Animals
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Attention

Dead humpback whale found on North Carolina coast


wncn.com
Wed, 27 Jan 2016 19:22 UTC
Dead humpback whale
© WECT Dead humpback whale
A beached whale was discovered on the shore at Kure Beach Wednesday.

According to Kure Beach Police, the whale was found about two blocks south of the Kure Beach Fish Pier around 6:00 a.m.

William McClellan of the University of North Carolina Wilmington says the whale was a baby humpback between 1 and 2 years old. He says the whale was very thin and appeared to have been sick for some time.

Officials say about two dozen dead whales wash up on the North Carolina coast per year. UNCW has been notified.


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Fish

Emirati sailor recounts shark attack on his fishing boat; predator leaps aboard


Gulf Digital News
Wed, 27 Jan 2016 15:27 UTC
shark
© Emarat Al YoumThe two-ton shark has been mummified to be displayed for visitors at the Marine Heritage Museum.
A two-tonne, 4-metre shark attacked an Emirati sailor and his crew of five on the deck of their fishing boat at Fujairah coastline.

The Emirati sailor recalled the horrific incident that took place in the early hours of Sunday when the shark suddenly jumped into the boat.

According to Hamza Al Sharaa, the Emirati sailor, the shark seemed hungry and was trying to find anything to eat.

"It was 2 am and we were 28 miles away from the shore," he told The National.

"One of our crew members was fixing the fishing rope on the boat when the shark jumped out of the water from his back trying to eat him and, in seconds, it was in the middle of the boat after it hit one of the boat barriers," he said adding that the shark leapt three metres out of the water to get onto the boat.

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Bug

Biggest plague of locusts in 60 years strikes northern Argentina

Jonathon Gilbert
New York Times
Mon, 25 Jan 2016 14:10 UTC
swarm of locusts
© SENASA A swarm of locusts in September in the Lavalle area of Santiago del Estero Province, Argentina. Farmers last year reported seeing swarms that were four miles wide and two miles high. Credit
Farmers and fumigators in Argentina are running out of time as they scramble to control the country's worst plague of locusts in more than half a century, officials warned on Monday.

The provincial authorities and Senasa, the government's agricultural inspection agency, have intensified their efforts to exterminate swarms of the insects in the dry forests of northern Argentina. But their attempts might not be enough to prevent the locusts from developing into a flying throng in the coming days — when they will then threaten to devour crops like sunflowers and cotton, and grasslands for cattle grazing.

"It's the worst explosion in the last 60 years," Diego Quiroga, the agriculture agency's chief of vegetative protection, said in a telephone interview. "It's impossible to eradicate; the plague has already established itself. We're just acting to make sure it's the smallest it can be and does the least damage possible."

Small pockets of locusts, which first appeared last June, at the start of winter in the Southern Hemisphere, have spread across an area of northern Argentina about the size of Delaware. The mild and rainy winter here created comfortable breeding conditions for the locusts; their surge outpaced the ability of the authorities to control the spread of the insects.
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Attention

Thousands of starfish wash ashore at Port St. Joe, Florida

Zak Dahlheimer
wjhg.com
Mon, 25 Jan 2016 14:48 UTC
Dead starfish
Dead starfish
For Bud and Susan Whiten, a stroll on the beach in Port St. Joe early Sunday afternoon turned out to be a little fishy.

"We walk this beach every day if we can, preferably at low tide, looking for shell, coral, whatever we can see because it's a beautiful nature area," Susan Whiten said.

But they said their trip to the beach left them star struck.

"We saw what looked to be a whole lot of shells that had washed up, but it was actually thousands of starfish," Whiten said. "I just couldn't imagine that there would be any starfish left as many as we saw. It was just unbelievable."

"I've never seen it like this before," Mike Forbess, a resident from Callaway, said. "There's just thousands upon thousands of them. We walked on the beach for maybe a quarter mile, and it was just solid dead starfish."

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Binoculars

Wrong time, wrong place: Dark-Sided Flycatcher from east Asia found wintering on Iceland


Iceland Monitor
Mon, 25 Jan 2016 13:54 UTC
Dark-sided Flycatcher
Dark-sided Flycatcher

"I had no idea what kind of bird we were looking at, it was so weird," says ornithologist Brynjúlfur Brynjúlfsson at the South East Iceland Bird Watching Centre. He is the first person to have spotted a Dark-Sided Flycatcher (Muscicapa sibirica) in Western Europe.

The species, according to Wikipedia, breeds in South-East Siberia west to beyond Lake Baikai as well as in Mongolia, China, North Korea and Japan.

Their wintering range includes India, Bangladesh, southern China, Taiwan, Sumatra, Java, Borneo and the Philippines. Vagrant birds have been previously recorded as far as Alaska and Bermuda.
Dark-Sided Flycatcher
© Björn ArnarsonThe Dark-Sided Flycatcher is a resident of Asia.
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Bell

Flooding in Argentina leaves coastal areas crawling with thousands of snakes


News 24
Mon, 18 Jan 2016 11:27 UTC
buenos aires`
© REUTERS/ Enrique MarcarianSnake invasion off the coast of Buenos Aires
An invasion of poisonous snakes washed downriver in recent floods forced authorities to close beaches to summer holidaymakers in northern Argentina, officials said on Monday.

Floodwaters in the Rio Plata and Rio Parana carried a species of water lily and with it countless crawling, slithering creatures, south to beaches at the mouths of those rivers near Buenos Aires.

"We are raising awareness of the risk and danger present today. There are otters and species of snakes that are poisonous," said Matias Leyes, an official in the coastal town of Quilmes, south of the capital.

"The beaches of Quilmes have been closed as a precaution. We were cleaning up the coast during the week and while doing so we saw the snakes under the water lilies."
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Attention

5th dead sperm whale found on beach in UK: 17th for the North Sea region this month

Josh Halliday
The Guardian
Mon, 25 Jan 2016 18:42 UTC
Dead sperm whale
© Dan Kitwood/Getty ImagesA member of the public poses alongside one of three sperm whales found on a beach near Skegness.
A fifth dead whale has been found washed up on the east coast of England, several miles from where four whales were found over the weekend.

The whale, thought to be from the same pod as those found at the weekend, was discovered stranded on the beach in Wainfleet, Lincolnshire, five miles south of Skegness.

A member of the public spotted the beached whale on Monday afternoon further down the coast from where three dead sperm whales washed up in the early hours of Sunday. The three whales were from the same pod as one that died on Hunstanton beach in Norfolk.

Experts are investigating whether they are linked to 12 sperm whales that have washed up on the Dutch island of Texel and the German islands of Wangerooge and Helgoland since 11 January.

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Smiley

Film of excited panda rolling around and absolutely LOVING the snow from freak blizzard

Paul Harper
Daily Mirror, UK
Sun, 24 Jan 2016 19:46 UTC
Panda
Loving it: Tian Tian can't get enough of the snow in Washington DC
Heartwarming video has been captured of a panda absolutely loving its time in snow.

The panda rolls around with a beaming smile, almost basking in the snow.

The footage was taken at the Smithsonian National Zoological Park in Washington, DC, after the heavy snowfall today sparked by Storm Jonas.

The animal in question is Tian Tian, whose name means 'more and more'.

He excitedly rolls and slides in the snow as he enjoys the weather that has hit the United States Middle Atlantic region, causing a shut down in the nation's capital.

Tian Tian is playful and happy as he throws the white stuff over him.

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Attention

3 more sperm whales wash up along the North Sea coast at Skegness beach, UK

Chloe Farand
The Independent, UK
Sun, 24 Jan 2016 15:38 UTC
dEAD SPERM WHALES
Two of the dead sperm whales
Whales are thought to be part of same pod as another discovered on the Norfolk coast on Friday

Three dead sperm whales have been discovered washed up on the Lincolnshire coast.

One of the whales was found dead on Skegness beach at about 6.30am on Sunday morning, while the two others were discovered a few miles south at about 8.30pm on Saturday evening.

Coastguard rescue teams from Sekegness and Chapel St Leonards were called to cordon off the area and members of the public are being advised not to come close to the dead animals.
We are dealing with 3 #Whales washed ashore on Skegness beach.People are asked not to go near to them.We will remove once we have permission

— EastLindseyDC (@EastLindseyDC) January 24, 2016

Comment: The other recent reports from the North Sea region: Rescuers fail to save stranded sperm whale on beach in Hunstanton, UK

Update: 2 more sperm whales found dead on Dutch beach

5 sperm whales die on Texel beach, Netherlands

Unusual stranding of 2 giant sperm whales on same beach at Wangerooge, Germany

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Attention

Whale calf washes up on Marbella beach, Spain


surinenglish.com
Fri, 22 Jan 2016 15:11 UTC
The whale calf is the latest in a succession of dead or sick marine animals washed up on Marbella beaches

Dead whale calf found on beach at La Cabane
Dead whale calf found on beach at La Cabane
Passersby on the beach at Los Monteros on Tuesday came across a dead whale calf on the shore. The two-metre long sea mammal showed no sign of injury leading experts to believe it was suffering from some kind of disease. The calf was removed from the beach and incinerated after an autopsy had been carried out.

The whale calf is the latest in a succession of dead or sick marine animals washed up on Marbella beaches. A few weeks ago, a dead giant turtle appeared in El Alicate.
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