Earth ChangesS


Igloo

40,000 'devil' crabs wash up on Kent coast after dying from hypothermia in freezing sea


Daily Mail
Wed, 05 Jan 2011 05:37 UTC
Thousands of dead crabs have washed up along the Kent coast, with environmental experts believing the cold weather in Britain is to blame.

The velvet swimming crabs - also called devil crabs - are thought to be victims of Britain's coldest December in 120 years, which left sea temperatures much lower than average.
Image
Triste hallazgo: El Dr Alasdair Bruce, uno de los expertos que estudia los cangrejos muertos. Es el segundo año seguido que las playas han quedado colmadas de cangrejos

More than 40,000 of the crabs - Britain's largest swimming crab - are littering beaches around Thanet, along with smaller numbers of whelks, sponges and anemones.

Coastal warden Tony Sykes said: 'We suspect that climate change and warmer weather has lured the crabs towards the shoreline.

'They could also be attracted to these waters looking for kelp, to feed on.

'We believe the sudden temperature drop causes the crabs to suffer from hypothermia and die.'

It is the second year in a row that icy temperatures have killed sea creatures in such large numbers.
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Attention

Hundreds of dead snapper washed up on New Zealand beach

Rob Kidd
Sydney Morning Herald
Wed, 05 Jan 2011 05:30 UTC
Dead snapper in New Zealand
© DesconocidoPesca del horror – peces muertos flotando y sobre las orillas en la Península de Coromandel
Hundreds of dead snapper have washed up on Coromandel beaches on the North Island of New Zealand, leaving holidaymakers perplexed.

The mysterious incident came as the southern United States was hit with a second unexplained mass bird death within a week.

People at Little Bay and Waikawau Bay, on the north-east of the peninsula, were stunned when children came out of the sea with armfuls of the fish and within minutes the shore was littered with them.

Charlotte Pearsall, whose family have lived at Little Bay for the last 30 years, said she had never seen anything like it.

"It was so surreal," she said. "It's such an incredible waste - it could've fed the whole northern tip of the Coromandel."
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Hourglass

Now HUNDREDS More Birds Fall from the Sky in Kentucky and Louisiana and Tens of THOUSANDS of Dead Fish Wash Ashore


Daily Mail Reporter
Wed, 05 Jan 2011 12:46 UTC
More dead birds and fish
© AP PhotoHundreds of dead birds lay along the side of the highway in Pointe Coupee Parish, Louisiana, about 300 miles south of the thousands dead in Arkansas
The mystery over thousands of birds raining from the sky in America deepened today after hundreds more plunged to their deaths in different parts of the country.

Scientists said that New Year's Eve fireworks might have been to blame for the 3,000 blackbirds that died in a small town in Arkansas.

But they were forced to order more tests last night after 500 birds plummeted to the ground 360 miles away in Louisiana on Monday and dozens more died in Kentucky.

And just a 100 miles away from the Arkansas mass bird kill, at least 83,000 dead and dying fish washed ashore - possibly as many as 100,000.

The Internet has been abuzz with conspiracy theories about secret government testing and a looming Armageddon.

Experts insist a link between the bizarre incidents is unlikely.

Comment: For more information and additional analysis of the strange events in Arkansas read

And They March! The Strange Tale of the Beebe Blackbirds

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Cloud Precipitation

Icy Rains Force 58,000 to Evacuate in Southern China


Reuters
Tue, 04 Jan 2011 22:41 UTC
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© ReutersFrozen plants are seen as vehicles travel on a highway in Guiyang, Guizhou province January 3, 2011.
Torrential icy rain across five provinces in southern China has forced 58,000 people to evacuate from their damaged homes, causing economic losses of $203.8 million, the ministry of civil affairs said on Wednesday.

Freezing rain has pummeled the provinces of Jiangxi, Hunan, Chongqing, Sichuan and Guizhou in the past few days, killing one person and causing more than 1,200 houses to collapse, the ministry added.

The harsh weather in southern China, where winter is usually relatively mild, has damaged 142,400 hectares of crops in the provinces that produce rice, timber and coal and caused economic losses of 1.35 billion yuan ($203.8 million) as of Tuesday, the ministry added.

In southwestern Guizhou province, 22,800 people were forced to evacuate from their homes on Tuesday, state news agency Xinhua reported.
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Igloo

More than 20,000 Evacuated from Homes in Southern China Due to Freezing Temperatures


The Associated Press
Tue, 04 Jan 2011 22:55 UTC
Image
© unknown
Freezing temperatures have forced the evacuation of more than 20,000 people from their homes in southern China, as the region braces for more temperature drops in the coming days.

Ice and sleet have collapsed the roofs of more than 200 homes and forced the evacuation of 22,800 people across the southern province of Guizhou, the official Xinhua News Agency reported late Tuesday. Thousands of cars were stranded and some ice-covered roads were closed, the report said.

"People, especially those living in the mountains and the elderly, are being evacuated from their homes," a Guizhou Meteorological Bureau official, surnamed Zhao, said Wednesday. "Roads and homes with poor infrastructure are being impacted by the icy conditions."
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Bizarro Earth

UK: Thousands of Crabs Die Along Thanet's Coast


This Is Kent, UK
Tue, 04 Jan 2011 12:57 UTC
Thousands of dead crabs and mysterious deposits of black sand have littered the Thanet coastline.

Environmental experts believe the cold weather is again to blame for the deaths of velvet swimming crabs, which have been found at Palm, Walpole and Westbrook Bays.

In January 2010, the dead bodies of 30,000 to 40,000 of the crabs - also known as devil crabs - came ashore.

Volunteer coastal warden, Tony Sykes said: "We suspect that climate change and warmer weather has lured the crabs towards the shoreline.

"They could also be attracted to these waters looking for kelp, to feed on.

"We believe the sudden temperature drop causes the crabs to suffer from hypothermia and die."
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Bizarro Earth

US: Thousands Of Fish Dead In Spruce Creek, Florida


WFTV
Tue, 04 Jan 2011 17:09 UTC
Volusia County -- Thousands of dead fish are floating in Volusia County Tuesday. They were all in Spruce Creek in Port Orange. The fish kill is unusual, according to people who live along the creek, because it's warm.

It's been a week since there were freezing temperatures, but there are fish lining the banks. Some said it's the worst kill they've ever seen; thousands of fish lined the twists and turns of Spruce Creek.

The sheer number of fish and the smell were both overwhelming.

"It was fun last night trying to sleep with the smell going on," said resident Sunny Morningstar.

"Even with your windows closed and everything?" WFTV reporter Jason Allen asked.

"Yes, yes," Morningstar said.

Buzzards and pelicans flocked to the site Tuesday and swarmed above the water. They filled trees and private boat docks and waited at the water's edge for an easy meal.

Kayakers on the creek told WFTV, that during their five-hour paddle, they'd seen fish around every bend and it appeared to be one of the most extensive kills they had seen.
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Bizarro Earth

Canada: Hundreds of Dead Fish 'A Natural Occurrence'

Shawn Jeffords
Toronto Sun
Tue, 04 Jan 2011 15:42 UTC
Sarnia, Ontario. - Hundreds of dead fish that washed up on shore in the north end of the St. Clair River is a natural occurrence and not the result of a chemical spill, a government officials say.

Ministry of Natural Resources spokesperson Jolanta Kowalski confirmed that both the MNR and environment ministry were alerted to a massive die-off of gizzard shad fish late last week.

"We think it's a natural occurrence," Kowalski said. "They died off as a result of temperature shock because we had that really warm weekend ... and then it quickly cooled off again."

Kowalski said such die-offs are not unusual but it typically happens in the spring.

Only one species was affected, further supporting the idea it was a natural occurrence, she said.

"There was nothing to indicate that it was man-made."
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Camcorder

Video: Oil Spill on Washington's Gig Harbor Waterfront


NWCN.com
Tue, 04 Jan 2011 12:59 UTC

Police are trying to find the source of an oil spill on the city side of the waterfront.

The view from SkyKING shows oil spread over a large area around residential docks.
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Fish

U.S.: Maryland Fish Kill Caused By 'Cold Stress'


WBAL TV
Mon, 03 Jan 2011 16:54 UTC

The Maryland Department of the Environment said that tens of thousands of small fish have died in the Chesapeake Bay due to the stress of the cold water.

MDE spokeswoman Dawn Stolzfus said reports of a fish kill started coming in last week from Calvert County and Kent Island.
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