The removal of a decomposing whale from Eastney beach took 12 hours.


The dead animal was found on the shoreline by dog walkers on Monday afternoon.

Portsmouth City Council was assisted by Cosham Plant Hire, Veolia Environmental Services, Colas and the University of Portsmouth to remove the whale yesterday.

Despite previous suggestions it was blubber, the council said marine biologists from the university took DNA samples during the move to confirm it was a whale.

Colas cordoned off the road by the Royal Marines Museum in order to begin the operation, which consisted of transferring the rotting corpse from the bottom of the shoreline up to a nearby skip.

Waves of carnivorous starfish are eating their way through Australia's Great Barrier Reef - and sugar cane farming is being blamed.

Researchers at Australia's Institute of Marine Science (AIMS), just outside Townsville, Queensland, in north-east Australia, have mapped the pattern of destruction.

"Coral cover is half of what it was 27 years ago, coral cover is going down at an alarming rate." Dr Katharina Fabricius, coral reef ecologist and AIMS principal research scientist, told the BBC World Service programme Discovery.

She said the biggest culprit was the Crown of Thorns Starfish (COTs).

"There are three main sources for the coral decline, one is storms, however 42% is attributed to Crown of Thorns Starfish - and just 10% due to bleaching. This compares with 70% due to bleaching for reefs elsewhere in the world , such as in the Caribbean."

Bleaching occurs when corals are stressed by changes in conditions such as temperature, light, or nutrients. They expel the symbiotic algae living in their tissues, causing them to turn completely white.

Pigeons are much more than dirty park pests to Maria Morales. She's cashing in on them as part of her retirement plan.

But Morales and her husband, Alberto, suffered a financial setback over the weekend when thieves stole more than 800 valuable homing pigeons from their Marion County farm, and slaughtered 100 more.

Their loss - nearly $20,000.

The Moraleses have been breeding pigeons and selling them mostly to people who use the birds in Santeria religious rituals. Given the migration of people from the Caribbean who practice Santeria, Morales said, it's not surprising that thieves would see the value in her flock.

But neither she nor deputy sheriffs can understand why they would have killed 100 of the birds.

The Moraleses realized on Tuesday evening that nearly half of their inventory of pigeons was missing from a coop behind their home.

"There is a huge demand for them," Maria Morales said. "We have live-animal auctions (in Marion County). Every time you go to an auction, if you have pigeons you know for sure you will sell them out."

While the birds are often bought by people interested in breeding or racing them, Morales said, her top customers are people who practice Santeria, which blends Catholic and Yoruba religious beliefs and is practiced in parts of Mexico, the Caribbean and South America.

"(Alberto Morales) advised the unknown person(s) who stole his pigeons would have to have known their value and where to sell them," deputies wrote in an incident report.

Hundreds of dead fish have appeared in Mallorca on the shores of Son Baulo.

Investigations have been started by the local council and environmental employees to find out where the fish may have come from and why.

Passers-by were surprised to see dozens of metres of shoreline covered in dead fish, most of which were only three or four centimetres long, although there were a few larger sea bass, weighing in at around two or three kilos.

There have been at least three similar incidents in the area in the past; one investigation found that they had died through lack of oxygen, another tracked the problem down to a nearby hotel with toxic waste on the premises.

In the recent case, no other animals appeared to suffer; so toxic waste is less likely to be the cause.

There is a patch of still water just before the river mouth where, at certain times of the year the levels drop and the water becomes stagnant. Neighbours have suggested that there may be less danger to the fish if the water could run year round into the sea to allow more oxygen to circulate in the water.

An increase in the number of giant squid being caught along the Sea of Japan coast is leading fisherman to fear it may be some kind of omen.

A giant squid was taken to the Himi fishing port in Toyama Prefecture on 4 January, and another was discovered in a net off Sado Island in Niigata Prefecture on 8 January, according to The Japan Times.

Three squid were taken to Sado and Himi that measured between three and four metres long, the newspaper has reported.

The two longest tentacles of one of the creatures caught in the town of Iwami in Tottori Prefechure were missing, meaning it could have spanned eight metres prior to its capture.

Several of the creatures have been ensnared in fishing nets. Earlier this month a local fisherman caught a four-metre giant squid off the coast of Sadogashima Island.

Puffins have suffered in the recent storms in the Bay of Biscay. The British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) has received a record number of reports of the birds, wearing uniquely numbered metal rings that identify them as puffins that would have been heading for breeding colonies in the UK, being found dead on the coasts of France and Spain.

In a normal winter, the BTO would expect two or three ringed puffins to be found in France and Spain, but during the past few weeks more than 35 have been reported.It is well known that British puffins fly out into the Atlantic for the winter months, riding out the worst of the weather there. As the winter progresses, our puffins make their way into the Bay of Biscay before heading back to their breeding colonies and the burrows that they used the previous summer. Birds found in this current wreck have come from colonies in west Wales, northern Scotland, Orkney and Shetland.Mark Grantham, Ringing Officer at the BTO, commented, "Up until the last couple of weeks it seemed that our puffins might have survived the worst of the winter. However, from the reports of ringed birds that are being washed-up on the Biscay beaches it would seem that the recent storms were just too much for many of the birds."He added, "It is still early days and the number of ringed birds found is likely to rise further, and we must remember that if more than 35 ringed birds have been found, many un-ringed birds must have been affected, too."Bird ringing in the UK is organised by the British Trust for Ornithology and is carried out by licensed volunteers, who ring over a million birds of a wide variety of different species every year. It is the information received from these rings, when found and reported to the BTO, that enables scientists at the Trust to chart events such as this.

For more information and to report a ring number to the BTO, please visit www.bto.org

Clear eyes, full hearts and lots of sunshine can't lose.

This week is why you moved to Florida. It's the middle of February and the temperatures will be in the 70s all week. Also, that troublesome rain that you normally associate with great weather like this is nowhere to be seen. At least until Friday when there is a 40 percent chance of scattered showers.

How nice is it? A snow bunting, a rare artic bird is hanging out in Saint Andrews State Park, according to local resident Ron Houser of the Bay County Audubon Society.

Houser captured a shot of the bird Saturday. He said they breed in the arctic and usually don't travel any further south than Ohio.

Also, Spring Break has not started yet which means you have the beach to yourself. That's right, you heard me, you have the beach to yourself locals.

Get to it.

Horse killed by bullet fired on Pennsylvania roadway

Timothy Antonio Diggs, 22, is facing seven misdemeanor counts, including reckless endangerment, cruelty to animals, and firing into an occupied vehicle, according to the East Lampeter Township Police Department.

The horse was pulling a buggy with five family members around 9 PM on November 24 when "an unknown type car traveling north passed the buggy."

The buggy's occupants, a married couple and their three young children, told investigators that they heard "a loud noise, described as sounding like a firecracker" as the vehicle passed.

Upon returning to their farm, the family discovered that the horse had been shot in the chest. The animal died before a veterinarian reached the family's residence.

Diggs, seen in the above mug shot, has been jailed since cops executed a search warrant at his home in early-December. During that raid, officers located handguns and a motorcycle that had been stolen in two separate burglaries.

Hundreds of seabirds - some dead and others covered in oil - have been washed ashore in south-west England.

The RSPB believes most of the deaths were a "sad but natural occurrence" after the recent stormy weather.

In Devon, about 40 puffins, guillemots and razorbills were found at Thurlstone, while others have been reported from Hampshire to Cornwall.

Some of the "pitiful" oiled birds are being cared for at the South Devon Seabird Trust in Teignmouth.

The trust's founder, Jean Bradford, told BBC News: "It's a catastrophe and I think with everything else that's going on with people, the birds and other animals have been overlooked a little bit."

Mrs Bradford said the oiled and storm-blown birds that had been rescued were in a "pitiful state".

"Even if these birds get to shore, very often it's the case that they're washed back out to sea by the enormous waves that are coming in.

"By the time they reach another beach, perhaps at low tide, many of them are too ill to be saved."

A number of birds were rescued from Chesil Beach in Dorset earlier in the week and taken to the RSPCA West Hatch animal centre in Taunton.

A baby girl was mauled to death by a dog that neighbours had allegedly warned was dangerous.

Ava-Jayne Corless, who was just 11 months old, suffered horrific injuries when the American pitbull terrier attacked her while she slept.

Her mother, Chloe King, 20, and boyfriend Lee Wright, 26, heard the commotion and rushed upstairs to rescue her from the jaws of the beast.

Paramedics were called and took Ava-Jayne to hospital where doctors were unable to save her life.

Miss King and Mr Wright were questioned on suspicion of manslaughter and child neglect, and were today released on bail.

Lancashire Police said: 'The two people arrested in connection with the death of Ava-Jayne Corless at Blackburn have both been released on bail pending further inquiries.'

A police spokesman said last night that the animal was banned under the Dangerous Dogs Act of 1991.