 12 western states and in Mexico and Canada, but Arizona has the largest population. There are about 350 to 495 pairs in the U.S., according to the American Bird Conservancy, which says none has been spotted in Oregon, Washington, or Montana recently.

A large portion of the yellow-billed cuckoo population lives in southern Arizona around the San Pedro River and at Cienega Creek, which conservationists also hope will be protected.

"We're gonna have to look at the federal actions that affect the cuckoo, such as grazing," Steve Spangle, who manages the Fish and Wildlife's ecological services field office in Arizona, said. "We're looking forward to working with all the agencies on how we can help the species. It's doing pretty well in Arizona."
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Cow Skull

U.S. historic drought causes hungry bears to seek for food - 9 bears captured in 2 days near Reno, Nevada

Dylan Stableford
Yahoo News
Fri, 03 Oct 2014 21:14 UTC
The historic drought in the western United States has led to a surge of hungry black bears coming down from the Sierra Nevada in search of food.
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In this photo provided by Nevada Department of Wildlife, a black bear captured in Carson City earlier in the day sits in a trap outside the Nevada Department of Wildlife headquarters in Reno, Nev., on Thursday, Oct. 2, 2014, awaiting its release back to the wild.
Just this week, nine black bears were captured in the Lake Tahoe area in a two-day span, Nevada Department of Wildlife officials said Thursday. Two mother bears and three cubs were captured in Reno, Nev., while a sow and two cubs were corralled near Stateline. A 2-year-old bruin was caught near Carson City. A 10th was struck and killed by a car in Reno.

"Nothing much gets in the bear's way when they are this hungry," Carl Lackey, the agency's chief wildlife biologist, told the Associated Press. "Nature's dinner bell is ringing." According to officials, 42 black bears have been caught since July 1, and 40 were released back into the wild. Two repeat offenders had to be killed, the agency said; 10 were killed by cars.

The influx was expected. The drought, coupled with cooler temperatures, has resulted in the bears coming down from the foothills to scavenge residential areas for food in preparation for winter hibernation. According to Nevada Department of Wildlife spokesman Chris Healy, bears typically eat up to 25,000 calories a day - the equivalent of 83 McDonald's cheeseburgers, he said.
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Windsock

Hurricane throws man 30ft in the air as freak weather hits Russia

Steve Kelly
Daily Mirror, UK
Tue, 30 Sep 2014 20:34 UTC
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© Screenshot from youtube.com/user/akomarofff
The victim was left struggling to walk after gale-force winds and flooding ravaged Sevastopol in southern Russia last week

This is the heart-stopping moment a man was swept up into the air while trying to escape a powerful hurricane.

The YouTube video shows the Russian man desperately clinging to a flimsy canopy in an attempt to resist the power of the hurricane.

But when it hits, the structure - with the man still holding on for dear life - is tossed 30ft through the air and onto concrete stairs.

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Frog

Invasion of the voracious American bullfrog

Matthew Brown
Yahoo News
Fri, 03 Oct 2014 18:57 UTC
An invasion of American bullfrogs that will eat just about anything - including each other - is spreading downstream along Montana's Yellowstone River and poses a potential threat to native frogs, government scientists said Thursday.
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© USGSIn this June, 2013 photo provided bt the U.S. Geological Survey, government scientists try to catch and remove bullfrogs from a side channel along the Yellowstone River near Billings, Montana
Bullfrogs were found in recent surveys along a 66-mile stretch of the river from the Laurel area downstream to Custer, said U.S. Geological Survey biologist Adam Sepulveda. The number of breeding sites for the animals almost quadrupled between 2010 and last year, to 45.

"They are going to eat anything they can fit into their mounts. It doesn't matter if it's another frog or a bird or a mosquito," said Sepulveda, who co-authored a study on Yellowstone River bullfrogs appearing in the journal Aquatic Invasions.

Bullfrogs as long as 12 inches when outstretched have been found. One that was caught and cut open near the Audubon Conservation Center in Billings last year had an oriole in its stomach.

State and federal agencies initially tried to stop the invaders in their tracks by killing them all off, but gave up after the number of bullfrogs overwhelmed the effort. They're now trying to come up with a strategy to at least contain their spread.
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Bizarro Earth

Famed Jamaican beach slowly vanishing to erosion

David McFadden
Yahoo News
Fri, 03 Oct 2014 18:47 UTC
Tourists from around the world are drawn to a stretch of palm-fringed shoreline known as "Seven Mile Beach," a crescent of white sand along the turquoise waters of Jamaica's western coast. But the sands are slipping away and Jamaicans fear the beach, someday, will need a new nickname.
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© David McFaddenIn this Sept. 14, 2014 photo, the tide gnaws away at a badly eroding patch of resort-lined beach in Negril in western Jamaica.
Each morning, groundskeepers with metal rakes carefully tend Negril's resort-lined shore. Some sections, however, are barely wide enough for a decent-sized beach towel and the Jamaican National Environment and Planning Agency says sand is receding at a rate of more than a meter (yard) a year.

"The beach could be totally lost within 30 years," said Anthony McKenzie, a senior director at the agency.

Shrinking coastline long has raised worry for the area's environmental and economic future. Now, the erosion is expected to worsen as a result of climate change, and a hint of panic is creeping through this laid back village, one of the top destinations in a country where a quarter of all jobs depend on tourism.

Additional images
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Question

10 fold increase in seal deaths reported this year off Swedish coast


thelocal.se
Fri, 03 Oct 2014 18:20 UTC
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© TTAn injured seal rescued in Sweden.
Ten times as many seals have died off the West Coast of Sweden in 2014 than in a typical year, with scientists saying the mortality rate is a mystery.

388 harbour seals have been reported dead so far, compared with a typical annual average of 30 to 40, according to experts at Sweden's National Veterinary Institute in Uppsala.

Most of them died in northern Halland and around Gothenburg's southern archipelago.

It is understood that two of the animals tested positive for a form of bird flu, but scientists say that the reason for most of the deaths remains unclear.
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Bizarro Earth

Earthquake magnitude 5.7 earthquake jolts central Philippines


Yahoo News
Fri, 03 Oct 2014 17:32 UTC
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© USGS
A magnitude 5.7 earthquake jolted the central Philippines on Friday, sending workers out of their offices and causing cracks on a building's wall. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

The quake's epicenter was Antique province's Culasi municipality, 360 kilometers (224 miles) south of Manila, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology said. It added that some damage and aftershocks were expected.

The U.S. Geological Survey measured the magnitude at 5.4.

John Paul Fallarme of the Philippine institute said field personnel reported cracks on the wall of a building in Culasi. Police said there were no immediate reports of damage in other areas.

"Almost all of us ran out," said Culasi police officer Richard Sombiloni. He said employees of the nearby municipal hall rushed out of the two-story building and gathered in parking areas and a square when the ground started shaking.

USGS data
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Bizarro Earth

Sharks killed after Australian surfer loses hands in attack


Agence France-Presse
Fri, 03 Oct 2014 17:36 UTC
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© File photo
Two great white sharks have been caught and killed off Western Australia, officials said Friday, after an attack in which a young surfer lost parts of both arms.

The capture of the sharks came as a man who witnessed the attack said the 23-year-old surfer involved, Sean Pollard, might have died if he had not received immediate medical attention.

Pollard lost one arm as well as the hand on his other arm, and suffered cuts to his leg in the attack off the south coast of Western Australia, reports said.

"He's obviously swum about 100 metres with those injuries... it was probably the bravest thing I've ever seen," a witness called Robbie told Fairfax radio Friday, adding that he drove Pollard from the beach to a waiting ambulance.
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Bizarro Earth

One wonders how many of these newly found thousands of volcanic seamounts are producing CO2 that bubble into the ocean

Anthony Watts
WattsUpWithThat?
Fri, 03 Oct 2014 17:11 UTC
Scientists have created a new map of the world's seafloor, offering a more vivid picture of the structures that make up the deepest, least-explored parts of the ocean.

The feat was accomplished by accessing two untapped streams of satellite data.
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Thousands of previously uncharted mountains rising from the seafloor, called seamounts, have emerged through the map, along with new clues about the formation of the continents.

Combined with existing data and improved remote sensing instruments, the map, described today in the journal Science, gives scientists new tools to investigate ocean spreading centers and little-studied remote ocean basins.

Earthquakes were also mapped. In addition, the researchers discovered that seamounts and earthquakes are often linked. Most seamounts were once active volcanoes, and so are usually found near tectonically active plate boundaries, mid-ocean ridges and subducting zones.

The new map is twice as accurate as the previous version produced nearly 20 years ago, say the researchers, who are affiliated with California's Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO) and other institutions.

Comment: SOTT's been talking about methane outgassing for quite some time. Just a few results from a cursory search here on methane outgassing:

Arctic Ocean leaking methane faster than anticipated
Vast methane plumes discovered escaping from Arctic seafloor north of Siberia
New climate change threat: Arctic seabed releases millions of tons of methane into atmosphere

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Question

Flashback Dolphin attacks swimmers in Doolin Harbor, Ireland

Carol Jordan
edition.cnn.com
Mon, 05 Aug 2013 17:13 UTC
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© Dick KeelyDusty the Doolin Dolphin
She's a charming cetacean who one minute will allow you to put your arm around her -- and the next leave you nursing injuries. As swimmers off the west coast of Ireland are finding out, you don't mess with Dusty the dolphin.

Now authorities have been forced to erect signs around Doolin Harbor, County Clare, after a woman was hospitalized last Sunday by the feisty bottlenose dolphin -- the fourth such incident since May.

Dusty has a checkered history in the area. First spotted in the waters off the coast of County Clare in 2000, reports began to surface as far back as 2004 that she was a little temperamental. According to media reports, one diver even claimed that Dusty had tried to drown her.

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