Earth ChangesS


Attention

Dead Humpback whale found on Corolla beach, North Carolina

Jeff Hampton
hamptonroads.com
Wed, 04 Feb 2015 20:25 UTC
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© Karen Clark | Outer Banks Center for Wildlife EducationA 29-foot female juvenile humpack whale was found near the Lighthouse Road beach access in Corolla, N.C.
Scientists today examined a dead female humpback whale that washed ashore Tuesday afternoon.

The juvenile was found near the Lighthouse Road beach access in Corolla with entanglement scars from fishing nets.

The whale, which was about 30 feet long and weighed 25,000 pounds, otherwise appeared healthy and had recently eaten menhaden, said William McLellan, the North Carolina State Stranding Coordinator.

Whale strandings -- especially this time of year -- are not uncommon and happen frequently on the Outer Banks, more so than anywhere else on the East Coast, he said. There have been 100 whale strandings in 15 years, he said.
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Attention

Mass die-off of hundreds of pigeons alarm biologists in California

Peter Fimrite
San Francisco Chronicle
Mon, 02 Feb 2015 16:29 UTC
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© Krysta RogersCalifornia's only native pigeon is the band-tailed pigeon, which spends springs and summer in the Bay Area and other parts of Northern California
An alarming increase in the number of dead and dying band-tailed pigeons along the California coast has prompted wildlife biologists to ask the public for help documenting the apparent decline of the only native pigeon left in the state.

At least 1,000 of the pigeons, which winter in Central and Southern California, have been found dead in Santa Clara and Santa Barbara counties since December, the apparent victims of a parasite spread by the common rock pigeon, said Krysta Rogers, an environmental scientist with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.

The sudden increase in mortality is disturbing, Rogers said, because the closest living relative to the extinct passenger pigeon has been struggling for decades to recover from rampant hunting, habitat loss and other environmental problems.
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Binoculars

Sea duck that is native to Northern Europe turns up off California coast

Candase Chambers
krcrtv.com
Wed, 04 Feb 2015 15:03 UTC
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Common Scoter.
Bird watchers from across the country traveled to the Crescent City Harbor for the first North American sighting of the Common Scoter on Wednesday.

The Common Scoter is a sea duck that is native to Northern Europe. The rare North American Common Scoter sighting not only brought out local bird watchers, but bird watchers from North Carolina.

"This is very important for me; it's pretty much all I live for," Keith Camburn, a bird watcher who traveled from North Carolina, said.

Harbor Master, Charlie Helms of the Crescent City Harbor District, said the Common Scoter sighting brought a crowd he's never seen at the harbor.
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Cloud Lightning

Lightning bolt kills dad out walking dog in Bayswater, Australia

Gabrielle Knowles and Claire Tyrrell
au.news.yahoo.com
Thu, 05 Feb 2015 11:08 UTC
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Belmont father Vincent Capriotti died after being struck by lightning while walking with his "best mate" Juke in a Bayswater park on Tuesday night.

The 58-year-old's son Grant said yesterday his family was struggling to believe that an "horrific act of nature" had taken his life.

"The family is absolutely devastated," he said. "We've lost the most loving and caring man in the entire universe.

"I don't think we'll ever recover from this."

But he said they were trying to draw some comfort from knowing that his daily walk with his black kelpie around local parks and the river was his favourite thing to do.
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Bizarro Earth

USGS: Earthquake Magnitude 6.0 - South of Panama


US Geological Survey
Thu, 05 Feb 2015 06:29 UTC
Panama Quake_050215
© USGS
Event Time
2015-02-05 04:40:54 (UTC)

Times in other timezones

Nearby Cities
  1. 314km (195mi) S of Punta de Burica, Panama
  2. 341km (212mi) S of Puerto Armuelles, Panama
  3. 351km (218mi) S of Pedregal, Panama
  4. 358km (222mi) S of David, Panama
  5. 545km (339mi) SSE of San Jose, Costa Rica
Scientific Data
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Snowflake

New statewide snowfall record set in Eastport, Maine: Over 6ft in 10 days

Bill Trotter
Bangor Daily News
Wed, 04 Feb 2015 21:46 UTC
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© Don DunbarSnow was piled up on sidewalks of Eastport on Tuesday, after a major storm brought several inches of snow to the small city in Washington County.
Seventy-six inches and counting.

That's how much snow has fallen in Eastport since Jan. 25, which is a new 10-day record for documented snowfall anywhere in Maine. The previous record of 71 inches was set more than 50 years ago at Ripogenus Dam, just west of Baxter State Park in Piscataquis County, over a 10-day period, from late December 1962 to early January 1963, according to the National Weather Service.

Victor Nouhan, a forecaster with the National Weather Service in Caribou, emphasized Wednesday the amount of data and information available to the federal agency is limited, so he cannot say whether Eastport's 76 inches is the most snowfall ever in Maine in a week and a half. He said the Fryeburg area got an exceptionally heavy dumping of snow in February 1969, which may rival the amount that officially has been measured in Eastport.
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Wolf

As black bear attacks increase, Florida may remove hunting ban


RT
Wed, 04 Feb 2015 19:10 UTC
black bears
© Reuters / Rafael C. Torres
Black bear attacks are on the rise in Florida, prompting the state to contemplate how to keep the growing population in check. The government may remove a 20-year ban on hunting the animal as bears increasingly start to be seen as a suburban menace.

In December, two Floridians were attacked by bears. At the beginning of the month, 68-year-old Jeanne Barber was walking her dog when it spotted a bear at a construction dumpster, the Orlando Sentinel reported.

The dog excitedly yanked at the leash, pulling her to the ground. Then the bear attacked, clamping its jaw around her arm. Her injuries were not life-threatening, but hers was the third attack in Central Florida's Seminole County over the past year.

Less than three weeks later, a 15-year-old was attacked in the Panhandle's Franklin County. Leah Rader was walking her dog, when it spotted a bear.

Comment: Considering that bear attacks appear to be growing globally, it is not surprising that wildlife management officials are seeking some kind of solution. The animal kingdom has been acting strangely, with all types of both wild animals and pets attacking people, often with no provocation. The articles below are just a few examples of recent bear attacks SOTT has been collecting:

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Attention

Bottlenose dolphin dies off Sunny Isles Beach, Florida

Hatzel Vela
local10.com
Tue, 03 Feb 2015 21:12 UTC
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The bottlenose dolphin seen earlier.
A bottlenose dolphin was shivering off of Sunny Isles Beach Tuesday afternoon. Three rescuers stood in the water with the mammal until it died.

The light gray dolphin was stranded on the ocean near the Trump International Beach Resort, 18001 Collins Ave. The death comes as scientists continue to study a measles epidemic of unprecedented proportions that is targeting bottlenose dolphins along the east coast.

Laura Diaz, a biologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said the bottlenose dolphin was likely suffering from measles, also known as morbilli-virus.

Comment: See also: Update: Virus has now killed over 1,000 bottlenose dolphins along U.S. East coast in 2013

High number of Bottlenose dolphins dying off northeastern USA

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Road Cone

Landslide smashes retaining wall at Italy's historic Pompeii site


ABC News
Wed, 04 Feb 2015 13:15 UTC
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© AP/Cesare Abbate, Ansa
Heavy rains have provoked landslide at the ancient Italian site of Pompeii, partially collapsing a retaining wall and sending rubble into a garden at the house of Severus.

Italian officials on Wednesday said the affected area falls within the "Great Pompeii" joint EU-Italian restoration project and had been already closed to the public.

Pompeii, the ancient Roman city encased in volcanic ash near Mount Vesuvius, south of Naples, has suffered numerous collapses of walls and buildings in recent years, often due to rain. The problems have attracted widespread attention to Italy's difficulties in maintaining its cultural treasures.

Pompeii officials said firefighters were assessing the ancient site to determine areas at particular risk for collapse in a bid to shore them up.
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Cloud Precipitation

Southern Europe flooding update: Evacuations in Macedonia and Turkey

Richard Davies
floodlist.com
Tue, 03 Feb 2015 20:11 UTC
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© Strshlen Widespread flooding in in Macedonia. , Krivogaštani Municipality is a municipality in western Republic of Macedonia.
The heavy rain that swept across southern Europe over the last few days has left 100,000 people in the Republic of Macedonia affected by flooding.

The worst affected areas are the southern, southeastern, southwestern, and central parts of the country.

Agricultural land, electrical infrastructure, roads, and a large number of homes have been severely affected.

As local government officials work to mitigate the immediate damage, World Health Organisation experts are working closely with the national health authorities to determine the support the country needs.

In a statement today, WHO said:
WHO/Europe has joined national disaster response officials in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia to respond to the floods that have affected a large population of the country. Experts from WHO and national authorities took stock of the situation at a crisis operations meeting in Kocani city, located in the eastern part of the country.
Albania, Bulgaria and Greece, as well as Macedonia have all been affected by the flooding, which first struck over the weekend of 31 January 2015.

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