Animals
S


Bug

Locust swarm of biblical proportions strikes Egypt, Israel before Passover

Alan Boyle
NBC News
Tue, 05 Mar 2013 14:30 UTC
Three weeks before Passover, a plague of locusts is swarming from Egypt to Israel, sparking fears among farmers in the region.

The timing of the insect invasion is eerie, because the Bible's Book of Exodus tells of 10 plagues that hit Egypt before Moses and the Jews were allowed to leave for the Promised Land. A plague of locusts was the eighth on the list - but Pharaoh didn't relent until the 10th plague, which killed off all of Egypt's firstborn sons. Every year at Passover, Jews commemorate how they were spared.

This time, even the Israelis are worried that the locusts are out to get them. "They may not have ruined Pharaoh, but they could ruin us," one farmer, Tzachi Rimon, told Israel's Channel 10 TV.

Comment: And to learn more about the Bible and true history of human kind, read Comets and the Horns of Moses by Laura Knight-Jadczyk

Read More...
Butterfly

Swarms of locusts descend on Cairo


ahram online
Sat, 02 Mar 2013 08:13 UTC
Image
© Ahram Arabic News Website
Feared 'locust plague' reaches Cairo after prior sightings along Red Sea coast and in Upper Egypt

Swarms of locusts have been seen in several districts of Cairo on Saturday, including Moqatam and New Cairo.
Some citizens burned tires to create a black fog to keep the locusts from settling in the city.

Swarms were earlier reported to have reached Egypt's Red Sea city of Zafarana, some 200 kilometres from Cairo, and then the Upper Egyptian city of Qena where locusts appeared in at least three major villages.
Read More...
Fish

Great White Sharks protected off California coast

Sarah Grieco
NBC San Diego
Fri, 01 Mar 2013 07:25 UTC
On March 1, great whites are protected by the California Endangered Species Act
great white shark
Great white sharks off the coast of California will be protected by the California Endangered Species Act beginning March 1.

Three environmental groups asked the California Department of Fish and Wildlife to protect the fish at the beginning of February. The groups said there are only around 340 great whites in the Northwestern Pacific region, making them in danger of extinction.

Beginning March 1, great whites may not be hunted, pursued, or killed under CESA. Anyone caught harming or killing a shark could face criminal prosecution.
Read More...
Fish

Tuna collapse fears fail to curb Japan's appetite

Malcolm Foster
Yahoo! News
Thu, 28 Feb 2013 00:00 UTC
Worries about decline of bluefin tuna, prized king of sushi, fail to curb Japan's appetite
Image
© The Associated Press/Shuji KajiyamaIn this Jan. 5, 2013 photo, a prospective buyer inspects the quality of tuna before the first auction of the year at the Tsukiji Market in Tokyo. Catching bluefin tuna, called “hon-maguro” here, is a lucrative business.
Tokyo - It is the king of sushi, one of the most expensive fish in the world - and dwindling so rapidly that some fear it could vanish from restaurant menus within a generation.

Yet there is little alarm in Japan, the country that consumes about 80 percent of the world's bluefin tuna. Japanese fisheries experts blame cozy ties between regulators and fishermen and a complacent media for failing to raise public awareness.

"Nobody really knows the bad state bluefin tuna is in," veteran sushi chef Kazuo Nagayama said from his snug, top-end sushi bar in Tokyo's Shimbashi district, a popular area for after-work socializing. "I don't think it'll disappear, but we might not be able to catch any. It's obvious we need to set quotas."

Catching bluefin tuna, called "hon-maguro" here, is a lucrative business. A single full-grown specimen can sell for 2 million yen, or $22,000, at Tokyo's sprawling Tsukiji fish market. Japanese fishermen are vying with Korean, Taiwanese and Mexican counterparts for a piece of a $900 million a year wholesale market.

Fish dealers at Tsukiji market say the number of bluefin sold at early morning auctions has fallen over the past 10 to 15 years, but most are confident the supply will never run out. Sushi bars and supermarkets still readily sell the fish, which is considered a special treat that families might splurge on once every month or two. There's no government campaign to encourage people to rein in their appetites for the iconic Japanese food.
Read More...
Candle

Loved ones salute New Zealand dad killed by shark

Nick Perry
ABC News
Wed, 27 Feb 2013 22:06 UTC
Image
© The Associated PressPolice in inflatable rubber boats shoot at a shark off Muriwai Beach near Auckland, New Zealand, Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2013, as they attempt to retrieve a body following a fatal shark attack.
About 150 friends and family of Adam Strange wrote messages to him in the sand and stepped into the water Thursday at a New Zealand beach to say goodbye a day after he was killed by a large shark while training for an endurance swim.

Strange, 46, was an award-winning television and short film director and the father of a 2-year-old girl. He was swimming near popular Muriwai Beach on Wednesday when he was attacked by the shark that was possibly 14 feet (4 meters) long. Surf lifesavers say they are convinced it was a great white shark.

Police attempting to save him raced out in inflatable boats and fired gunshots at the enormous predator, which they say rolled away and disappeared. They couldn't confirm if they'd killed it. Police were able to recover Strange's body.

Muriwai will remained closed for swimming until Saturday after the fatal attack, one of only about a dozen in New Zealand in the past 180 years.

Friend Adam Stevens said the Thursday beach service was run by indigenous Maori who removed the "tapu" or spiritual restriction at the beach. He said it was a "perfect tribute" to a man who spent much of his time swimming and surfing.

"He was a very robust, big, barrel-chested surfer," Stevens said. "He was basically completely obsessed with the ocean, with paddle boards and body surfing, everything. His garage was like a museum of surf craft."
Read More...
Question

Hundreds of bloodied manta rays wash up on Gaza beach

Stephanie Butnick
Tablet Mag
Wed, 27 Feb 2013 20:31 UTC
Dead manta Rays
© Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty ImagesPalestinian fishermen collect several Manta Ray fish that were washed up on the beach in Gaza City on February 27, 2013.
Dozens of manta rays washed up on the shores of Gaza City today, according to the Daily Mail - the first sighting of the fish in that area in six years.

It's unclear what killed and bloodied such a large number of the giant fish, though according to Wikipedia (bear with me), manta rays do face a fair amount of danger in the sea:
Manta rays are subject to a number of other anthropogenic threats. Because mantas must swim constantly in order to flush oxygen-rich water over their gills, they are vulnerable to entanglement and subsequent suffocation. Mantas cannot swim backwards and, because of their protruding cephalic fins, they are prone to being caught in trailing fishing lines, nets and even loose mooring lines. When caught, mantas will often attempt to free themselves by somersaulting, tangling themselves further. It is possible for a loose, trailing line to wrap round and cut its way into a fleshy appendage, resulting in an irreversible injury such as the loss of a cephalic fin or damage to a pectoral fin, or even death if the wound is severe enough.
None of those possibilities, however, seems to explain what happened to these fish, shown being transported by fisherman to the marketplace.
Read More...
Bizarro Earth

Peru: Dozens of dead sea creatures washed up


Sky News
Sat, 23 Feb 2013 16:31 UTC

Experts are trying to work out why nearly 100 dead animals and birds have washed up on a Peruvian coastline.

The bodies of 18 sea turtles, 22 sea lions, eight dolphins, 16 angular roughsharks and 22 marine birds were found during an inspection by government officials.
Read More...
Bizarro Earth

Weather radar catches massive bug swarm over New Zealand

Michael Field
Stuff.co.nz
Sat, 23 Feb 2013 15:53 UTC
A vast swarm of bugs that covered much of the northern half of the North Island last night and this morning has been caught on the Metservice weather radar. (See animated weather radar image here.)

MetService didn't know what it was and entomologists were puzzled.

But there was a strong suspicion that it was an unwanted Australian heading home.

One was convinced it was the Tasmanian grass grub and another suspected huge swarm of aphids.

"I have no idea," said Bugman Ruud Kleinpaste.

"I would suggest go up in the air in aeroplane stick out a butterfly net and see what you catch."

He also speculated it could be a dust storm.

Fellow entomologist Stephen Pawson of Scion, a Crown research institute, had a more pragmatic answer; whatever if was, it was large, and it is going to be coming in on the surf at Piha and Muriwai for the next week or so.

Metservice's Peter Kreft said the unknown insects began swarming over the Waikato region about 9pm yesterday.

"They were pushed by the south easterly wind north toward Auckland," he said.
Read More...
Attention

Crop pesticides are 'killing our bees' - says MEP

Chris Davies
Public Service Europe
Fri, 25 Jan 2013 12:46 UTC
Image
The finger of suspicion is pointed at certain best-selling pesticides and the evidence is starting to look damning, claims MEP

Why are bees dying? Since 1994, when French beekeepers began to report that honeybees were not returning to their hives or were behaving in an abnormal and disorientated way, stories of declining number of bees and even of complete colony collapse have become commonplace across Europe. It is upsetting and worrying. Hardworking bees are much loved, competing only with butterflies in the insect popularity stakes and their role as pollinators has enormous commercial value.

The finger of suspicion had been pointed at certain best-selling neonicotinoid pesticides widely used in seed-dressing and soil treatment but also for spraying. The evidence is not conclusive but it is starting to look damning. It is not that they are necessarily lethal to bees but that they are sub-lethal, weakening the bees' resistance to disease and reducing their rate of reproductivity. Perhaps, they also destroy the bees' sense of direction - making it impossible for them to locate their hive after foraging.

Comment: The following articles give a much more in depth look at the issue of colony collapse disorder in bee populations around the world:

Honeybee Colony Collapse Disorder Finally Explained: Too Many Chemicals
Colony Collapse: Do Massive Bee Die-Offs Mean an End to Our Food System as We Know it?
More Evidence Rises Of Role Pesticides Play In Bee Colony Collapse
Harvard Study Links Pesticides to Colony Collapse Disorder in Bees
So called "Green Pesticides" pose reproductive threat to Honey Bees
Beekeeper outlines colony collapse disorder
Silent Hives: Colony Collapse Disorder and Pesticides
A Last (Chemical) Gasp for Bees?

Read More...
Bizarro Earth

Bird invasion brings real-life horror to Kentucky city


Reuters
Mon, 18 Feb 2013 14:08 UTC
Blackbirds
© ReutersBlackbirds descend on the town of Hopkinsville, Kentucky.
Millions of birds have descended on a small Kentucky city this winter, fouling the landscape, scaring pets and raising the risk for disease in a real-life version of Alfred Hitchcock's horror film, The Birds.

The blackbirds and European starlings blacken the sky of Hopkinsville, Kentucky, before roosting at dusk, turn the landscape white with bird poop, and the disease they carry can kill a dog and sicken humans.

"I have seen them come in, and there are enough that if the sun is just right, they'll cloud your vision of the sun," said Hopkinsville-Christian County historian William Turner. "I estimate there are millions of them."

David Chiles, president of the Little River Audubon Society, said the fact that migratory flocks are roosting in the city rather than flying further south is tied to climate warming.

"The weather, the climate plays a big role," said Chiles, the bird enthusiast who also teaches biology at Hopkinsville High School.

"They somehow establish a roost south of where the ground is frozen solid," he explained. "They are ground feeders, feeding on leftover crops and insects. If the fields are frozen solid, they can't feed."
Read More...