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Bizarro Earth

New Zealand: Monster of Sea Shocks Beachgoers

Kathryn King
Wanganui Chronicle
Sun, 01 May 2011 20:00 UTC
Dead Whale
© Dennis Loveridge
Extra Large: The 22.3m whale that washed up on Waiinu Beach at the weekend. The man in the background is standing on a four-wheeler motorcycle to see over its back.

Residents of Waitotara were in for a big surprise when they went down to the beach on Saturday.

Late Friday or early Saturday morning a 22.3m-long whale washed up on Waiinu beach, about 1.5km south of the Waitotara River mouth.

Although it is not uncommon for whales to wash up on the beach, this was the largest one local residents have seen.

One woman said the whales they saw usually were smaller and a different species to the one found this weekend.

This one is believed to be a pygmy blue whale.

A neighbour had told them where it was, and she had gone down to the beach to have a look on Saturday morning.

The woman said the giant mammal was "pretty awe-inspiring".

"It was just amazing. I've not seen anything like it. I didn't want to leave it," she said.

The whale was so tall that, at 1.57m (5ft 2in) herself, she could not see over it.

Whanganui Department of Conservation biodiversity programme manager Jim Campbell said identification was a best guess, going on its size and the shape of its fins.
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Bizarro Earth

US: Record Wildlife Die-Offs Reported in Northern Rockies

Laura Zuckerman
Reuters
Sun, 01 May 2011 14:01 UTC
Image
© unknown
Salmon, Idaho - A record number of big-game animals perished this winter in parts of Montana, Idaho and Wyoming from a harsh season of unusually heavy snows and sustained cold in the Northern Rockies, state wildlife managers say.

"Elk, deer and moose -- those animals are having a pretty tough time," said Wyoming Game and Fish biologist Doug Brimeyer.

Snow and frigid temperatures in pockets of Idaho, Montana and Wyoming arrived earlier and lingered longer than usual, extending the time that wildlife were forced to forage on low reserves for scarce food, leading more of them to starve.

Based on aerial surveys of big-game herds and signals from radio-collared animals, experts are documenting high mortality among offspring of mule deer, white-tailed deer and pronghorn antelope.

This comes as big-game animals enter the last stretch of a period from mid-March through early May that is considered critical for survival.

Wildlife managers estimate die-offs in the tens of thousands across thousands of square miles that span prairie in northeastern Montana, the upper Snake River basin in Idaho near Yellowstone National Park and the high country of northwestern Wyoming near the exclusive resort of Jackson.
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Bizarro Earth

US: Nearly 10,000 Bats Die in Durham Cave

Amanda Cregan
Philly Burbs
Sat, 30 Apr 2011 09:10 UTC
Bats
© Courtesy of Pennsylvania Game Commission
Pennsylvania Game Commission biologists photographed these bats hibernating in the Durham mine in September, 2010.

Of the 10,000 bats that have hibernated in an abandoned mine in Upper Bucks County for generations, only about 200 are still alive, officials said Friday. Durham's bats became infected with White Nose Syndrome, a mysterious disease that's killing off bat colonies at an alarming rate from Vermont to Virginia.

In late March, Game Commission biologist Greg Turner checked in on the bats hidden in the hillside of Upper Bucks and found near devastation.

"We're looking at a 99 percent decline," he said.

And the bat deaths might continue.

"There's a few survivors. Hopefully, the ones that are there will survive."

Check back for more details on this story
      Read More...
Fish

Dead sardines surface on Calangute beach


The Times of India
Sat, 30 Apr 2011 17:55 UTC
dead sardines

Panaji -Large quantities of dead fish on the sands of Calangute beach on Thursday took the shine of Goa's most famous tourist spot, but this did not deter tourists from enjoying themselves, even as water sports operators and hawkers went about their daily business.

The dead sardines were apparently deposited at high tide on the beach on Thursday night. "They are scattered for more than a kilometre on Calangute beach," a fishermen said. Water sports operators and local fishermen said the fishes may have been dumped by some fishing vessel at sea.

While the sight of dead sardines -- though these had not yet started stinking when TOI visited the spot around noon on Thursday -- created a nuisance on the beach, tourists, mostly domestic and a few foreigners appeared bent on having some fun on the beach.
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Bizarro Earth

New Zealand: Penguins wash up on East Coast


New Zealand Hearld
Sun, 01 May 2011 11:32 UTC
dead, penguins
© Te Paea Butler
Photos of the dead penguins posted on the Te Whanau a Apanui Facebook page.

The Department of Conservation is staying tight-lipped over the deaths of a group of penguins on the East Coast.

At least 14 have been found washed up along Waihau Bay.

Anti-oil protesters claim seismic testing in the Raukumara Basin is to blame.

DOC is choosing to stay out of the debate until it knows for certain the cause of death.

It said there was a range of reasons why they could have died, and will not comment until test results have come back.

They are expected some time next week.
      Read More...
Bizarro Earth

US: Second dead gray whale found in Puget Sound


Associated Press
Fri, 29 Apr 2011 15:36 UTC
dead gray whale
© Mark Harrison / The Seattle Times
A research team with the Cascadia Research Collective, conducts a necropsy on a 27-foot long gray whale found Monday.

A second gray whale has been found dead in Puget Sound. KIRO-TV reports the carcass washed up Monday on a beach near Blaine.

A whale expert says it's a little unusual to have two dead gray whales in Puget Sound at the same time.

John Calambokidis of Cascadia Research in Olympia planned to take part in Tuesday's necropsy on the whale that washed ashore Monday near Blaine.
      Read More...
Fish

Record number of whales, krill found in Antarctic bays


Physorg.com
Wed, 27 Apr 2011 12:13 UTC
Image
© Unknown

Scientists have observed a "super-aggregation" of more than 300 humpback whales gorging on the largest swarm of Antarctic krill seen in more than 20 years in bays along the Western Antarctic Peninsula.

The sightings, made in waters still largely ice-free deep into austral autumn, suggest the previously little-studied bays are important late-season foraging grounds for the endangered whales. But they also highlight how rapid climate change is affecting the region.

The Duke University-led team tracked the super-aggregation of krill and whales during a six-week expedition to Wilhelmina Bay and surrounding waters in May 2009. They published their findings today (April 27) in the online science journal PLoS ONE.

"Such an incredibly dense aggregation of whales and krill has never been seen before in this area at this time of year," says Duke marine biologist Douglas Nowacek. Most studies have focused on whale foraging habitats located in waters farther offshore in austral summer.
      Read More...
Radar

Exotic birds fly into Wales

Sion Morgan
WalesOnline
Thu, 28 Apr 2011 07:11 UTC
Image
© Unknown
Bee-eater
They're normally spotted in the more exotic climes of Africa, South America and the Mediterranean. But changing global climates are bringing some unusual avian visitors to Wales, as Sion Morgan reports

From the African plains to the mountains of the Himalayas, from the wilderness of Alaska to the South American jungle, it seems the world's most exotic birds are increasingly visiting our Welsh shores.

A number of exotic species are now appearing in our gardens and could soon change the landscape of the countryside forever.

Bird watching is changing and the scale of rare, colourful and plain alien species in Wales has been revealed by the Welsh Ornithological Society (WOS).
      Read More...
Fish

US: Viewer shocked at dead sea life along gulf coast

Stephanie Springer
WALB
Wed, 27 Apr 2011 20:41 UTC
Image

Its been a little more than a year since the gulf oil spill..and but signs are still showing. Karen Johnson paid a visit to some beaches in Mississippi, and she was shocked at what she saw.

She says she saw all types of dead sea life, everything from dolphins..fish..turtles..near the shoreline.

She says some of the creatures were rotting and had been there for days.

She wants to know what's in the water..and hope someone tests the water soon so people are aware of what they are swimming in
      Read More...
Bizarro Earth

King Crabs Invade Antarctica


ScienceDaily
Tue, 26 Apr 2011 10:08 UTC
king crab
© University of Alabama at Birmingham
It's like a scene out of a sci-fi movie -- thousands, possibly millions, of king crabs are marching through icy, deep-sea waters and up the Antarctic slope.
It's like a scene out of a sci-fi movie -- thousands, possibly millions, of king crabs are marching through icy, deep-sea waters and up the Antarctic slope.

"They are coming from the deep, somewhere between 6,000 to 9,000 feet down," said James McClintock, Ph.D., University of Alabama at Birmingham Endowed Professor of Polar and Marine Biology.

Shell-crushing crabs haven't been in Antarctica, Earth's southernmost continent, for hundreds or thousands, if not millions, of years, McClintock said. "They have trouble regulating magnesium ions in their body fluids and get kind of drunk at low temperatures."

But something has changed, and these crustaceans are poised to move by the droves up the slope and onto the shelf that surrounds Antarctica. McClintock and other marine researchers interested in the continent are sounding alarms because the vulnerable ecosystem could be wiped out, he said.
      Read More...
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