Dozens of dead octopuses was up on beaches in Arica, Chile
Photo Illustration
Dozens of dead octopuses and fish washed up on Arica beaches , in breakers and marshes.
For this reason, personnel from the Ministry of Health went to the El Planchón sector, south of the city, to collect samples of seawater and the affected fauna .
The teams went to the site after the complaint from third parties , including shellfish divers in the area.
Beatriz Chávez, Minister of Health, explained that samples were taken in different sectors .
Some of them will be sent to Santiago in order to carry out “physical-chemical, microbiological” analysis to determine the possible presence of toxins.
“This is a place where the Marine Toxin Program usually works, with three toxins that are identified,” said the seremi through a statement.
“We want to know what is the reason for the death of these species. This sector helps our fishermen and shellfish a lot. We are going to work to find out what the real reason for the loss of these species is, ”said Mayor Roberto Erpel.
The seremis of the Environment, Pablo Bernar; of Economy, Cristian Sayes; and the regional director of Sernapesca, Christian de la Barra.
Courtesy of biobiochile.cl
Thousands of dead octopuses, starfish and other marine life wash up in Kamchatka, Russia
Thousands of dead octopuses, starfish and other sea creatures have recently washed up on the shores of the remote Russian peninsula of Kamchatka. The normally pristine waters surrounding Kamchatka have become discolored and developed an odd smell, say locals. Surfers say the water is mildly burning their eyes.
It turns out an unidentified pollution event may have spilled a slew of toxic chemicals into the water, according to recent news reports.
After reports from surfers and locals surfaced, divers confirmed a widespread mass die-off, and Greenpeace Russia called it an “ecological disaster,” according to The Guardian. Widely circulated photos and videos of the dead creatures sparked outcry from the public and speculation from local news outlets as to what could have caused it, CBS News reported.
The pollution seems to have badly hit the sea creatures that live at the bottom of the seafloor, wiping out as many as 95% of them in Kamchatka’s Avacha Bay, Ivan Usatov, a researcher at the Kronotsky Reserve and the Pacific Institute of Geography Kamchatka Gov. Vladimir Solodov, according to the Kamchatka government website. Usatov and other researchers studied the area around Avacha Bay by taking samples and diving to the sea-floor. “Some large fish, shrimps, crabs have survived, but in very small numbers,” Usatov said. But “the condition of marine mammals and birds is normal. On the shore, we also did not find any emissions of large dead sea animals, birds.”
It’s likely that this event severely disrupted the food chain as the animals that feed on those bottom-dwelling creatures will also die, the researchers said.
Last week, officials blamed the scores of dead animals on stormy weather. But a recent analysis of water samples revealed that it was contaminated with a number of potentially dangerous substances. The samples contained petroleum products, some of which were at levels that were four times above normal, Aleksei Kumarkov, the region’s acting Minister of Natural Resources and Ecology said, according to CBS News.
Courtesy of livescience.com
Thousands of dead fish, crabs, eels and other marine life wash up, ‘never seen before’, on the shores of South Florida’s Biscayne Bay, USA #Fish #Crabs #eels #Octopus#Shrimp #Florida #BiscayneBay #USA
Thousands of dead fish and other sea life washed up this week on the shores of South Florida’s Biscayne Bay.
The fish kill was first reported on Monday. Members of Miami Waterkeeper, an advocacy group, saw about a dozen dead fish when they went out to conduct weekly water sampling. Then reports of dead fish, shrimp, crab, eels, octopus and other animals came in from North Miami to Virginia Key.
“I’ve never seen anything like this,” local resident Kathryn Mikesell told New Times. She has swam in the bay at least three mornings a week for five years.
Researchers and government agencies are still investigating the cause, but indicators point to very warm water temperatures and low levels of dissolved oxygen in the water, according to a news release from Miami Waterkeeper.
“It’s an emergency. The bay is not in a good place right now,” Piero Gardinali, an associate professor at Florida International University who is helping investigate the fish kill, told New Times. “It’s a warning sign.”
In addition to the dead fish, a large group of rays, believed to be struggling to breathe, huddled along the shoreline near the Pelican Harbor Seabird Station, a bird rescue and rehabilitation facility on Biscayne Bay. Personnel from a nearby science aquarium used soaker hoses and air pumps to aerate the corner of the bay where the rays had taken refuge to save them.
Fish and other underwater marine life rely on dissolved oxygen in the water to survive. Warm waters bring those levels down. The Waterkeeper noted very high water temperatures of about 90 degrees in the area where the fish kill was first discovered.
Algae blooms can also cause low oxygen levels, but the Waterkeeper said in an update Thursday that there was no evidence of a toxic bloom. They think an ongoing die-off of sea grass, which produces oxygen, could be a main factor that led to the fish kill.
More than 20 square miles of seagrass has disappeared from the bay in recent years, according to the Waterkeeper. A study last year from NOAA warned that the bay’s ecosystem was on the verge of a “regime shift”. The study found increasing levels of nutrients in the water, which causes numerous impacts that are detrimental to marine habitats.
“We are passing a tipping point for the bay not being able to support any life – literally overnight, the bay became a dead zone,” Miami Waterkeeper said of this week’s fish kill.
“This event is not a ‘normal occurrence,’ but rather a sign that something is seriously out of balance in our bay.”
Courtesy of weather.com
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