Archive | January 27, 2018
25 TONS of dead fish found on beaches in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil
25 TONS of dead fish found on beaches in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil
Hundreds of dead sea birds and pufferfish wash up in Mount Maunganui, New Zealand
Hundreds of dead birds have washed up in Mount Maunganui and there have been more reports of dead poisonous pufferfish found along the Bay of Plenty coastline.
The Western Bay Wildlife Trust had received “mass” reports of shearwaters, petrels, prions, shags and penguins washed ashore and 38 pufferfish had been collected on Mount Main Beach.
Bay of Plenty Regional Council regulatory compliance team leader Chris Brewer said 18 pufferfish were collected between the Mount Maunganui Lifeguard Service and Leisure Island on Wednesday and another 20 were picked up between the Mount track and Shark Alley yesterday.
Brewer said the pufferfish had now been disposed of at the landfill.
The regional council’s senior environmental scientist, Stephen Parker, said the council had also received reports of porcupine fish washing up between Bowentown and Waihi Beach.
Parker said it was common for a range of wildlife to wash up on beaches after severe weather and where they washed up was usually determined by the direction of the storm or swell.
“The locations where these fish are washing up is where we would expect them to from the northerly weather patterns we are experiencing,” Parker said.
“We advise people and pets to keep as safe distance and not touch the fish as they have a neurotoxin in their skin and intestines.”
Tauranga marine ecologist Professor Chris Battershill said he had found about five porcupine fish every 200m along the beach halfway between the Mount and Papamoa which were all “on the small size for their species”.
Battershill said it was good the pufferfish had been taken off the beach. “MPI [Ministry of Primary Industries] are screening them for other toxins in case they have succumbed to something other than storms.”
Western Bay Wildlife Trust chairwoman Julia Graham said there had been a mass seabird mortality with many dead or dying birds being washed up on the beach.
“[There are] hundreds in the Mount alone but thousands up the coastline. I have been getting reports from Warkworth through to Whakatane of mass deaths of shearwaters, petrels, prions, shags, penguins and pufferfish,” she said.
“Many of these are juveniles that cannot survive in this rough weather and episodes of mass die-off are a natural course of events.”
Graham said the Western Bay Wildlife Trust and Arrc Wildlife Trust were handling exceptionally high volumes of birds needing care.
“Our volunteers work long hours and do everything that they can but we are extremely stretched and we need your help.”
Heidi Omundsen said she had found “tonnes” of spiked pufferfish along Bowentown beach and had warned a boy from picking one up.
“They were along the high tide mark, most of them were by the Bowentown headland,” she said.
Omundsen said she had phoned the council who told her staff had been dealing with numerous reports of pufferfish sightings along the region’s beaches.
“We are keeping our dog off the beach,” she said.
The Ministry of Primary Industries has also been contacted for comment.
Courtesy of nzherald.co.nz
200+ dead seagulls found washed up in Tunquen beach, Chile
Neighbors in Tunquen, municipality of Algarrobo, were surprised to see little more than 200 seagulls dead on the beach. Now experts and officials of agricultural and livestock service (SAG) are investigating the causes of the massive death, but ruled out that it was by human intervention.
It’s Franklin gulls, which come from the United States but that at this time migrate to the South. Of the total, only 8 survived and are currently handled in the clinic of the University Santo Tomás in Viña del Mar. There are treated for hydration, feeding orally by probes and necessary medication…
The experts noted that birds are injuries in legs and wings, and that could allegedly have died as a result of any intoxication.
However, the NGO Animalex thinks that there was interference by third parties. “They are sufficient evidence to determine that there was a human intervention. According to the new law of responsible ownership we would be able to review this criminal complaint”, Juan Carlos Oróstica, President of the animal rights organization announced.
Courtesy of eldinamo.cl
Hundreds of birds are dying in Yucatan, Mexico
Hundreds of birds are dying in Yucatan, Mexico
Thousands of dead fish wash up in a lake, ‘a mystery’ in Kuching, Malaysia
Thousands of dead fish have mysteriously floated to the surface of a man-made lake at University Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas) for the past few days.
Efforts have since been carried out by lecturers from the university’s Aquatic Resource Science and Management Programme to identify the cause of the mass death of the fish.
One of the lecturers, Dr Aazani Mujahid, disclosed that the university received reports regarding the alarming number of dead fish – previously donated by the Inland Fisheries Department – last week.
Since then, she said more dead fish of various species were found floating on the surface of the lake.
“There are many factors that may have contributed to the death of the fish but we are still investigating at the moment,” she said when contacted yesterday.
She reckoned that one of the factors could be contamination by dirty water from nearby drains brought in by the rain.
Aazani regarded the dead fish phenomenon at the lake as nothing unusual as it had happened not only in the country but also overseas.
“The sudden change in weather can also make the fish die, particularly when our weather is rather unpredictable right now thus causing stress on the fish,” she opined. While the university is investigating the cause, Aazani advised those who come across dead fish at the lake not to take them or go fishing there.
Courtesy of theborneopost.com
MAGNITUDE 5.7 SOUTH OF PANAMA
https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/us2000cqgn#executive
Subject to change
Depth: 10 km
Distances: 186 km S of Panamá, Panama / pop: 409,000 / local time: 16:45:12.9 2018-01-27
83 km SE of Las Tablas, Panama / pop: 8,600 / local time: 16:45:12.9 2018-01-27
46 km SE of Pedasí, Panama / pop: 1,600 / local time: 16:45:12.9 2018-01-27
MAGNITUDE 5.1 NEAR EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/us2000cqfs#executive
Subject to change
Depth: 51 km
Distances: 253 km NE of Sendai-shi, Japan / pop: 1,038,000 / local time: 04:43:31.2 2018-01-28
119 km NE of Morioka-shi, Japan / pop: 296,000 / local time: 04:43:31.2 2018-01-28
75 km NE of Miyako, Japan / pop: 51,800 / local time: 04:43:31.2 2018-01-28
MAGNITUDE 4.0 SOUTHERN ITALY
Distances: 377 km NE of Valletta, Malta / pop: 6,800 / local time: 19:29:13.6 2018-01-27
25 km W of Catanzaro, Italy / pop: 95,300 / local time: 19:29:13.6 2018-01-27
2 km SE of Nicastro, Italy / pop: 70,300 / local time: 19:29:13.6 2018-01-27
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Hundreds of fish found dead in Mackay waterway, Australia
ABOUT 250 fish were found dead at Mackay’s Gooseponds on Wednesday morning, the second report of a fish kill in just over a week.
Experts believe the fish suffocated as a perfect storm of conditions reduced oxygen levels in the water to a fatal concentration.
This is what killed about 100 fish early last week.
Catchment Solutions aquatic ecologist Trent Power said although about 250 fish had been cleaned up on Wednesday morning that was just a portion of the total fish killed.
He said more fish would have sunk after they died and he expects them to resurface over coming days.
Mr Power said the low oxygen level that most likely killed the fish was a result of three weather conditions.
Rain in October and November would have increased the nutrient run-off from rural and urban properties that algae and bacteria live off.
The still, calm days also would have increased the amount of algae and bacteria in the water, as a lack of wind and rain creates the stagnant environment they thrive on and direct sunlight helps them grow.
This algae and bacteria would have grown in volume and, despite producing oxygen during the day, through photosynthesis, would have heavily depleted the oxygen levels during the night.
It has been reported that some of the barramundi found dead were about 60cm long. Freshwater bony bream were also killed.
Courtesy of dailymercury.com.au
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