Animals
It's the biggest fish in the ocean, and one of the most magnificent creatures any diver could ever hope to encounter.
So when dive boat captain Jeff Torode heard Sunday afternoon that a 30-foot whale shark was spotted off the coast of Boca Raton, he steered the Aqua View toward the sighting. The placid, filter-feeding sharks are not rare, but it is uncommon for divers to see them because they prefer deep water.
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| ©Joe Marino
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| A dead whale shark encountered Sunday off South Florida by divers out of Pompano Beach.
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Brussels authorities held an extraordinary session devoted to a silkworm invasion of the Belgian capital, a radio station reported Tuesday.
"The Brussels governor held an extraordinary session of the capital's government to coordinate measures to fight the larvae after it became known that these insects appeared in the city," Radio Contact reported.
A number of cities in the northern region of Flanders have been attacked by silkworm larvae. Firefighters and army units are fighting the insects.
Jia-Rui Chong and Thomas H. Maugh II
LA TimesTue, 12 Jun 2007 10:13 UTC
Scientists are at a loss to pinpoint the cause. The die-off in 35 states has crippled beekeepers and threatened many crops.
The dead bees under Dennis vanEngelsdorp's microscope were like none he had ever seen.
He had expected to see mites or amoebas, perennial pests of bees. Instead, he found internal organs swollen with debris and strangely blackened. The bees' intestinal tracts were scarred, and their rectums were abnormally full of what appeared to be partly digested pollen. Dark marks on the sting glands were telltale signs of infection.
Daniel Bardsley and Emmanuelle Landais
GulfnewsMon, 11 Jun 2007 09:51 UTC
Swimmers were banned from the sea yesterday after lifeguards spotted jellyfish they say have never been seen before in Dubai.
Staff at Jumeirah Beach Park speculated that the tiny purple and white creatures had been blown here by Cyclone Gonu.
Red flags were hoisted at the beach park yesterday as well as the Open Beach due to a large number of jellyfish spotted in the morning. However swimmers were seen in the late afternoon at Umm Suqeim Beach.
Barbara Scocci, 31, an Italian tourist visiting family in Dubai said an hour after she had arrived at the beach yesterday morning a Dubai Municipality jeep cruised up and down the shoreline calling everybody out of the water with a megaphone.
Scott Thill
AlternetMon, 11 Jun 2007 05:53 UTC
It may sound like urban legend but it's not. A frightening trend of bee colony collapses could lead to everything from a radically transformed diet to an overall wipeout of the world's food supply.
Jia-Rui Chong and Thomas H. Maugh II
LA TimesMon, 11 Jun 2007 05:55 UTC
The dead bees under Dennis vanEngelsdorp's microscope were like none he had ever seen.
He had expected to see mites or amoebas, perennial pests of bees. Instead, he found internal organs swollen with debris and strangely blackened. The bees' intestinal tracts were scarred, and their rectums were abnormally full of what appeared to be partly digested pollen. Dark marks on the sting glands were telltale signs of infection.
"The more you looked, the more you found," said VanEngelsdorp, the acting apiarist for the state of Pennsylvania. "Each thing was a surprise."
MADISON, Wis. -- A mysterious ailment killing honeybees nationwide might be hitting Wisconsin bees harder than first suspected.
Colony Collapse Disorder has made headlines recently because bee pollination is needed for a third of all U.S. food crops.
Comment: For more information on Bee disappearances read the comprehensive SOTT editorial,
To Bee or not to Be.
Researchers have discovered 24 new species in Suriname while a fish species thought to be extinct has been rediscovered, a conservation organisation reported here Monday at the presentation of the result of an expedition from 2005 and 2006.
At a presentation at the Hotel Krasnapolsky in Paramaribo, representatives of US-based Conservation International (CI) told government officials, reporters and others that among the 24 new species there is a purple fluorescent frog (Atelopus species).
CI also issued a statement reporting on the extraordinary discovery of so many species outside the insect realm. Scientists warned however that the new found creatures are threatened by illegal small-scale gold mining, hunting and other forestry activities.
Laura Myers
ReutersThu, 24 May 2007 17:31 UTC
Deep in the heart of the Florida Keys, wildlife officials are laying bait laced with poison to try to wipe out a colony of enormous African rats that could threaten crops and other animals.
U.S. federal and state officials are beginning the final phase of a two-year project to eradicate the Gambian pouched rats, which can grow to the size of a cat and began reproducing in the remote area about eight years ago.
Carrie Peyton Dahlberg
SacbeeThu, 31 May 2007 15:44 UTC
They're leaving behind people who banged on pipes and played a weird compilation of humpback hits, but the whales that lingered in the Delta are returning to an increasingly noisy ocean, where humans are the biggest noisemakers.
We pierce the depths with sub-seeking sonar. We rattle them with oil-exploration blasts. And we churn out a constant din from shipping.
The sounds sometimes kill, leaving beaked whales dead on shore after military exercises.
Comment: For more information on Bee disappearances read the comprehensive SOTT editorial, To Bee or not to Be.