Earth ChangesS


Fish

US: Maryland - Chessie the 'Sea Monster"' spotted again

Jess Blumberg
BaltimoreMagazine.net
Tue, 19 Jul 2011 14:49 UTC
Chessie, Maryland's very own "sea monster" that first made an appearance in the bay 17 years ago, was spotted by boaters on Friday.
Image
© USGSUsing a photo-identification catalog, USGS scientists were able to confirm the manatee was Chessie based on scar patterns

U.S. Geological Survey biologist Cathy Beck verified that the manatee, found by Calvert County boaters, was indeed the same creature that surfaced in 1994. The boaters sent Chessie's photo to the National Aquarium, which forwarded it to the USGS, where Beck verified the manatee's markings, including a long, gray scar on his left side.

"It was a huge surprise," Beck told The Washington Post. "I get a lot of questions every year - 'Have you seen Chessie? Have you seen Chessie?' The answer for 10 years has been, ''No, sorry.'"

Biologists predict that, once the waters cool down, Chessie and his manatee friends will migrate back down to Florida, then future sightings will be uncertain again.
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Fish

US: Gulf 'Dead Zone' May Triple in Size


United Press International
Tue, 19 Jul 2011 13:29 UTC
Dead Zone
© NOAAThe Missisippi River dead zone is overloaded with nutrients from upstream sources. This photo shows the color change between the hypoxic (brown) and oxygen-rich (blue) waters.
Researchers measuring the "dead zone" in the Gulf of Mexico say it is currently about 3,300 square miles but some scientists say it could become much larger.

The so-called "dead zone," caused by nitrogen levels in the gulf related to human activities such as agricultural runoff, occurs when oxygen levels in seawater drop to dangerously low levels, causing severe hypoxia that can potentially result in fish kills and harm marine life.

Researchers from Texas A&M University say the size of the dead zone off coastal Louisiana has been routinely monitored for about 25 years while nitrogen levels in the gulf resulting from human activities have tripled over the past 50 years.

Some researchers predict the dead zone could exceed 9,400 square miles this year, which would make it one of the largest ever recorded.
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Binoculars

Five-Year-Old Boy Mauled by Tiger Cub in South Africa

Aislinn Laing
The Telegraph, UK
Tue, 19 Jul 2011 04:21 UTC
Image
© Xinhua
A five year-old boy is recovering in hospital after he was mauled by an apparently tame tiger cub at a holiday resort in South Africa.

Finlay Holden was stroking the six-month old Bengali tiger's back when it turned around and grabbed his head between its paws.

The little boy was only saved after other holidaymakers and resort staff throttled the growling animal and hit it over the head repeatedly with a walkie-talkie.

His mother, Claire Holden, told how Finlay had screamed hysterically "Mum, make it stop! Make it stop!" as they fought to save him.

"The whole thing was just awful," she said. "There were all these people pulling at the tiger and it wouldn't let go. All I could do was wrap my arms around Finlay and try to keep him calm."
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Nuke

US: Rain Threatens to Spread Radiation from Los Alamos National Lab


Washington's Blog
Tue, 19 Jul 2011 10:07 UTC
Los Alamos fire
© n/a
As I previously noted, radioactive waste was dumped into open pits for decades in and around Los Alamos National Lab - including in surrounding canyons.

As I also pointed out, radioactive waste has been stored in canvas tents onsite at the National Labs, and there were some fires within the Lab grounds.

While rain doused the worst of the fires, there is still some radiation in the air. For example, some Plutonium-239, Americium-241 and Cesium-137 was measured in the air around Los Alamos earlier this month.

And the rains have also created a very real risk of flooding that will spread radiation.
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Bizarro Earth

Quake in Costa Rica Causes River to Disappear


Macedonian Intl News Agency
Fri, 15 Jul 2011 09:57 UTC
Guacalito River disappears
© n/aGuacalito River disappears in Costa Rica after Earthquake
Following a series of moderate earthquakes that struck the country Tuesday, residents around the Guacalito River in Costa Rica discovered that the river had disappeared.

Earthquake-report.com reported that sometime after the earthquakes, villagers living near the river, which is located near Armenia de Upala, discovered that the river was dry.

It was not immediately known if the waters of the river had disappeared due to sinkhole activity that can occur after earthquakes or if the earth shaking caused damming that dried up the river near the Miravalles volcano. The quakes were centered near the Nicaragua and Costa Rica border in the same vicinity as the Miravalles volcano.

An entire body of water disappears? Strange but true, and this isn't the first time this odd event has happened.

In 2010, the Iska River in Slovenia disappeared after local residents heard loud crashing and banging overnight. The next morning, the river was dry and the riverbed was full of fish and other creatures. It was believed that the waters of the river had drained through a large crack into an underground riverbed. This disappearance was not believed to have been related to an earthquake.
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Attention

Great Barrier Reef, Australia: Dying sea animals concern experts

David Sparkes
The Observer
Mon, 18 Jul 2011 06:21 UTC
Image
© Bianca BoxThis turtle was found on July 17 at Second Beach, Tannum Sands.
Experts on the Great Barrier Reef are calling for increased efforts to protect dugongs and green turtles.

The campaign by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority was launched yesterday as news emerged of another dead turtle found at Tannum Sands on the weekend.

GBRMPA is stepping up its efforts to promote smart boating and fishing practices to protect the animals, as record numbers of deaths are being recorded along the coast.

"The evidence is pretty strong that it's a loss of seagrass and loss of condition (that is the main factor in the deaths)," GBRMPA chairman Dr Russell Reichelt said.

"Essentially these animals are actually starving."
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Question

India: Scientists at sea over 'missing' jellyfish

Simit Bhagat
The Times of India
Sun, 17 Jul 2011 04:19 UTC
Image
© Unknown
Marine biologists are concerned about the "missing" jellyfish that are washed ashore on Mumbai's beaches during the monsoon.

Experts feel it could be due to lack of strong southwest monsoon winds that blow during this time. "This is an unusual phenomenon. The number of jellyfish that gets washed ashore annually is high. However, this year, their numbers seem to have depleted," said Dr Vinay Deshmukh, principal scientist with the Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (CMFRI).

According to the fisherfolk, the arrival of jellyfish on the shores is an indication of the monsoon. "But southwest monsoon winds that start usually from mid-May onwards have not been strong enough this year resulting in the unusual trend," said Dr Deshmukh. According to meteorological data, monitored by the CMFRI, the wind force this year has been between 21 to 27 kmph during May and June. On the other hand, the wind force recorded on July 12 was around 81 kmph.

Comment: Interestingly enough, other parts of the world, and particularly nuclear power plants, experienced jellyfish "invasion".

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Phoenix

Canada: Northwestern Ontario wildfires set to spread


CBC News
Mon, 18 Jul 2011 03:01 UTC
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© Mitch Miller/Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources/Canadian PressA forest fire burns Friday about 270 kilometres north-northeast of Sioux Lookout, Ont.
Smoke forces people out of several First Nation communities.

Fire crews in northwestern Ontario are scrambling to contain nearly 100 forest fires amid warnings that dozens of new fires could break out in the days ahead.

Mitch Miller, a fire information officer with the Ministry of Natural Resources, said from Dryden that there are 96 active fires burning in the remote northwestern region.

More than 30 new blazes are expected to break out in the coming days as the fires spread southward.

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Phoenix

US: Giant Dust Storm Moves Through Phoenix, Arizona Area

Nick Oza
Globegazette.com
Mon, 18 Jul 2011 21:53 UTC
A dust storm rolls into the Phoenix area
© AP Photo/The Arizona Republic, Nick OzaA dust storm rolls into the Phoenix area Monday evening, July 18, 2011. The dust wall was about 3,000 feet (900 meters) high and created winds of 25 to 30 mph (40 to 48 kph), with gusts of up to 40 mph (64 kph), said Austin Jamison, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.
A giant wall of dust rolled through the Phoenix area on Monday, turning the sky brown, creating dangerous driving conditions and delaying some airline flights.

The dust, also known as a haboob in Arabic and around Arizona, formed in Pinal County and headed northeast, reaching Phoenix at about 5:30 p.m.

The dust wall was about 3,000 feet high and created winds of 25 to 30 mph, with gusts of up to 40 mph, said Austin Jamison, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. Visibility was down to less than a quarter-mile in some areas, he said.

"You have suddenly very poor visibilities that come on with all the dense dust in the air," he said. "With poor visibilities, that makes for dangerous driving conditions and that's arguably the biggest impact."

There were no immediate reports of accidents on roadways because of the storm, which began to clear within an hour of moving in. The Arizona Department of Public Safety did not immediately return a request for information about road conditions.

More pictures
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Sun

US: Heat Wave Hardest on Nation's Poorest Communities

Juan Carlos Llorca
The Associated Press
Mon, 18 Jul 2011 18:40 UTC
Image
© AP Photo/Jim MoneAn unidentified fan wipes his head as another covers his with a sign between innings of the Minnesota Twins baseball game against the Cleveland Indians, during the first of a doubleheader Monday, July 18, 2011 in Minneapolis. As a heat wave consumed the Midwest Monday, the heat index midday was at 106-degrees.
The cinderblocks that make up Maria Teresa Escamilla's new home will do little to shield her from the triple-digit heat that has been scorching West Texas. She has no electricity yet, and the roof is not properly attached, leaving the interior exposed to the elements.

Escamilla has been living in an air-conditioned apartment that she can no longer afford. But when the lease ends in two weeks, she has to move - a day she dreads because it means she'll have no escape from the searing temperatures.

"This is what I have to look forward to," she said. There will be no air conditioning and an unbearable number of mosquitoes at night.

With much of the nation in the grip of a broiling heat wave, few people are hit as hard as the poor, and few places are poorer than the ramshackle communities along the Texas-Mexico border known as "colonias."

The misery was widespread Monday, with the worst conditions blanketing a broad band from Texas to Minnesota and Dakotas. Seventeen states issued heat watches, warnings or advisories. And the heat index easily surpassed 100 degrees in many places: 126 in Newton, Iowa; 120 in Mitchell, S.D.; and 119 in Madison, Minn.
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