Animals
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Bizarro Earth

US: Bristleworms Swarm In Vilano Beach


News4Jax.com
Mon, 04 Apr 2011 12:37 UTC
Bristleworms
© News4Jax.com

St. Augustine, Florida. -- A little after midnight, St. Augustine police discovered thousands of bristleworms swimming in Vilano Beach.

Cpl. Brandon Embrey, of St. Augustine Police was one of the first to find these creepy crawlers, and he said he couldn't believe his eyes.

"There had to be millions of them, I couldn't see the bottom. All I could see was red," said Embrey.

Embrey also said they started to disappear because mullet were attacking them.

Dr. Quinton White, a professor of marine biologist at Jacksonville University, saw the video from Vilano Beach and said it was a classic bristleworm mating frenzy. He said it happens every year when salt water warms up.
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Fish

Florida: Hundreds Of Fish Die In Northside Pond


News4Jax.com
Tue, 05 Apr 2011 08:58 UTC
dead fish
It's unclear what has killed hundreds of fish in a Northside pond.

Jacksonville, Florida -- People living near a Northside pond said toxic chemicals from a construction site may be what has killed hundreds of fish.

Residents who live near the pond off Oak Lawn Road said they've enjoyed the pond for years, calling it a place of relaxation where they can appreciate nature and do a little bit of fishing from time to time.

But they said that, over the weekend, the pond developed a strong odor and had dead fish floating all over it.
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Radar

Trees Cocooned in Spider Webs After Flood


National Geographic
Sat, 02 Apr 2011 08:01 UTC
Image
© Russell Watkins, U.K. Department for International DevelopmentWebbed Trees
The giant spider webs in Sindh, Pakistan, sometimes stretched from tree to tree, as seen above in December 2010.

"Any kind of vegetation that was above ground was affected, literally every kind of tree and bush," Watkins said of the widespread spider webs.

While unusual, trees cocooned in spider webs are not unprecedented. Scientists have reported similar webs in other parts of the world, the tropics in particular. In 2007, for instance, a superintendent at Lake Tawokoni State Park in Texas discovered a giant spider web among the trees.

Watkins said he didn't know which type of spider was responsible for the tree cocoons in Sindh. But in the case of Lake Tawokoni, scientists determined that dozens of spider species were spinning the communal webs.
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Question

Mysterious equine illness spreads in Australia: Increasing numbers of horses displaying unusual neurological symptoms

Emma Pritchard
The Daily Examiner
Sat, 02 Apr 2011 06:06 UTC
Image
© Unknown
Hold your horses. It hasn't arrived in the Clarence Valley - yet but increasing numbers of horses displaying unusual neurological symptoms across three states have prompted the Australian Veterinary Association (AVA) to caution all owners.

In NSW alone there have been 87 confirmed cases of the unidentified illness.

While tests conducted by the NSW Department of Industry and Investment have ruled out Hendra virus, AVA president Dr Barry Smyth believes the illness may be the result of a mosquito-borne disease.

"Diseases associated with mosquitoes are very uncommon in normal years," he said.
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Fish

Black Coral: 2,000 Year-Old Black Coral Found By USGS Near BP Oil Well


Batangas Today
Fri, 01 Apr 2011 15:23 UTC
A 2,000 year-old black coral was found by scientists in the Gulf of Mexico, near the broken BP oil well, according to a report by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) on Wednesday, March 30, 2011.

According to the USGS, this is the first time that they were able to determine the age of the black coral in the Mexican Gulf.

The USGS has been trying to determine the age of the ancient slow-growing corals even before the BP oil spill in April 20, 2010.

Image
© Ringlet.orgBlack Coral
The black corals, that looks like deep-sea bushes or trees and reportedly feeds on organic matter, are located about 1,000 feet below sea-level and 21 miles northeast of the BP well in the Gulf.
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Bizarro Earth

UK Government Asked to Investigate New Pesticide Link to Bee Decline

Michael McCarthy
The Independent, UK
Wed, 30 Mar 2011 00:00 UTC
pollen bee
© Getty ImagesA bee collects pollen from a flower in Kew Gardens
The Government is being asked to investigate a possible link between a new generation of pesticides and the decline of honey bees. It is suspected that the chemicals may be impairing the insects' ability to defend themselves against harmful parasites through grooming.

The Environment Secretary, Caroline Spelman, will have to answer a question in the Commons from the former Home Office minister David Hanson about whether the Government will investigate if the effect of neonicotinoids on the grooming behaviour of bees is similar to its effect on termites.

The pesticides, neonicotinoids, made by the German agribusiness giant Bayer and rapidly spreading in use, are known to be fatal to termites by damaging their ability to groom themselves and thus remove the spores of harmful fungi.

In a leaflet promoting an anti-termite insecticide, Premise 200SC, sold in Asia, the company says it is the direct effect on the insects' grooming abilities of the neonicotinoid active ingredient, imidacloprid, which eventually kills them. Now bee campaigners in Britain want to know if this mechanism could also be at work on European honey bees and other pollinating insects which are rapidly declining in numbers.
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Bizarro Earth

Florida: Dead Baby Dolphin on Innerarity Point

Debbie Williams
WKRG
Tue, 29 Mar 2011 20:51 UTC
Image
Another dead dolphin has washed up in our area, this time just across the state line in Perdido Bay on Innerarity Point. But we may have a better understanding of what's taking so long to figure out why the dolphins are dying.

Innerarity Point, Florida - "I looked and saw a baby porpoise, a terrible sight to see."

What started as a normal Tuesday morning for Chris McCune, "I came out to have my coffee, practice, play my guitar and write some songs."

That all changed when he looked down the beach.

Eleanor Milford saw it too. "I've been hearing about it but I didn't expect to see it in my own backyard and I hope we get some answers."
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Fish

New South Wales: Second fish kill in as many months

Ken Warren
Manning River Times
Wed, 30 Mar 2011 20:38 UTC
Image

Dead mullet have been found floating on the surface of a Taree waterway for the second time in less than two months.

The fish could be seen at the wetland near Nulama Village at Taree North yesterday, also the site of a similar fish kill in February.

The heat and subsequent loss of oxygen from the water was blamed on that occasion but does not seem likely this time due to the much milder weather conditions.

Some of the fish were found on the banks of the wetland, suggesting they may have jumped from the water.

Experts from the Department of Fisheries were not available for comment yesterday.
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Bizarro Earth

Sea Turtle Deaths Anger Mississippi Residents

Robbie Kistner
The Huffington Post
Tue, 29 Mar 2011 20:20 UTC
dead, turtle
© Shirley Tillman

As a resident of coastal Mississippi for more than 30 years, Shirley Tillman is used to seeing a few drum fish, sea gulls or jelly fish wash up on nearby sandy shores. It's a fact of life living by the sea. But in the past few weeks Shirley has come across something she's never seen before; dead sea turtles washing up on beaches near spring break vacationers.

They are part of a growing number of dead fish, animals and birds she and other Mississippi residents have photographed washing in with the tides in recent weeks. For Shirley, a trip to the beach no longer provides the same relaxing refuge as before.

"It's very upsetting," says Shirley, a grandmother and wife of a Pass Christian home builder. "I have never found anything like this until after the oil spill. It used to be if you found a dead dolphin or turtle it was front page news around here. Now it's no big deal."
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Fish

More Dead Sealife Continues to Plague U.S. Beaches

Elena Arteaga
KTSM TV
Tue, 29 Mar 2011 05:58 UTC
Image
© Unknown
Alabama - Months after the hundreds of birds fell dead from the sky and after thousands of dead fish, crabs, sardines, dolphins, and whales washed ashore worldwide, more dead fish washed ashore in Alabama, and a dead whale washed ashore in Virginia.

There's still no cause for the hundreds of dead fish that were found dead along the gulf shores over the weekend. They were also found along the gulf state pier Saturday morning. Park officials said it was unusual to see spade fish in that area this early in the year. The dead sigh spanned about three miles of shoreline.

The Department of Wildlife and Fisheries will take the fish in for testing.
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