Animals
S


Nuke

Jellyfish-Like Organisms Shut Down California Power Plant

Alexandra Ludka
ABC News
Thu, 26 Apr 2012 18:36 UTC
Image
© Getty Images
The workers of the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant received a very slimy surprise this week when they discovered hoards of jellyfish-like creatures clinging to the structure, leading to the shutdown of the plant.

The organisms, called salp, are small sea creatures with a consistency similar to jellyfish.

The influx of salp was discovered as part of the plant's routine monitoring system, according to Tom Cuddy, the senior manager of external and nuclear communications for the plant's operator, Pacific Gas & Electric.

"We then made the conservative decision to ramp down the affected unit to 20 percent and continued to monitor the situation," Cuddy said. "When the problem continued, we made another conservative decision that it would be safest to curtail the power of the unit."

The salp were clogging the traveling screens in the intake structure, which are meant to keep marine life out and to keep the unit cool.

Comment: It's not the first or second time something like this has happened. And we, at SOTT, wonder what exactly is going on.
Jellyfish Invasions Force Shutdowns at 3 Separate Nuclear Plants
Attack of the jellyfish: Sea creatures shut down ANOTHER power station amid claims population surge is due to climate change
Jellyfish threaten Israeli power plant
Jellyfish shut down British nuclear reactor

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Blackbox

Bird flu? 'Hundreds and Possibly Thousands' of Mysterious Open-Billed Stork Deaths Spark Bird Flu Fears In Ang Thong


Bangkok Post
Fri, 27 Apr 2012 11:05 UTC
Image
© Unknown
Hundreds and possibly thousands of open-billed storks have died mysteriously in Ang Thong, triggering fear of a new outbreak of bird flu.

The birds were found dead in open ground behind a deserted factory by the side of the Chamlong-Nong Jik road in tambon Chamlong in Sawangha district after residents noticed that the animals looked drowsy and lay around on the ground, causing a bad stench in the air, the kamnan of Chamlong, Suebsak Waewkaew, said.

Residents alerted authorities who inspect the site twice and then went away, Mr Suebsak said.

He demanded the authorities collect samples of the birds' remains and move quickly to identify the cause of the mass deaths as residents living nearby were worried that bird flu might be involved.

Suthee Srisuwan, head of the provincial natural resources and environment office, said he had instructed experts to launch an investigation into the incident. An initial inspection had found huge numbers of dead birds in two locations. He would not elaborate further other than to say an investigation is underway.
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Fish

11,000 Fish Deaths in Little Beaver Creek a Mystery

Steve Bennish
Dayton Daily News
Wed, 25 Apr 2012 22:06 UTC
More than 11,000 fish died in one of three fish kills to occur in the Dayton area since April 17, state wildlife officials said Wednesday.

The large amount of deaths occurred on Little Beaver Creek in Kettering, from Research Boulevard upcreek about three miles, said Joel Buddelmeyer, the acting law enforcement supervisor for the Ohio Department of Natural Resources Division of Wildlife District 5 office in Xenia.

Smaller kills were on an unnamed tributary of the Great Miami River near Leston Avenue in Huber Heights that killed 330 fish. There was another fish kill in Vandalia, but it was not related to the R.D. Holder oil fire, Buddelmeyer said. The fire in Clark County caused fish kills in the vicinity of the blaze.

Spring fish kills have been linked to lawn chemicals sprayed on larger properties just before a rain storm, Buddelmeyer said. The chemicals quickly travel with water run-off into the area streams.

"Until we develop a suspect, our investigators are trying to make contact with businesses in the areas," Buddelmeyer said. "It's hard telling."

The dead included bass, catfish, suckers, darters, salamanders, frogs and crayfish. The kills were reported on April 17 and 21.

Buddelmeyer said lawn companies should use caution when spraying and to postpone spraying when rain is in the forecast.
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Bizarro Earth

White Nose Syndrome: Deadly Fungus Killing Millions of Bats across U.S.


Associated Press
Sun, 22 Apr 2012 17:23 UTC
Up to 7 million bats have been wiped out in the U.S. over the last five years by a deadly disease that is rapidly spreading across the country.

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Red Flag

Silent Hives: Colony Collapse Disorder and Pesticides

Elizabeth Kolbert
The New Yorker
Fri, 20 Apr 2012 16:51 UTC
Image
© Ralph Orlowski/Getty Images
In 2006, when beekeepers began to report that their hives were suffering from a mysterious affliction, a wide variety of theories were offered to explain what was going on. The bees were suffering from a virus, or a fungus, or a mite, or from stress, or, according to one much publicized hypothesis, they were being addled by cell-phone signals. (Supposedly the transmissions interfered with the bees' navigational abilities.)

The Pennsylvania beekeeper Dave Hackenberg was one of the first to draw attention to the problem of Colony Collapse Disorder, or C.C.D., and, as a result, he became a celebrity, at least in apian circles. I interviewed Hackenberg in the spring of 2007, and he told me he didn't believe that the culprit was a virus or a fungus or stress. Instead, he blamed a new class of pesticides called neonicotinoids. Now it looks like Hackenberg was onto something.
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Info

The Search Is On For Elusive White Whale


Agence France-Presse
Mon, 23 Apr 2012 10:27 UTC
White Whale
© Screengrab from Far East Russia Orca ProjectThe scientists decided to hold back on releasing photographs of Iceberg until they were able to study him further.

A team of Russian scientists say they will embark on a quest next week to observe the only all-white, adult killer whale ever spotted -- a majestic and elusive bull they have named Iceberg.

The researchers from the universities of Moscow and Saint Petersburg first spotted the orca's towering, two-metre (about six feet) dorsal fin break the surface near the Commander Islands in the North Pacific in August 2010.

Living in a pod with 12 other family members, Iceberg was deemed to be at least 16 years old, given the size of his dorsal fin, said Erich Hoyt, co-director of the Far East Russia Orca Project (FEROP).

"This is the first time we have ever seen an all-white, mature male orca," Hoyt told AFP. "It is a breathtakingly beautiful animal."

The scientists decided to hold back on releasing photographs of Iceberg until they were able to study him further, "but we have been looking for him ever since," said Hoyt.

Orcas can travel thousands of miles.

The scientists would like to establish whether Iceberg is albino -- a genetic condition that leaves animals unable to produce melanin, a dark pigment of skin, hair and the eye's retina and iris.
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Bizarro Earth

Gulf Seafood Deformities Alarm Scientists

Dahr Jamail
Aljazeera
Wed, 18 Apr 2012 20:03 UTC
Eyeless shrimp, from a catch of 400 pounds
© Erika Blumenfeld/Al JazeeraEyeless shrimp, from a catch of 400 pounds of eyeless shrimp, said to be caught September 22, 2011, in Barataria Bay, Louisiana.
Eyeless shrimp and fish with lesions are becoming common, with BP oil pollution believed to be the likely cause.

"The fishermen have never seen anything like this," Dr Jim Cowan told Al Jazeera. "And in my 20 years working on red snapper, looking at somewhere between 20 and 30,000 fish, I've never seen anything like this either."

Dr Cowan, with Louisiana State University's Department of Oceanography and Coastal Sciences started hearing about fish with sores and lesions from fishermen in November 2010.

Cowan's findings replicate those of others living along vast areas of the Gulf Coast that have been impacted by BP's oil and dispersants.

Gulf of Mexico fishermen, scientists and seafood processors have told Al Jazeera they are finding disturbing numbers of mutated shrimp, crab and fish that they believe are deformed by chemicals released during BP's 2010 oil disaster.

Along with collapsing fisheries, signs of malignant impact on the regional ecosystem are ominous: horribly mutated shrimp, fish with oozing sores, underdeveloped blue crabs lacking claws, eyeless crabs and shrimp - and interviewees' fingers point towards BP's oil pollution disaster as being the cause.
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Bizarro Earth

Monsanto Blamed for Bee Collapse, Buys Leading Bee Research Firm

Anthony Gucciardi
Natural Society
Thu, 19 Apr 2012 10:41 UTC
Honey Bee
© Alex Wild / alexanderwild.comA honeybee forager visits fall asters in Urbana, Illinois.
Monsanto, the massive biotechnology company being blamed for contributing to the dwindling bee population, has bought up one of the leading bee collapse research organizations. Recently banned from Poland with one of the primary reasons being that the company's genetically modified corn may be devastating the dying bee population, it is evident that Monsanto is under serious fire for their role in the downfall of the vital insects. It is therefore quite apparent why Monsanto bought one of the largest bee research firms on the planet.

It can be found in public company reports hosted on mainstream media that Monsanto scooped up the Beeologics firm back in September 2011. During this time the correlation between Monsanto's GM crops and the bee decline was not explored in the mainstream, and in fact it was hardly touched upon until Polish officials addressed the serious concern amid the monumental ban. Owning a major organization that focuses heavily on the bee collapse and is recognized by the USDA for their mission statement of "restoring bee health and protecting the future of insect pollination" could be very advantageous for Monsanto.
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Fish

Eyeless Shrimp? Report Raises Concerns in Gulf

Dustin Lushin
Al Jazeera
Wed, 18 Apr 2012 19:07 UTC
Mutant creatures showing up after BP spill, says Al Jazeera English

Shrimp missing their eyeballs (and even eye sockets), fish covered in lesions, deformed crabs, and other mutated sea creatures are showing up in unsettling numbers in the Gulf of Mexico two years after the giant BP oil spill, according to an investigation by Al Jazeera English. "The fishermen have never seen anything like this," says one scientist at Louisiana State University. "And in my 20 years working on red snapper, looking at somewhere between 20 and 30,000 fish, I've never seen anything like this, either."

The sentiment is echoed by several others interviewed in the article, both fishermen and scientists. The BP disaster released 4.9 million barrels of oil into the water, and the company then poured in 1.9 million gallons of chemical dispersants to sink the oil. Biologists are pointing to the toxins in the dispersants as the catalysts behind the abnormalities. Despite the signs, both the state and BP says the local seafood is rigorously tested and safe to eat.
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Arrow Up

Rare River Porpoises Showing up Dead

Wang Qian
China Daily
Tue, 17 Apr 2012 22:06 UTC
Dead Porpoise
© Xu Dianbo/China DailyVolunteers from Yueyang, Hunan province, carry the corpse of a finless porpoise from Dongting Lake on Saturday.
Within the last month and a half, the corpses of 12 endangered finless porpoises, including a pregnant one, have been found around Dongting Lake, Hunan province.

It has triggered worries from experts about the rare species possibly becoming extinct.

Scientists said finless porpoises, which have lived in the Yangtze River and adjacent lakes for more than 20 million years, will become extinct within 15 years. The porpoises are also called "river pigs".

"Apparently the prolonged drought and low water level due to climate change and increasing offshore human activities are reducing the living space for finless porpoises, accelerating its extinction," Wang Kexiong, an expert of the Institute of Hydrobiology under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, told China Daily.

It is the first time he has heard of so many dead porpoises found within such a short period.

Xu Yaping, a journalist from Hunan's Yueyang city who is campaigning to ensure the survival of the species, said when most of the corpses were dissected no food was found in their digestion systems.

Xie Yongjun, an associate professor of animal husbandry at Yueyang Vocational and Technical College, told China Daily the porpoises may have died due to starvation, poisoning or infectious disease.

There were no obvious injuries in the three corpses he dissected, Xie added.
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