Animals
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Bizarro Earth

US: At Least 32 Musk Oxen Freeze to Death After Winter Storm Produces Tidal Surge, Flooding


Associated Press
Tue, 22 Mar 2011 20:45 UTC
Frozen Oxen
© Associated Press / National Park ServiceIn this March 15, 2011 photo provided by the National Park Service, the carcass of a musk ox is shown frozen in ice at Bering Land Bridge National Preserve, Alaska. The frozen musk oxen were found on Tuesday, March 15, 2011, during a routine flight to track at least four musk oxen that had been fitted with collars to conduct research.
Anchorage, Alaska - At least 32 musk oxen were found frozen in the ice on the northern coast of Alaska's Seward Peninsula, killed in the aftermath of a tidal surge and flooding from a winter storm blowing in off the Chukchi Sea, the National Park Service said Tuesday.

Researchers found the frozen animals March 15 while flying over the Bering Land Bridge National Preserve to track at least four of the animals, which had been outfitted with radio collars.

"Basically, the radio collars led us to the dead animals," National Park Service spokesman John Quinley said.

Officials planned to fly over the area again Tuesday to determine the fate of another 23 animals in the herd. It wasn't immediately clear if any of those were fitted with collars.

"We didn't see any carcasses, but we didn't see them walking around," he said.

The remainder of the herd could be buried deeper in the snow. If so, the bodies wouldn't be visible until spring.
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Bizarro Earth

The deep green sea: Algae that's FIFTY MILES long is lurking in the English Channel


DailyMail.co.uk
Tue, 22 Mar 2011 09:16 UTC
An enormous algae bloom 50 miles long has been discovered in the English Channel.

The swarm of Skeletonema has come to the surface between the Lizard in Cornwall and Salcombe in Devon because of the warm weather.

Scientists at the Plymouth Marine Laboratory (PML) discovered the bloom and another off the south east coast of Ireland using satellite images.

Image
© PALurking by the beach: The agaue algaue stretches east from Lizard, Cornwall to Salcombe, Devon
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Bizarro Earth

US: Whale, more dolphins found dead on South Carolina beaches

Bo Peterson
The Post and Courier
Mon, 21 Mar 2011 20:30 UTC
dead whale
© Provided/Karo Klipps This pygmy sperm whale washed up on Morris Island.

Morris Island - A large pygmy sperm whale carcass washed up by the Morris Island lighthouse and was found over the weekend. It was too decomposed to say what killed it, researchers concluded.

The whale stranding follows a string of 13 bottlenose dolphin carcasses since late February. And a marine mammal stranding crew was in Charleston Harbor Monday recovering another dolphin carcass. But the pygmy sperm carcass is only the second whale to wash up on a South Carolina beach this year. A dwarf sperm whale was discovered in January.

The 11-foot-long male whale found on Morris Island didn't appear to have any external wounds, said Wayne McFee, National Ocean Service marine mammal stranding program scientist. Its organ were so far gone "there wasn't a whole lot we can tell with this one," he said. The ocean service lab is waiting the results of pathology tests of the dwarf sperm whale, he said.
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Bizarro Earth

9 dead dolphins found since Saturday in Alabama and Mississippi

Ben Raines
al.com
Fri, 18 Mar 2011 20:05 UTC
dead,dolphin
© Press-Register/Harlan Kirgan9 dead dolphins have been found in Alabama and Mississippi since Saturday. Scientists with the Institute for Marine Mammal Studies perform a necropsy on a dead dolphin earlier this year.

Despite what she called an "unusual mortality event" killing dolphins in the Gulf of Mexico, the top federal scientist investigating the deaths, revealed Wednesday that the government has yet to send any tissue samples for laboratory testing to determine a cause. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Blair Mase blamed the delay on complications related to oil spill litigation.

A letter sent by NOAA to groups authorized to collect tissue samples from dead dolphins described the work as "a criminal investigation," according to Mase.

Nine more dolphin carcasses were recovered in Alabama and Mississippi between Saturday and Wednesday, bringing the total for the two states to 62 since Jan. 1, according to a list compiled Wednesday by the Institute for Marine Mammal Studies.
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Attention

Coast Guard probing reports of "sheen" in Gulf of Mexico

Colleen Jenkins
Reuters
Sun, 20 Mar 2011 16:32 UTC
The U.S. Coast Guard is investigating reports of a "sheen" in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Louisiana.

The Coast Guard on Sunday were trying to determine whether the sheen or gleaming at the top of the water, was the result of oil or an algae growth, said Lieutenant Ryan Baxter, command duty officer in New Orleans.

"We have an unknown substance in the water," he said. "We're trying to confirm what it is."
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Question

Popular Berlin polar bear found dead in mysterious circumstances

Kitty Bean Yancey
USA Today
Sat, 19 Mar 2011 13:59 UTC
Image
© John MacDougall, AFP/Getty Images
Knut lived in Berlin's zoo. He was 4 and raised by zookeepers since a cub after his mother rejected him

Now reports say the attention-loving polar bear was found dead in a pool in his cage at the Zoologischer Garten Berlin Saturday, with no immediate cause of death announced.

This is awful," said Berlin's mayor Klaus Wowereit said, according to the Sydney (Australia) Herald. "We had all taken him to our hearts. He was the star of the Berlin Zoo."

Most reports say Knut was alone when he died, as visitors watched him suddenly fall into the water. The celebrity news site TMZ.com carried news of his death and says People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals' German branch had previously complained that his mother and other bears were tormenting Knut. And a PETA rep told TMZ that polar bears don't belong in captivity.
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X

US: Onslaught of Wild Texas Hogs 'Can Do More Damage Than a Bulldozer'


New York Magazine
Fri, 18 Mar 2011 00:17 UTC
Image
© Photo: iStockphotoIt means business
Texas is being taken over by feral hogs, which run in packs, can weigh up to 375 pounds, and sometimes have tusks. "I think people expect this to be a rural problem," Texas Agriculture Commissioner Todd Staples told the AP. Not so! They're in the Dallas suburbs. Out in the country they were shredding cornfields, trampling fruit trees, and devouring the occasional calf (!), but in the city they are uprooting lawns and overturning playground equipment. They're always out there. In the darkness. Waiting. "If you do wake up at night," says Sharie La Vail, whose yard was hit by the hogs, "you look out the window, because you just don't know. I think they outnumber us."

Texas has about 2 million hogs in state, and they cause some $400 million in damage each year. They can break through barbed-wire fences, and they breed so quickly that officials have been stumped about how to stop them from spreading into cities. There was a pig birth-control pill, which failed, and now the Fish and Wildlife Service might let hunters shoot the hogs from helicopters. (Palin family vacay!)
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Bizarro Earth

Australia: Stranded Whales Back at Sea


ABC News, Australia
Fri, 18 Mar 2011 00:12 UTC
Stranded Whales
© Parks and WildlifeRescuers worked by moonlight to move the stranded whales beach back into the water.

The surviving whales from a pod of 30 which stranded on Bruny Island in southern Tasmanian have been returned to the water.

Parks and wildlife rescuers worked under the light of a full moon to free 11 long-finned pilot whales on a beach on South Bruny Island.

The Parks and Wildlife Service's Rosemary Gales says the animals were returned to the water about 4:30am (AEDT) and have swum away.

"There's just been a sighting of some live whales that they're going to check out to determine if they're the same ones," she said.
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Fish

California: Dead fish = earthquake predictor?

Miriam Elder
GlobalPost
Mon, 14 Mar 2011 23:32 UTC
An Azeri scientist has linked the recent incident of California's mass fish death to the earthquake in Japan.

"Animals, they feel everything. They run away from earthquakes however they can," Gurban Jalal Etirmishli, the general director of the Azerbijan Science Academy's Republican Center for Seismology, told Life News, a Russian tabloid.

More than a million sardines washed up on California's Redondo Beach last week. Scientists say they suffered from a lack of oxygen, but some reports have said they were found to have high toxin levels.

"During the first underground movements on March 8, toxic gases and even radiation could have oozed out, becoming a reason for the death of the fish," Etirmishli said. "If, in the near future, a similar thing happens, it can be a sign of a coming earthquake."
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Fish

Study Shows Extent of Plastics in Ocean Fish

Mike Verespej
Plastics News
Mon, 14 Mar 2011 12:15 UTC
Lanternfish
© Emma Kissling / WikipediaLanternfish, Myctophum punctatum

Washington -- A study related to plastic marine debris found that 35 percent of ocean fish had plastic in their stomachs.

Of the fish that ate plastic, the average had two pieces of plastic. Some had as many as 83 pieces.

Most of the fish that ate plastic were deepwater lanternfish, which may come to the ocean surface after dark to feast on plankton.

"As the larger pieces of plastic break down, they mimic the size, shape and texture of natural food," said Charles Moore, founder of the Algalita Marine Research Foundation in Costa Mesa., California, and an author of the study. "What we're seeing is the entire food web being contaminated by plastic."

Lanternfish are a food source for mahi-mahi, tuna, whales, dolphins, sharks, penguins and seabirds.

Steve Russell, vice president of plastics for the American Chemistry Council in Washington, said ACC has not had an opportunity to review the study.

But Russell was quick to add that "We certainly agree that plastics don't belong in our oceans and waterways."
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