Animals

More than 40 species of fish 'at risk of extinction' in Mediterranean due to pollution

Daily Mail
Tue, 26 Apr 2011 07:21 UTC

© Associated Press
At risk: The number of bluefin tunas in the Mediterranean is decreasing and they may be wiped out from the area completely

Bluefin tuna are among more than 40 species of fish in the Mediterranean which are under threat of vanishing from the region, experts warned today.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) said 43 species of marine fish were assessed as being at risk of extinction in the region, largely as a result of overfishing, damage to habitat and pollution.

The latest assessment found almost half of the sharks and rays found in the Mediterranean are at risk of extinction.

In total, 15 species were considered to be in the highest-risk category, critically endangered, 14 of which were sharks and rays including all three angel shark species found in the region.

And commercial species such as Atlantic bluefin tuna and dusky groupers are endangered, the assessment found.

Species which fall into the three most at-risk categories in the Red List assessment - critically endangered, endangered or vulnerable to extinction - are considered to be under threat of dying out.

Florida, US: Officials determine 'duck plague' is killing ducks at Crescent Lake

Leonora LaPeter Anton
St. Petersburg Times
Thu, 21 Apr 2011 14:09 UTC

Walking along the edge of Crescent Lake this week, Mike Flanagan found something that has become a concern around this close-knit neighborhood: dead ducks.

In recent weeks, more than 25 Dave Bairam, a St. Petersburg environmental analyst, takes a water sample at Crescent Lake Park on Tuesday. He said tests are measuring the lake's oxygen levels.have died along the shores of the lake just north of downtown. Then on Sunday, fish started floating to the surface. Also dead.

© Chris Zuppa | Times
A female mallard flies over her ducklings Tuesday at Crescent Lake Park, where residents have found more than 25 dead ducks as well as dead fish. A necropsy found duck virus enteritis, which spreads easily in droppings but not to humans.

"This is not normal," said Flanagan, president of the Crescent Lake Neighborhood Association. "Obviously our concern is, could we lose all the animals on the lake."

On Tuesday, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission performed a necropsy on one of the dead ducks.

The culprit: duck virus enteritis. Also known as duck plague.

US: Shark deaths in Redwood City, California spur search for cause

Kelly Zito
San Francisco Chronicle
Fri, 22 Apr 2011 10:17 UTC

© Lance Iversen / The Chronicle
A dying leopard shark thrashes around in a Redwood Shores slough. At least a dozen such sharks have been found.

At least a dozen leopard sharks have been found dead or dying within the past several days in bayfront lagoons in Redwood City, putting local researchers on alert for some kind of infection or toxic discharge in San Francisco Bay.

The deaths, including both juvenile and adult sharks, appear isolated and far less serious than previous die-offs in 2006 and 2007, which left shark carcasses strewn all over the bay, officials said. Shark experts fear there may be more of the strikingly patterned creatures floundering in Bay Area waterways and succumbing to pollution and disease.

"In the last decade, we've seen an increase in the animals trapped in culverts and pumps that used to be tidal canals or poisoned by periodic pollution events," said Sean Van Sommeran, executive director of the Pelagic Shark Research Foundation, a Santa Cruz group that tracks sharks in Monterey and San Francisco bays.

US: 15 dead sharks wash ashore in Manatee County, Florida

Summer Smith
BayNews9
Fri, 22 Apr 2011 23:22 UTC

A mystery is brewing on Manatee County's beautiful beaches -- researchers are trying to figure out why sharks are washing ashore dead.

Recently more than a dozen dead sharks were found on the north ends of Longboat Key and Anna Maria Island.

"There were no real indicators of what went wrong with them," Dr. Nick Whitney, Staff Scientist for the Center for Shark Research at MOTE Marine Laboratory said. "There are no obvious signs of damage from fishing or net damage or anything like that."

US: Odd Animal Deaths, Deformities Linked to Gulf Oil Spill?

Ker Than
National Geographic News
Tue, 19 Apr 2011 00:00 UTC

Scientists befuddled by dolphin deaths, diseased fish.

On the first anniversary of the Gulf oil spill, scientists are observing strange deaths and deformities in animals that could be related to the disaster, experts say.

In the past six months, the numbers of dolphin and sea turtle deaths in the Gulf of Mexico (map) have risen, and some fish that inhabit the Gulf's coral reefs have developed abnormalities.

Yet projects to document and measure the oil's effects on Gulf marine life are still in the very early stages, scientists caution. Preliminary results may not be available for months, and it may be several years before any kind of scientific consensus is reached.

Such uncertainty is not unusual for oil-spill studies, noted William Patterson, a marine biologist at the University of West Florida (UWF) in Pensacola.

"If you look at the literature surrounding the Exxon Valdez oil spill [in 1989], there are still some unknowns associated with that," Patterson said.

Hundreds of Endangered Whales Swarming New England Coast

OurAmazingPlanet
Thu, 21 Apr 2011 10:51 UTC

A record number of critically endangered right whales are crowding the chilly waters off Cape Cod, Mass.

Researchers counted more than 100, and possibly as many as 200, animals during aerial surveys on Tuesday, the Boston Globe reported, a number that could represent nearly half the entire known right whale population that remains on Earth. Right whales, one of the rarest kinds of baleen whales, are teetering on the brink of extinction. Only about 450 to 500 North Atlantic right whales are thought to remain on the planet.

Charles "Stormy" Mayo, senior scientist at the Center for Coastal Studies in Provincetown told the Globe the whales are as close as a few yards offshore to about a quarter-mile out, and said he expects the marine crowd to remain in the area for at least another week.

The right whales are gathered for a feeding frenzy on zooplankton, tiny, rice-sized crustaceans the baleen whales strain into their massive mouths.

Mayo said it's likely the record number of whales showed up this year because the waters are particularly rich with plankton this year, in much the same way that, on land, some years are better for crops than others.

Australia: Dead Fish Found on Dam Bank

The Ridge News, Australia
Thu, 21 Apr 2011 13:05 UTC

A phone call to the Ridge News on Tuesday morning alerted us to the amount of European Carp fish in a dam at Big Warrambool.

There are thousands and thousands of dead fish on the water and line the banks metres deep.

It is a mystery why they have all died, but a Lightning Ridge local fisherman suggests there is not enough oxygen in the water for the amount of fish.

There is still an amazing amount of fish with their mouths out of the water, they will probably also die.

These fish must have been washed down in flood water and have been left behind in the dam as the waters have dried up.

UK: Outbreak of Toxic Caterpillars in Pangbourne

BBC
Mon, 18 Apr 2011 11:38 UTC

Residents in Pangbourne and parts of west London have been warned to steer clear of a toxic caterpillar.

The Forestry Commission has issued a caution not to touch the caterpillars of the oak processionary moth.

Their hairs contain a toxin that can cause itchy skin rashes as well as eye and throat irritations.

The Forestry Commission's Stewart Snape said residents can report sightings but that the caterpillars should only be removed by pest control operators.

Officials are now dealing with outbreaks of the moth in Pangbourne in West Berkshire and the London boroughs of Ealing, Brent, Hounslow, Richmond upon Thames and Hammersmith & Fulham.

Health Protection Agency director Dr Brian McCloskey said: "We strongly advise people not to touch or approach the caterpillars or their nests because of the health risks caused by the toxin-containing hairs.

California: Hundreds of dead fish found in Ventura Harbor

John Hartung
KABC
Mon, 18 Apr 2011 09:24 UTC

Ventura Harbor -- Hundreds of fish have been found dead in Ventura Harbor. This is the second large fish kill in Southern California this year. This time, hundreds of dead fish are floating in Ventura Harbor.

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The phone calls started coming into the Ventura Harbor Patrol around 6 a.m. Monday. Boaters were already noticing a large number of dead fish floating in the water. One officer said that in the past year, there have been three or four times that this has happened, and in recent days, he was worried that this was going to happen again.

Once again, something's fishy along our Southern California coastline: Another fish die-off, this one in the Ventura Harbor.

California: Dead dolphins and sea lions along coast

Laylan Connelly
Orange County Register
Mon, 18 Apr 2011 19:06 UTC

Two dead dolphins that washed up on the shores of Newport Beach on Sunday appear to have died from domoic acid, a poison that can be deadly to large sea mammals and birds.

Mike Teague, animal control officer for Newport Beach, said experts at the Natural History Museum are also reporting that dead dolphins have also washed up in Los Angeles County.

On Sunday, an adult dolphin washed up at 15th Street in Newport Beach, and another at 61st Street later that afternoon. He said the domoic acid seems to affect male species. The symptoms include floppiness, dizziness and tremors; the acid can cause brain damage.

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Animals

More than 40 species of fish 'at risk of extinction' in Mediterranean due to pollution

Florida, US: Officials determine 'duck plague' is killing ducks at Crescent Lake

US: Shark deaths in Redwood City, California spur search for cause

US: 15 dead sharks wash ashore in Manatee County, Florida

US: Odd Animal Deaths, Deformities Linked to Gulf Oil Spill?

Hundreds of Endangered Whales Swarming New England Coast

Australia: Dead Fish Found on Dam Bank

UK: Outbreak of Toxic Caterpillars in Pangbourne

California: Hundreds of dead fish found in Ventura Harbor

California: Dead dolphins and sea lions along coast

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