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Cause of mass fish kills in two south coast waterways investigated in New South Wales, Australia

Alasdair McDonald and Claudia Ferguson
The Canberra Times
Fri, 15 Mar 2019 20:55 UTC
Greens Candidate for Bega Will Douglas at Meringo Lagoon inspecting the dead fish.
© Gillianne Tedder
Greens Candidate for Bega Will Douglas at Meringo Lagoon inspecting the dead fish.
High temperatures have been blamed for the deaths of hundreds of fish in two south coast waterways.

The Department of Primary Industries is investigating the fish kills at Meringo, near Moruya, and Wallagoot Lake at Tathra.

It is believed low water levels were the cause of hundreds of dead fish at Meringo, while a combination of low oxygen levels, high water temperature and changes to the salinity caused by recent rainfall led to mass deaths of fish at Wallagoot Lake this week.

NSW Upper House MP David Shoebridge reported hundreds of dead bream, eels, mullet, fingerlings and prawns were found in the saline coastal lagoon near Moruya, which is intermittently closed to the ocean.
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Doberman

Video captures woman getting attacked by pack of 10 dogs in St. Francis County, Arkansas


wvlt.tv
Thu, 14 Mar 2019 12:35 UTC
dog attack
An Arkansas woman said she was dragged behind a house and attacked by a pack of dogs while out walking. A passerby captured video.

Miesha Bryant said she couldn't believe there was a woman under the pack of dogs when she was driving down Country Road 323. "As I got closer, I seen that it was a human leg," Bryant said.

Bryant said she started honking her horn, hollered and tried everything to scare off the dogs.

"Once I started stomping that's when some of them backed away. That's when I got out of the car and was like go on, go on," she said.

CBS affiliate WREG reported that the victim's mother, Lisa Ennis, said the doctor told the family that her daughter had more dog bites than he could count.

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Attention

2 dead gray whales wash ashore in San Francisco Bay


The Press Democrat
Thu, 14 Mar 2019 10:55 UTC
Dead gray whale
© Cara Field/The Marine Mammal Center
Marine experts say two dead gray whales were found in the San Francisco Bay this week and that one of them died from severe malnutrition.

The Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito said Thursday scientists were unable to determine a cause of death for the other whale.

A team conducted necropsies on the 1-year-old, 23-foot-long female whales Tuesday at Angel Island State Park.


Comment: 3 individuals of the same species also washed up at the same location of Angel Island last year.

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Doberman

Family dogs kill 53-year-old man in Santa Fe, New Mexico


abc13.com
Thu, 14 Mar 2019 10:37 UTC
canine attack
© Angela Antunes / CC by 2.0
The Galveston County Sheriff's Office says a man was mauled to death by his relative's dogs.

Deputies were called to the 5600 block of Highland Road, just outside Santa Fe, around 3:50 p.m.

They say a man called to get help for his brother, who was attacked by three dogs.

"Tragic situation for the family for sure," said Galveston County Sheriff Henry Trochesset. "The family is distraught, they were at the hospital with their loved one."

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Sherlock

Horseshoe crab throws theory of arachnid evolution into disarray

Kelly April Tyrrell
Phys.org
Sat, 09 Mar 2019 12:00 UTC
horseshoe crab
© Jesús Ballesteros
University of Wisconsin-Madison postdoctoral researcher Jesús Ballesteros holds a small horseshoe crab. A study he led with Integrative Biology Professor Prashant Sharma used robust genetic analysis to demonstrate that horseshoe crabs are arachnids like spiders, scorpions and ticks.
Blue-blooded and armored with 10 spindly legs, horseshoe crabs have perhaps always seemed a bit out of place.

First thought to be closely related to crabs, lobsters and other crustaceans, in 1881 evolutionary biologist E. Ray Lankester placed them solidly in a group more similar to spiders and scorpions. Horseshoe crabs have since been thought to be ancestors of the arachnids, but molecular sequence data have always been sparse enough to cast doubt.

University of Wisconsin-Madison evolutionary biologists Jesús Ballesteros and Prashant Sharma hope, then, that their recent study published in the journal Systematic Biology helps firmly plant ancient horseshoe crabs within the arachnid family tree.

By analyzing troves of genetic data and considering a vast number of possible ways to examine it, the scientists now have a high degree of confidence that horseshoe crabs do indeed belong within the arachnids.

Comment: It seems that were these evolutionary biologists to question their foundational theory for evolution, things may become a little less 'complicated': Why Darwinism Is Wrong, Dead Wrong - Part 1: Intelligent Design and Information

See also: And check out SOTT radio's:

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Info

Tiny insect uses plant stems to communicate

Andrew Masterson
Cosmos Magazine
Wed, 13 Mar 2019 17:42 UTC
Planthopper
© WIKIPEDIA
A happy-snapping planthopper.
A small-sized but common group of insects known as planthoppers - comprising the order Fulgoromorpha - advertise their presence to potential mates by deploying a unique, and only now discovered, organ to send long-distance messages along plant stems.

There are more than 12,000 species of planthopper worldwide, and their secret communication device - dubbed the "snapping organ" - was found by researchers led by zoologist Leonidas-Romanos Davranoglou from the University of Oxford in the UK while examining one of them, Agalmatium bilobum.

Locating the organ answered a key question about the group. How could each insect produce a sustained thrumming vibration along plant stems when its musculature was simply not capable of moving fast enough to produce it?

The answer, Davranoglou and colleagues found, lies in the mechanics of the snapping organ.

It functions through the explosive release stored elastic energy. A catapult provides a reasonable approximation, except that for the planthoppers the release forms one half of a high-speed cycle of capture and release that results in a shaking movement of the abdomen and the narrowcast of mating signals.
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Doberman

Man injured by dogs dies shortly afterwards in Lubbock, Texas

Luke Matsik
kfyo.com
Sat, 09 Mar 2019 14:02 UTC
canine attack
© Angela Antunes / CC by 2.0
The unidentified man who was injured in a dog attack Friday afternoon has died from what police are calling a medical incident.

Lubbock Police responded to a dog-related incident in the 7900 block of Oak Avenue at around 5:30 p.m. Friday. KAMC News reports that 2 dogs were fighting and one person was trying to break up the fight.

According to a statement from LPD, the man had minor injuries to his hands after breaking up the dogs, but several minutes later began feeling ill and had trouble breathing.

He was pronounced deceased at the scene.
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Cow

Signs and Portents: Two-headed calf born in Washington County, Tennessee


wjhl.com
Sat, 09 Mar 2019 19:55 UTC
Two-headed calf

Two-headed calf
Two-headed calf named 'Chance' born in Washington County, Tennessee

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Sun

'Falling out of trees': Dozens of dead possums blamed on extreme heat stress in Victoria, Australia

Lisa Cox
The Guardian
Thu, 07 Mar 2019 19:29 UTC
Wildlife rescuers found 127 dead and injured ringtail possums at Somers Beach in Victoria during a four-day heat spell.
© Wildlife rescuers found 127 dead and injure Alyse Huyton
Wildlife rescuers found 127 dead and injured ringtail possums at Somers Beach in Victoria during a four-day heat spell.
Rescuers found 127 ringtail possums along the shoreline and in the water on Victoria's Mornington Peninsula

More than 100 dead and injured ringtail possums have been found by wildlife rescuers along a single stretch of beach in Victoria in what ecologists say is becoming an annual occurrence due to extreme heat.

Rescuers and wildlife carers discovered 127 ringtail possums along the shoreline and in the water at Somers Beach on the Mornington Peninsula on Saturday during a four-day period that saw consistent temperatures in the high 30s, warm nights and bushfires in parts of the state.

Melanie Attard, a wildlife rescuer and foster carer with Aware Wildlife in Frankston, said rescuers suspected the animals had become so dehydrated and desperate they had left an area of scrub and come down to the beach and attempted to drink salt water.

"We assume they've come out due to the heat stress heading for the water in desperation," she said.
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Magnify

Every animal pulled from the deepest part of the ocean had plastic in its gut

Joe McCarthy & Erica Sanchez
Global Citizen
Thu, 28 Feb 2019 15:36 UTC
shrimp
© GPSEN
"What you put in the trench stays in the trench."

Stories of whales, turtles, and seabirds with guts filled with plastic have become increasingly common.

Recently, a team of scientists wanted to determine the extent of plastic pollution and its effects on animals by investigating the most remote regions of the ocean, sending vehicles to the deepest marine trenches to collect tiny amphipods - shrimp-like creatures - that scavenge for food in the harsh environment.

Comment: World's deepest plastic bag found at bottom of Mariana Trench - highlights spread of ocean pollution

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