Animals
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Eye 1

Dead whale washes up in Virginia Beach


FOX 43
Mon, 28 Mar 2011 14:53 UTC
dead whale

Virgina Beach, Virginia - A dead whale, approximately 35-40 feet in length, was found washed up on the beach in Sandbridge Sunday morning.

The Virginia Aquarium's Stranding Response Team responded to the scene to secure the animal to the beach so it didn't get washed back into the ocean, said Virginia Aquarium spokesperson Joan Barns.

Barns told WAVY.com that the whale is known as a Sei (say) whale and is not very common for the area, although they do show up from time to time in local waters.

The Virginia Aquarium will conduct a necropsy (animal autopsy) on the whale tomorrow morning at low tide to determine a cause of death. Samples will be taken from the animal and sent to various institutions for general research purposes as well, said Barns.

Arrangements have been made by the Virginia Aquarium with the City of Virginia Beach to remove the whale from the beach on Monday.

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Fish

Dead fish litter beach at Alabama pier

Paige Malone
WALA
Mon, 28 Mar 2011 13:38 UTC
Gulf Shores, Alabama - Laura Pfizenmayer walks the beach in Gulf Shores every morning. On Saturday, she was shocked with what she found.


"When we came down we saw dead fish. They were everywhere. I mean you don't have to find them. You can turn around and see them. They were everywhere," said Pfizenmayer.

Charles Kelly with the Gulf State Pier said they are spadefish and only spadefish. This causes him to worry
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Heart - Black

US: The New England Aquarium reports 6 dead dolphins found in a week


NECN.com
Sun, 27 Mar 2011 21:22 UTC
dead dolphin
© Unknown

Boston - The New England Aquarium says six dolphins have turned up dead on Massachusetts beaches.

The most recent was as 4-foot long, dark grey harbor porpoise that washed up with the overnight high tide on Revere Beach Saturday The aquarium says its rescue biologists handled seven harbor porpoises in a week on the Massachusetts coast.

One was found alive and is doing well at the University of New England's Marine Animal Rescue Center in Biddeford, Maine.

Despite the number of dead porpoises found in the short time, Aquarium officials say it appears to be seasonal. The harbor porpoises that were found were yearlings that were underweight and probably were only recently weaned from their mothers in the early winter.

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Blackbox

Australia: Man injured as beetles swarm Gold Coast

Jessica Johnson
News.com.au
Sat, 26 Mar 2011 05:59 UTC
Image
© seablue5
Thousands of beetles invading the Gold Coast have claimed their first victim.

Ken Tomkins, 61, was hospitalized after skidding his bicycle into a mound of dead bugs and shattering his hip, collarbone and ribs, the Gold Coast Bulletin reports.

Tomkins said he noticed the slick as he rode along The Esplanade at Surfers Paradise, but initially thought it was water or leaves.

He will be bedridden for six weeks after hitting the bugs, which were piled to the edge of the road by a council street sweeper, at about 25kph.

The water beetle invasion is a never-before-seen phenomenon that has stumped local scientists.
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Bizarro Earth

Atlantic oil spill threatens endangered penguins

Jill Lawless
Associated Press
Tue, 22 Mar 2011 17:20 UTC
Image
© OceanDoctor,org
London - Thousands of endangered penguins have been coated with oil after a cargo ship ran aground and broke up on a remote British South Atlantic territory, officials and conservationists said Tuesday.

The shipwreck also threatens the lobster fishery that provides a livelihood to one of the world's most isolated communities.

The Malta-registered MS Olivia was grounded on Nightingale Island in the Tristan da Cunha chain last week. The ship had been traveling from Brazil to Singapore and contained 1,500 metric tons (1,650 tons) of crude oil and a cargo of 60,000 metric tons (66,000 tons) of soya beans.

The ship's 22 crew members were rescued before it broke in two.

Tristan da Cunha's conservation officer, Trevor Glass, said oil was encircling Nightingale Island and called the situation "a disaster."

The territory's British administrator, Sean Burns, said more than half of about 500 birds gathered by rescue workers had been coated in oil. An environmentalist at the scene estimated that 20,000 penguins might be affected.
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Bizarro Earth

US: 1000s Of Fish Die In Hanna Park Lake


News4Jax
Fri, 25 Mar 2011 11:48 UTC
Dead Fish
© News4JaxThousands of fish turn up dead in the lake at Hannah Park. Scientists say golden algae caused the fish kill.

Atlantic Beach, Florida -- Dozens of dead fish have risen to the surface at a lake in Hanna Park. The floating fish have produced a foul smell and an eerie site.

"I've seen a couple of people biking around, but as soon as they get to this area, they turn right back around," visitor Heather Lenier said.

The sight and smell is enough to keep people away from the lake.

Scientists said an outbreak of golden algae is responsible for the death of thousands of fish. The algae is producing a toxic chemical. When fish come in contact with the tainted water, their blood cells literally explode.

"Those cells that carry oxygen are being ruptured," biologist Dana Morton said. "Oxygen is not getting to the fish, and the fish look like they are suffocating, which they really are."

Morton said that as harmful as the algae is for fish, it is harmless for humans.
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Fish

Nebraksa: Ravenna Lake suffers massive fish kill

Amy West
KAHSTV
Wed, 23 Mar 2011 20:56 UTC
Experts call it a winter-kill. Onlookers call it devastating. Thousands of fish - much more than originally thought - are now dead in Ravenna Lake.

Game and Parks officials said the extended ice and snow coverage this year blocked the sun and killed aquatic plants. Without plants producing enough oxygen an estimated 3800 fish suffocated.

The massive amount of algae you see may also have been a factor.
Nebraska Game and Parks Commissioners said they'll decide what to do next in April.
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Bizarro Earth

UK: Hundreds of Dead Starfish Wash Up on Talybont Beach


BBC News
Thu, 24 Mar 2011 05:07 UTC
Image
© Erfyl LLoyd Davies PhotographyThe common starfish is found around the coast of the British Isles.
Several hundred dead starfish have been found washed up on a north Wales beach.

It comes following the discovery at Talybont, between Harlech and Barmouth in Gwynedd.

Council maritime officer Barry Davies said it is common for starfish to be washed ashore during spring tides but it was not clear why they had migrated so far up the shoreline.

Barmouth harbour committee chairman said an inquiry is needed.

Councillor Trefor Roberts said: "What I would like is a full scientist report on what caused the deaths of these starfish."

Mr Davies said he did not think anything suspicious has led to the deaths of the starfish.
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Fish

Illinois: Glen Ellyn resident fears 'fish kill' not natural

Cyndi Loza
Glen Ellyn News
Wed, 23 Mar 2011 17:28 UTC
dead fish
Fish found dead in a pond in the Maryknoll subdivision southwest of the intersection of I-355 and Roosevelt Road.

Glen Ellyn, Illinois - Concerns are still looming for some after a fish kill was said to have killed hundreds of fish earlier this month in the Maryknoll Estates subdivision.

"I have been a field editor for MidWest Outdoors magazine and have witnessed dozens of winter fish kills," Glen Ellyn resident Jim Janik wrote in an email to the Glen Ellyn News. "I have never seen a fish kill like the one which occurred in our subdivision."

Hundreds of dead fish were found floating and washed ashore in a pond March 10 in Maryknoll Estates, southwest of Interstate 355 and Roosevelt Road in Glen Ellyn.
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Attention

US: Biologist Says Dead Fish in Misery Bay 'No Cause for Alarm'

Dana Massing
Erie Times-News
Wed, 23 Mar 2011 06:15 UTC
Dead Fish Lake Erie
© Jack Hanrahan / Erie Times-NewsJim Grazio, Great Lakes Biologist with the DEP inspects a dead gizzard shad along the northern shore at Misery Bay at Presque Isle State Park on March 22. Thousand of the fish have washed up on the shoreline of Misery Bay. Grazio said that the fish died from natural causes related to temperature changes and that it was a natural event. There were also some other species found along the shoreline including several carp, northern pike and a smallmouth bass. Grazio said that it is the spawning time for northern pike and all of the dead pike found were females. He attributes their death to spawning stress.

Cathy Pedlar and Kathryn Hamilton were walking by Presque Isle State Park's Misery Bay on Tuesday afternoon when they spotted thousands of dead fish along the north shore.

Pedlar said she's seen dead fish before, but never like this.

"I haven't seen this density before," she said.

Park and state officials were notified and a Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection official investigated.

"This is a natural fish kill, no cause for alarm," Jim Grazio, a Great Lakes biologist with DEP's Office of the Great Lakes, said after inspecting the dead fish.

He said 99 percent were gizzard shad and he believed their death was a natural event caused by temperature change.

Grazio said the gizzard shad, a freshwater herring, is notoriously sensitive to cold temperatures and temperature changes.

He also said more than the usual number of the fish were born in 2010 for unknown reasons.

"A lot of them didn't survive," he said.

The fish began dying in January and were under the ice, unseen until warmer temperatures caused a melt and the fish began washing up on shore, he said. There wasn't much decay because of the cold.
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