Animals
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Attention

Dead humpback whale found off Ulladulla, Australia

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© Lisa Hardwick.GRISLY FIND: The upturned dead whale located in the ocean off Ulladulla on Tuesday afternoon after earlier reports of an upturned vessel.
A dead humpback whale was found floating off Ulladulla's North Head on Tuesday afternoon.

The Ulladulla Marine Rescue crew was called at 1.30pm out after an object, thought to be an upturned boat, was reported east of the headland.

It was earlier spotted off Mollymook Beach.

The crew battled rough seas and strong winds and finally located the whale.

Commander Ken Lambert said a member of the public described the object as an upturned vessel. "The duty Skipper and crew were called to locate the reported object," he said.

"The object was located approximately 1 nautical mile east of the North Headland and Marine Rescue confirmed the reported object to be a dead whale."

Fish

Rare deep sea Opah fish caught on beach in San Diego

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© SDfish.com
Here's one you don't see very often.

Last Saturday, a San Diego angler caught an opah - a scarce deep-sea fish - in the San Diego Bay near Fisherman's Landing. SDfish.com reports that a worker on the landing saw the opah swimming in circles, and used a gaff to pull it up on the sand.

"I never would have believed it if I wasn't there to see it," said Fishermen Landing's Tackle Shop co-owner Doug Kern.

UPDATE: Local fishermen speculate that the opah might have come from a commercial fishing fleet that's docked East of Fisherman's Landing. The fish might have escaped from the fleet and swam over to the beach near the landing.

Opah are prized catches for offshore anglers, because they have a striking appearance and are hard to find. While not uncommon to California and the Baja region, Opah usually live in deep-ocean depths that are too far down for most anglers to fish. It's highly unusual for one to come so close to the shore and practically beach itself.

Then again, San Diego is a remarkable fishing destination. The city's coastal waters boast some excellent offshore fishing opportunities. San Diego also has one of the US's best bass fisheries: the Miramar Reservoir. 5 of the top 25 biggest largemouth ever caught were fished from the Miramar Reservoir.


Comment: Interestingly, on the same day that this fish was caught, a 5.1 earthquake struck southern California, see - Friday's 5.1 quake in Los Angeles renews seismologists' fears of catastrophic quake on dangerous Puente Hills fault

See also: Creatures from the deep signal major Earth Changes: Is anyone paying attention?


Attention

Dead humpback whale washes up near Maldives island

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© FENFUSHI ISLAND COUNCILThe dead humpback whale that washed up near Fenfushi in Alif Dhaalu atoll.


A dead humpback whale has washed up near Fenfushi in Alif Dhaalu atoll on Sunday.

The island's deputy councilor Ahmed Saeed said that the whale that measures about 50-foot washed up near the island sometime on Saturday. The whale is about 1500-foot away from the island's beach, he added.

"The whale hasn't started rotting yet. But when it does, it'll prove to be problematic to us," Saeed said.

The deputy councilor also said that they have informed the authorities about the dead whale that washed up near the island.

"This is a breeding area for whale sharks. So lots of tourists come here every day to see them. If the whale starts rotting, it'll be a nuisance for the tourists who come here as well," Saeed said.

Heart - Black

African elephant poaching numbers exceed 20,000 in 2013

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More than 20,000 African elephants across the continent were killed for their ivory last year, with poaching increasing across 33 per cent of the sites monitored, including Dzanga Sangha in the Central African Republic, a new report shows.

Although this number is shocking, and far exceeds the natural elephant population growth rate, the report, released by the Secretariat of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), highlights that this number is actually slightly lower than the 2011 figure, when numbers peaked following a dramatic increase that had begun in the mid 2000s.

It also shows a clear increase in the number of large seizures of ivory, ie shipments over 500kg, made before the ivory had left the African continent. For the first time, these seizures exceeded those made in Asia.

"Africa's elephants continue to face an immediate threat to their survival from high-levels of poaching for their ivory, and with over 20,000 elephants illegally killed last year the situation remains dire," said John E Scanlon, Secretary-General of CITES.

"Due to the collective efforts of so many we also see some encouraging signals, but experience shows that poaching trends can shift dramatically and quickly, especially when trans-national organised crime is involved."

Source: ELEPHANT CONSERVATION, ILLEGAL KILLING AND IVORY TRADE

Binoculars

Tufted puffin seen on Atlantic coast for the 1st time in almost 200 years

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© Ralph EldridgeMachias Seal Island lighthouse keeper Ralph Eldridge photographed a tufted puffin on the island.
Mystery surrounds how a bird common on Pacific coast arrived on Machias Seal Island in Bay of Fundy

The first sighting of a tufted puffin on the east coast of North America in almost 200 years has people wondering how the common Pacific coast seabird made it to the Atlantic waters.

Ralph Eldridge, the lighthouse keeper on Machias Seal Island in the Bay of Fundy, spotted the bird and noted it was different from the thousands of Atlantic puffins found at the Canadian Wildlife Service sanctuary on the island.

"It stood out as different from our Atlantic puffins - larger, blacker but with a conspicuously orange beak and most notable, a very white face," said Eldridge in an email to CBC News.

Eldridge alerted Tony Diamond, a biology professor from the University of New Brunswick, who is on the island running the Atlantic Laboratory for Avian Research.

Diamond was able to view the bird in a large telescope and confirm the identification.

Tufted puffins are common on the Pacific coast from Alaska to northern California, breeding on offshore islands.

Jim Wilson, a naturalist, said the last recorded sighting of one in the North Atlantic was in the 1830s in Maine.

Fish

Millions of fish around the planet are mysteriously dying... but why?

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Millions upon millions of fish and sea creatures are dying around the world, but it's all very mysterious, as there does not appear to be much explanation for it, logical or otherwise.

When more than six tons of fish died recently in Marina del Ray, it made headlines all over the U.S., according to the blog The Mind Unleashed. But in truth, what happened off the coast of southern California has been replicated all around the globe. In fact, in 2014, as you will see below, mass fish deaths have become very commonplace.

Taken individually or even a few at a time, you would not get the impression that there was a problem. But taken collectively, it's apparent that something is happening. But why?

Has our environment suddenly and dramatically changed? Is there some sort of global weather or geothermal pattern to blame?

What follows is an incomplete list of just some of the most recent incidents of massive deaths of fish and sea life:

Stormtrooper

Baltimore police officer charged after slitting restrained dog's throat

dog
© facebook
A Baltimore police officer is facing felony animal cruelty charges for slitting the throat of a restrained dog, and another has been suspended for helping. Officer Jeffrey Bolger also threatened to gut the dog, witnesses said.

"I'm going to [f--king] gut this thing," witnesses heard Bolger say as he got out of the police vehicle, according to the charging document.

The dog, a 7-year-old shar-pei named Nala, had escaped from owner Sarah Gossard's yard on Saturday through an open gate after Gossard had let her out. Nearby resident Sandy Fleischer found Nala and tried to check the dog's tags, but Nala nipped her, causing a superficial wound.

"The dog was more scared of not knowing where it was and being thirsty and disoriented. The dog bit me out of fear because I tried to touch it, which was my fault," Fleischer told told WBAL-TV. The dog was not aggressive, she added.

Fleischer then called police, and officers from the Southeastern District responded and corralled the dog in an empty lot. The officers captured Nala with a long dog-control pole.

Then Bolger pulled out a knife and slit Nala's throat as Officer Thomas Schmidt held her down.

But even before officers killed Nala, they were being cruel, Fleischer said.

"One police officer said, 'Let's get the noose on the dog,' and you could see the police officer twisting and hurting the dog, bringing it to the ground to the point where the dog's face is on the ground. You could hear the dog screaming and crying in pain," she said. "I did see one officer that had been extremely aggressive that did have his knee into her chest that was tightening the noose. It seemed (they were doing it) relentlessly and unnecessarily."

Police agreed the killing was unnecessary, as the dog was contained.

Question

Experts baffled by cause of 40 seabird deaths in Port Elizabeth, South Africa

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© BRIAN WITBOOIVERY WORRYING: Bird expert Albert Schultz, left, and Dr David Stuart examine a dead bird at the SA Marine Rehabilitation and Education Centre.
The results of postmortems on three of the almost 40 birds found dead along the Port Elizabeth coastline recently have proved inconclusive.

The mysterious deaths of the birds - Cape gannets, cormorants, African penguins and seagulls - was very worrying, experts said.

While signs of starvation were found in most of the birds, the results of the postmortems done at the SA Marine Rehabilitation and Education Centre were inconclusive and they attributed the deaths to three possible factors - the weather, infections or man-made conditions.

Bird expert Albert Schultz said 11 African penguins and 23 Cape gannets were found around Beachview on Sunday, while some cormorants were found along the beachfront in Summerstrand.

Cloud Lightning

65,000 birds and mammals killed by hailstorms in India

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Carcasses of rosy starling in Baramati, Pune district, and an Indian peafowl at Umarga, Osmanabad district
The hailstorm that hit Maharashtra earlier this year killed more than 65,000 birds and mammals in various parts of the state, according to a special report prepared by the Bombay Natural History Society.

A total 26 species of birds and nine species of mammals were killed in Marathwada and Vidarbha during the period from March 1 to 10 and on May 1 and 2, BNHS stated in the report that was released on Tuesday.

Mass mortality was reported in 27 areas with high mortality in 14 areas, each covering about 25 sq km.

"A high number of deaths were reported for birds that prefer residing near human habitation. Some of these are mynas, owls, parakeets and kites," the report states.

The highest rate of mass mortality was observed at the roosting sites of birds such as rosy starling, the house sparrow and rose-ringed parakeet. Birds such as coucal, bulbul, drongo, quail, lark, egret and bee-eaters were found dead across the study area.

Question

Unexplainable seabird deaths puzzle scientists in Iceland

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© Diliff/Wikimedia CommonsEider
Dozens of seabirds have been found dead in a region of Snæfellsnes, and the cause eludes the experts.

Vísir reports that since last month, over 50 common eiders have been found dead near a nesting area in Fróðárrif, located on the Snæfellsnes peninsula in west Iceland. However, no apparent cause of death could be found. This prompted the West-Iceland Centre of Natural History (NSV) to conduct further investigations.

Menja von Schmalensee told attendees at an NSV meeting last Wednesday that, in the course of these investigations, an additional 70 dead birds were found in the area. These birds included kittiwakes, cormorants and more eiders. Even more inexplicably, many dead flounders were also found near the area, having washed up on the shores nearby.

Jón Einar Jónsson, the director of the Institute of Research Centres at the University of Iceland, visited the area with NSV employees. Although scavenging creatures had picked apart many of the dead birds, a few specimens were still intact, and newly dead. Some of these specimens have been sent to the US, to be examined by experts in bird diseases there.

Jón points out that the eider and the kittiwake have little in common with each other, apart from the fact that they both drink fresh water around this time of year. This could point to ponds in the area as being a possible source of the deadly culprit.