Animals
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Attention

Whale found dead in Port Elizabeth harbor to be brought to Jersey City for necropsy

Michaelangelo Conte
The Jersey Journal
Tue, 15 Apr 2014 14:09 UTC
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© Reena Rose Sibayan/The Jersey JournalA whale that was found dead in New York Harbor was transported to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers facility at Caven Point Marine Terminal in Jersey City where marine veterinarians performed a necropsy to find out the cause of death, on April 16, 2014.
A 30- to 35-foot whale found dead in the water in the area of Port Elizabeth will be brought to Caven Point Terminal in Jersey City tomorrow where a necropsy will be performed, a spokesman for the Army Corps of Engineers said.

The Army Corps of Engineers was notified on Monday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration that the dead whale had been spotted, Corps spokesman Chris Gardner said today. The Corps has lashed the whale to one of its barges used to collect drifting debris in the harbor in order to keep the whale from disrupting ships' navigation, Gardner said.

Gardner said the whale will either be towed or lifted by a drift collection vessel and brought to Jersey City where it will be placed on land for the necropsy. He said he did know what type of whale it is but said officials have it narrowed down to several possible species.

The spokesman said he did not know if the whale had any visible signs of injury such as from a boat propeller and said that will be determined tomorrow. Gardner said the whale was not brought ashore today due to the rainy weather because the necropsy will be performed outdoors. Moving the whale tomorrow will be contingent on the weather as well.

Necropsy is another word for autopsy and is used with reference to animals.
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Attention

40-Foot gray whale washes up on Oregon Coast

Ian Forrest
kptv.com
Tue, 15 Apr 2014 13:44 UTC
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© Matt FletcherA dead gray whale washed ashore on the Oregon Coast on Tuesday.

A dead, decomposing 40-foot gray whale washed ashore in the Oregon Coast town of Seaside on Tuesday morning, and marine experts advise staying away from the massive carcass because it's "really nasty."

Keith Chandler, a marine mammal expert from the Seaside Aquarium, said the whale has been dead for "quite some time."

"It's really smelly. We're quite a ways from it and I can smell the whale," Chandler said.

Dr. Debbie Duffield from Portland State University will collect samples on the dead whale and try to determine its cause of death.

Once marine experts have finished collecting all the data they need, the city of Seaside will likely bury the whale. Chandler said it will be a challenge.
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Attention

Dead pilot whale washes up near Coopers Beach, Southampton

Tara Conry
Newsday
Mon, 14 Apr 2014 07:48 UTC
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© Riverhead FoundationA 15-foot dead pilot whale was discovered Sunday, April 13, 2014 on a beach in Southampton near Cryder Lane, according to the Riverhead Foundation for Marine Research and Preservation, which returned to the beach Monday to conduct a necropsy on the whale.
A 15-foot dead pilot whale was discovered Sunday on a beach in Southampton near Cryder Lane, according to the Riverhead Foundation for Marine Research and Preservation.

Robert DiGiovanni, the foundation's executive director and senior biologist, said researchers took a few samples Sunday, and that he was headed back to the beach Monday morning with a crew to conduct a necropsy on the whale.

"We'll do as much of a necropsy as we can, but it's going to have to remain on the beach," he said.

DiGiovanni said the Southampton Highway Department was able to move the animal further up on the beach, so it wouldn't wash away, but the whale is too large for researchers to take to the foundation's necropsy lab in Riverhead.

The team will look first for any external injuries, and then take more samples before disposing of it, DiGiovanni said.

DiGiovanni said the foundation usually sees one to two pilot whales wash ashore each year.
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Attention

Multitude of dead animals wash up on local beaches in Florida


actionnewsjax.com
Mon, 14 Apr 2014 07:18 UTC
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Dead marine life wash ashore along our local beaches.

There's something fishy going on in our local waters. No pun intended. According to The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission: six dolphins, a shark, a humpback whale and multiple manatees/sea turtles have washed up in the last two weeks.

"We know the dolphins are related," marine biologist Nadia Gordon said. "As far as the shark and see turtles, I can't answer that."

The morbillivirus is believed to be the cause of the dolphin deaths. The disease has claimed the lives of 80 in Northeast Florida since July 2013. On a bigger scale, 1200 dolphins have been found dead from New York to Florida since July- up from the average 180 a year.

Biologists still have work to do, but they're hoping they get a lead soon.

"We're hoping it will die off soon and we won't have to worry about it anymore," Gordon said.
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Snowflake Cold

Snowy Owls dying and having trouble migrating north due to prolonged cold weather

Ellisha Rader Mannering
webpronews.com
Mon, 14 Apr 2014 14:08 UTC
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It is time for many bird species to begin their spring migrations and Snowy Owls are among the many species that migrate. Although most birds migrate without any trouble it seems that more and more snowy owls are being found dead along their migration paths. While most ornithologists believe the recently reported Snowy Owls deaths are not related and only accidents, many are still studying the dead birds to be sure.

When a Snowy Owl wearing a GPS tracking device was found dead near Martha's Vineyard, many people became concerned and wanted to know why this bird and so many others were dying. Tufts University veterinary center and Norman Smith, who is an expert on Snowy Owls, decided to find out what caused the bird's death. They named the bird Sandy Neck.

The team examined the bird and released a report with their findings. The report said,

"The necropsy at Tufts showed no trauma except for a minor deep bruise in her left pectoral, no food in the proventriculus (stomach) or gizzard, and no signs of disease or unusual parasites. As Gus (Ben David) noted, she was in otherwise excellent condition - great muscle mass and fat deposits. Nor was there any water in the respiratory system. Mark Pokras (a veterinarian and professor at Tufts) said if he had to guess, she got swamped, swam to shore and went down from hypothermia - but also couldn't rule out drowning."
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Attention

Urgent hunt for Black Bear that mauled woman in garage

Liz Fields
abcnews.go.com
Sun, 13 Apr 2014 05:13 UTC
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© Getty ImagesBlack bears attack a Florida woman

The hunt is on today for a black bear who mauled a woman at her home in an upscale central Florida neighborhood, leaving her with injuries to her face, legs and torso and requiring her to get 40 stitches to the head.

Terri Frana of Lake Mary, Fla., went to her garage Saturday evening to grab bicycles for her children to ride down to their neighbor's house when the attack happened, according to her husband, Frank Frana.

As soon as the children left, Frana, 45, saw two bears in the driveway. She walked to the patio area where there were five bears eating trash that they had pulled out of the garage, her husband said.

"The bear got up on [its] hind legs and started to maul her, opened its jaws and put her head in the mouth and dragged her towards the woods," Frank Frana said. "Somehow she was able to pull herself out."

"The bears were various sizes so we think it's probably cubs of different maturity and perhaps a mama bear," the Seminole County Sheriff's Office told ABC News.
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Bizarro Earth

Northern Europe hit by most bee deaths - EU study


BBC News
Mon, 07 Apr 2014 13:37 UTC
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There is much concern about the widespread collapse of bee colonies
A new study covering 17 EU countries says that far more honeybees are dying in the UK and other parts of northern Europe than in Mediterranean countries.

The European Commission says it is Europe's most comprehensive study so far of bee colony deaths.

Winter mortality was especially high for bees in Belgium (33.6%) and the UK (29%) in 2012-13. But in spring-summer 2013 France was highest with 13.6%.

Bumblebees and other wild bees were not studied, nor were pesticide impacts.
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Attention

Dead juvenile pilot whale found on Searsport beach, Maine

Abigail Curtis
Bangor Daily News
Fri, 11 Apr 2014 12:41 UTC
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© Wayne HamiltonVolunteer firefighters worked to move a dead juvenile pilot whale Friday morning. The whale, which weighed about 500 pounds and did not show signs of propeller damage, will be studied by researchers at Allied Whale in Bar Harbor.
Several Searsport volunteer firefighters responded to a plea Friday morning for a lift assist down at the town dock.

What they didn't know was that they'd be lifting a whale - a 500-pound dead pilot whale, to be precise.

"[They had] not a clue," Officer Mike Larrivee of the Searsport Police Department said. "They all showed up and said 'oh boy, what are we doing here?'"

The dead whale, believed to be a female, had been found Thursday at the beach at the end of Lobster Lane, just east of Moose Point State Park. A man walking his dogs found the animal and called to report it. Larrivee then got in touch with Allied Whale, the marine mammal research arm of the College of the Atlantic, which helps Searsport with seals or other marine mammals. But this was something different, he said.
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Attention

Albany beachgoers warned after Humpback whale carcass attracts sharks, Australia

Jacob Kagi
abc.net.au
Sat, 12 Apr 2014 12:24 UTC
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© ABC: Stan ShawThe carcass of a one-year-old humpback whale is removed from Middleton Beach.
Authorities have warned beachgoers in Albany, on Western Australia's south coast, to exercise caution after sharks were attracted to the area by a whale carcass.

Middleton Beach was closed after the five-metre carcass, suspected to be a one-year-old humpback whale, was discovered this morning.

Heavy machinery was brought in to remove the dead whale from the popular swimming area.

Authorities believe it came ashore overnight whilst still alive, but died a few hours later.

Deon Utber from the Department of Parks and Wildlife said tissue samples from the whale would be taken for analysis.

"It was probably a calf returning from last season, it was obviously very malnourished," he said.

"A pod of humpback whales was seen out here this morning so this whale was probably from that pod.

"When this species becomes sick, they do come into the shore to die.

"The animal is taken off the beach, we take some samples and some measurements and it's then disposed of."
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Attention

Best of the Web: Signs of change: Extreme weather, seismic activity, and meteor fireballs in March and early April 2014

HawkkeyDavis
Youtube
Thu, 10 Apr 2014 14:35 UTC
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Comment: More rain in California in one day than it got in the past year, a record cold winter in the U.S., a "1 in 100 years" flooding event in New Zealand, a meteor explosion that shook homes in New Mexico, giant hailstones in places that don't usually get any hail, record earthquakes in California, the Andaman Islands and all along the Ring of Fire, two meteor fireballs lighting up the East coast of Canada and northern U.S. states in the space of 24 hours, landslides and flash-flooding putting out wildfires in Western U.S. states, and the "worst flooding in living memory" on the Solomon Islands (at the same time as a strong earthquake)...

The following video compilation is a sample of just some of the planetary upheaval recorded in the last month.

Visit HawkkeyDavis's Youtube channel to check out the rest of his awesome work chronicling the 'signs of the times'.



The world has been overwhelmed with disasters in recent weeks. A series of fireballs and earthquakes has rocked and shaken this planet to its core. Meanwhile, the "one-in-100-year events" continue to strike...

Even though it looks like it sometimes, this series does not mean the world is ending! These are documentaries of series of extreme weather events that are leading to bigger earth changes. If you are following the series, then you are seeing the signs.

For those who can't view YT videos:

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