Earth Changes

36 whales wash up on west coast of India in 2 years

Rohit Alok
The Indian Express
Mon, 12 Jun 2017 19:42 UTC

This Bryde’s whale carcass washed ashore on Juhu beach in January 2016.

Last month, an international group of marine biologists submitted a report to the International Whaling Commission, Slovenia, highlighting an alarming rise in the number of whales washing ashore to India's west coast in the last two years. The report cited 16 instances of whale mortality along the west coast in 2015, followed by 20 in 2016. This was hugely more than in any year between 2001 and 2014, when the number of whale deaths never exceeded four.

From the emaciated look of the carcasses washed ashore in recent years, researchers believe that they were short of food and moved closer to the shores looking for fish. They say the fish population in the sea has reduced drastically due to a sharp decrease in dissolved oxygen in the water. The team that wrote the report included three members of the Konkan Cetacean Research Team (KCRT) besides researchers of James Cook University in Australia, the Terra Marine Research Institute in Bangalore and the Department of Oceanography of the University of Washington in Seattle.

19-year-old surfer bitten by shark in Ponce Inlet, Florida

Janet Brindle Reddick
Orlando Sentinel
Sat, 10 Jun 2017 15:08 UTC

A 19-year-old Ponce Inlet surfer was bitten by a shark while in waist-deep water just before 10 a.m. Saturday, but suffered non-life threatening injuries.

The man was just north of the jetty at the time of the incident, according to Tamra Marris, spokeswoman for the Volusia County Beach Safety Ocean Rescue.

Marris said no one saw the shark, but the bite on the man's foot was "consistent with a shark bite." He was taken to the hospital for treatment.

Bodyboarder attacked by 4m great white shark off Bunbury, Western Australia

Hannah Barry
WA Today
Sun, 11 Jun 2017 14:51 UTC

A man has been knocked off his bodyboard by a four-metre great white shark while surfing at Point Casuarina in Bunbury on Sunday morning.

The man was less than 50 metres offshore at the beach when the shark bumped his board at about 8.30am.

Witness Martin Lottering told WAtoday he was in the look-out tower at the time.

"I took my binoculars to have a look at the fishing boats out on the water," he said.

"I spent some time watching the guys in the water on their bodyboards, and eventually I noticed a swirling and thrashing in the water next to one of the guys.

70-year-old woman mauled by her son's dogs for 30 minutes in Alexander City, Alabama

Mitch Sneed
The Outlook
Sat, 10 Jun 2017 11:23 UTC

A 70-year-old Alexander City woman remains hospitalized following surgery after she was brutally attacked for almost 30 minutes by two bulldogs that belonged to her son.

Alexander City Police Department Animal Control Officer Scott Wright was the first officer on the scene at 5:40 p.m. Thursday evening and encountered the dogs still actively mauling the woman and threating fire department personnel who responded to the Old Kellyton Road home.

"It was the worst dog attack situation that I have ever encountered," Wright said. "It appears to be a totally unprovoked attack on a woman who was known to the animals. For almost 30 minutes they continued to bite and maul her despite her attempts to fight them off.

"She used her hands, legs, a brick and two-by-fours to try to keep them away but they just kept coming."

More than 100-year rainfall record broken in Palm Beach County, Florida

Kimberly Miller
My Palm Beach Post (blog)
Wed, 07 Jun 2017 08:29 UTC

Tuesday's deluge broke rainfall records across South Florida including in West Palm Beach where a more than century-old record was dashed.

At Palm Beach International Airport, 4.18 inches of rain was measured Tuesday, a whopping 1.18 inches higher than the previous record of 3 inches set in 1904.

The cloudy skies also helped break a temperature record. The daytime high only reached 77 degrees at the airport, which breaks the record low maximum temperature of 81 degrees set in 1938.

Fort Lauderdale rainfall topped out at 4.78 inches, breaking a 1926 record of 1.96. In Naples, 3.37 inches fell Tuesday, breaking a 1992 record of 2.40 inches.

The big winner through Wednesday was Boca Raton. One South Florida Water Management District gauge measured a whopping 10.78 inches.

Comment: Powerful storm heading for South Florida days after torrential rains cause flooding

25% drop in wheat output across USA

Adapt 2030
YouTube
Sat, 10 Jun 2017 07:34 UTC

The USDA just released new numbers for losses after the out of season blizzard and unseasonable cold rolled across the main wheat growing region of the USA., the numbers of now are at least 25% loss of the winter and red wheat crops. Look for increased prices from this point forward indefinitely as the grand solar minimum intensifies. Ethereum prices seem to rise when the crop losses are announced, but that could be due to meetings in China that will determine the fate of block-chain usage in Asia through June.

Six killed by lightning strikes in Maharashtra, India

India Today
Sat, 10 Jun 2017 18:10 UTC

Six persons were killed when lightning struck them in separate incidents in Maharashtra, officials said today.

In the first incident, four persons were killed after being struck by lightning in Dhanur village in Gadchiroli district last evening, District Disaster management officer Krishna Reddy told PTI.

A group of 13 villagers were attending a pooja at an agricultural farm when lightning struck them, he said.

All the 13 injured were rushed to a government health centre in Aheri, where four were declared brought dead, Reddy added.

The deceased have been identified as Sandip Khusnake (30), Ritesh Kinake (25) Jankiram Todsam (43) and Shyamrao Kanake (58), the official added.

Comment: Elsewhere in India over the last few days a bolt killed 3 family members in Odisha state while 2 women were killed by another strike in Meghalaya.

Three volcanoes are restless on the Alaska Peninsula

Avery Lill
kdlg.org
Fri, 09 Jun 2017 14:28 UTC

A volcanic plume from Bogoslof on June 5, 2017

Bogoslof volcano has a new lava dome. Cleveland volcano continues to put up ash and extrude lava, and the alert level for Pavlof volcano was raised to "advisory."

Over the last week there has been quite a bit of volcanic activity along the Alaska Peninsula. The Bogoslof, Cleveland, and Pavlof volcanoes are all showing signs of unrest. Most recently, the Bogoslof volcano erupted briefly Wednesday around 9:30 p.m.

"Bogoslof has been continuing its eruptive activity that started in December 2016 with a series of small activities," says Jessica Larsen, a geologist with the Alaska Volcano Observatory. "Now we have new evidence that there's a lava dome growing at the Bogoslof Island."

A lava dome is a mound of lava that has been extruded from the volcano. This is characteristic of previous Bogoslof explosive periods.

1-year-old boy dies following mauling by Rottweiler in Phoenix, Arizona

Trisha Hendricks
12news.com
Sat, 10 Jun 2017 13:07 UTC

A 1-year-old boy died after a dog attack in a South Phoenix home.

A fire official said a grandmother was watching the child at the time of the incident. Police said she was at home doing laundry when she put down the baby boy. The woman opened a house door and the dog got inside the room the boy was in, according to police.

Officers said the dog grabbed the baby and dragged him outside.

A Phoenix police officer shot the Rottweiler dog to make it stop attacking the boy. The boy, identified as Marcos Raya Junior, was taken to a local trauma center in extremely critical condition, and later pronounced dead.

Marcos Raya Junior's family is devastated. His mom told 12 News he was their miracle baby and that she prayed for him for 11 years. They called him MJ.

Comment: A couple of days earlier than the above incident 2 Rottweilers savagely attacked a 7-year-old boy in Niagara Falls, New York:

A 7-year-old boy, brutally attacked by two rottweilers in Niagara Falls, is fighting for his life. Kaeden Mitchell's mother says her son was at his babysitter's house on 70th Street where the two dogs are normally locked up when kids are around.

Vikki Avino says she got a call at work Wednesday afternoon that the dogs broke out of their cage as Kaeden and a 4-year-old girl were outside and attacked. Avino says the little girl managed to climb over a fence and get away, and the dogs' owner tried to intervene and shield Mitchell, but the dogs were relentless.

"He had had his ears ripped off, his eyelids, he's got big holes in his neck. He has lacerations everywhere. Legs, arms, stomach, neck head," she said by phone.

Avino says her son has already had several surgeries at a Buffalo hospital, with more expected.

Circumzenithal arc, sun dogs seen over England's Waveney Valley

Ian Carstairs
iwitness24.co.uk
Wed, 07 Jun 2017 13:15 UTC

Circumzenithal arc over Harleston in the Waveney Valley

As the storm approached a circumzenithal arc and sun dogs formed ahead of the thicker clouds .