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ramonmercado Psycho Punk
Joined: 19 Aug 2003 Total posts: 17938 Location: Dublin Gender: Male |
 Posted: 17-07-2013 22:33 Post subject: |
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| Quote: | Hundreds of dead stingrays found on Mexico beach
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-23341316
Dead stingrays on a beach near the Mexican town of Ursulo Galvan on 16 July 2013
Hundreds of dead stingrays have been found on a beach in the eastern Mexican state of Veracruz.
The stingrays - more than 250 in total - were spotted on Chachalacas beach near the town of Ursulo Galvan on Tuesday.
Some locals reported seeing fishermen dumping the rays on the beach.
Veracruz's Environment Minister Victor Alvarado Martinez has asked federal authorities for help investigating the incident.
Local mayor Jose Martin Verdero said it was "possible that the rays had got caught in nets" used by Chachalacas fishermen trying to catch other fish.
But residents said they had been dumped after the fishermen did not get the price they wanted for them.
Chachalacas fisherman Jaime Vazquez said that in his more than three decades in the job he had ever seen any of his colleagues dump dead fish on the beach.
He told local media that any unwanted fish would have been returned to the sea while still alive. |
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| ramonmercado Psycho Punk
Joined: 19 Aug 2003 Total posts: 17938 Location: Dublin Gender: Male |
| Posted: 11-08-2013 19:47 Post subject: |
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| Quote: | US investigates mass death of dolphins
http://rt.com/usa/bottlenose-dolphin-mortality-event-302/
A baby bottlenose dolphin swims with its mother (Reuters / Albert Gea)A baby bottlenose dolphin swims with its mother (Reuters / Albert Gea)
Stranded dolphins are washing up along the East Coast from New Jersey to Virginia, with 124 deaths reported since July. With an alarming death rate seven times higher than usual, federal investigators have declared it an “unusual mortality event.”
When dolphins are stranded on beaches, they are unable to swim back into the ocean. Helpless, the creatures often die within a few hours. Dolphins occasionally find themselves stranded if they are old, sick, injured or disoriented. But an unusually high number of bottlenose dolphin carcasses have been found along the East Coast this past month, and federal scientists are investigating the mysterious deaths, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Fisheries Service announced.
During August alone, 28 bottlenose dolphins died along the shores of the East Coast, and the other 96 carcasses were found in July. All but seven of the dolphins were already dead when they were discovered, but the survivors died shortly thereafter or were beyond saving and had to be euthanized. Most of the strandings occurred at heavily populated beaches at the Chesapeake Bay.
“All age classes of bottlenose dolphins are involved and the strandings range from a few live animals to mostly dead animals with many very decomposed,” the agency announced on its website.
The federal agency says that harmful algal blooms, infectious viruses, pollutants, human-made runoff, and injuries from ship strikes can all instigate dolphin strandings, but the NOAA not yet determined a cause. By declaring an “unusual mortality event”, federal scientists will receive additional funding for their research into the die-offs.
Previous die-offs of dolphins and seals were sometimes linked to morbillivirus infections, a highly infectious disease that causes symptoms resembling measles. One of this summer’s stranded dolphins appeared to be suffering from morbillivirus, but investigators have not drawn any conclusions.
Since 1991, federal scientists have declared 60 unusual mortality events, but this summer’s die-off is significantly larger in scale – and scientists suspect that many more dolphins may have died, but never washed up on shore.
“This is the highest number that we have had for this time of year since 1987,” Susan Barco, research coordinator for the Virginia Aquarium & Marine Science Center, told USA TODAY. During the 1987-88 strandings, more than 740 bottlenose dolphins died of morbillivirus and algae toxins from New Jersey to Florida, and a number of humpback whales carcasses were also found. But of the 60 unusual mortality events declared in the past two decades, scientists have only been able to determine causes for 29 of them.
But Teri Rowles, National Marine Mammal Stranding Coordinator at the NOAA, told reporters to avoid drawing any premature conclusions regarding the cause of the strandings.
“We’re not saying that this is a morbillivirus outbreak,” she said. “But because of the size of it right now, everybody’s making that link at this point. But that is not a confirmed diagnosis or cause of this event at this point.” |
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| ramonmercado Psycho Punk
Joined: 19 Aug 2003 Total posts: 17938 Location: Dublin Gender: Male |
| Posted: 28-08-2013 00:56 Post subject: |
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| Quote: | Measles-like virus blamed for Atlantic dolphin deaths (Update)
August 27th, 2013 in Biology / Ecology
A virus that is similar to measles is suspected of causing the deaths of hundreds of Atlantic bottlenose dolphins
A dolphin on December 19, 2012 in Antibes, southeastern France. A dolphin virus that is similar to measles in humans is suspected of causing the deaths of hundreds of Atlantic bottlenose dolphins since July.
A dolphin on December 19, 2012 in Antibes, southeastern France. A dolphin virus that is similar to measles in humans is suspected of causing the deaths of hundreds of Atlantic bottlenose dolphins since July.
A virus that is similar to measles in humans is suspected of killing hundreds of Atlantic bottlenose dolphins since July, US officials said Tuesday.
Morbillivirus infects the lungs and the brain, causing pneumonia and abnormal behavior, and is often fatal, experts at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said.
The outbreak has killed 333 bottlenose dolphins in the mid-Atlantic region since July, and may endure for a year, possibly topping the last major outbreak 25 years ago, which killed over 740 animals.
"We are now calling this a morbillivirus outbreak," said Teri Rowles of the NOAA Fisheries Marine Mammal Health and Stranding Response Program.
Thirty-two of 33 dolphins tested have been confirmed positive or are suspected of dying from morbillivirus, which can cause lesions on the skin, mouth, joints and lungs.
Rowles said the death count may end up higher than the 1987-1988 morbillivirus outbreak from New York to Florida, which was the last major event of its kind along the US East Coast.
"We are expecting that if indeed this plays out the way that die-off occurred, that we are looking at mortality being higher and morbillivirus spreading southward and likely continuing until spring of 2014," she told reporters.
Nine times the average number of dolphins have washed up along the shores of the East Coast this summer, in what NOAA has described as an "unusual mortality event," or UME.
Most of the dolphins have been found already dead on the beaches.
Viruses in the same family can cause measles in humans, canine distemper in dogs and wolves and rinderpest in cattle, the NOAA said.
The virus typically spreads among animals in close contact.
While it is unclear what sparked the latest outbreak, scientists think that some sea creatures have natural immunity to morbillivirus, but others do not. When the two populations come in contact, mass illness and death can occur in the weaker animals.
"There is a tipping point in populations," said Stephanie Venn-Watson of the National Marine Mammal Foundation.
"The primary hypothesis is that East Coast dolphins simply don't have the immune response to effectively fight off this virus."
Lance Garrison of the NOAA's Southeast Fisheries Science Center described the 1987-88 die-off of dolphins due to morbillivirus as "very significant."
There are four distinct populations of bottlenose dolphins off the Atlantic coast, including about 22,000 living near the shore and nearly 82,000 in deeper waters.
"One of the real challenges... is determining which actual populations of bottlenose dolphins are affected," added Garrison.
Experts say there is no way to stop the spread of the virus in wild dolphins.
However, the illness is not likely to spread to humans.
"All morbilliviruses known to date infect a small number of closely related species," said Jerry Saliki, a virologist with the University of Georgia.
"So there is no indication that this virus could jump into humans given the species gap between marine mammals and humans."
A total of 488 bottlenose dolphins have been stranded so far this year along the coast from New York to North Carolina, compared to 167 last year, the NOAA said
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© 2013 AFP
"Measles-like virus blamed for Atlantic dolphin deaths (Update)." August 27th, 2013. http://phys.org/news/2013-08-measles-like-virus-blamed-atlantic-dolphin.html |
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| staticgirl Following my fish Joined: 12 Oct 2003 Total posts: 478 Location: Hertfordshire Age: 41 Gender: Female |
| Posted: 02-09-2013 10:35 Post subject: |
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What's killing the animals? A little old lady, that's who.
| Quote: |
Who is strangling the pigeons in historic Cambridge city centre street?
Written by RAYMOND BROWN
A serial “pigeon strangler” has been prowling a historic street in Cambridge to rid it of the messy birds.
Traders in Rose Crescent have told how the elderly woman, a resident of the street, is so sick of flocks of the feathered feral creatures making a mess she has started her own one-woman cull.
Cambridge City Council this year set up a £100,000 “rapid response” cleaning team to target pigeon mess as well as chewing gum removal and to carry out extra litter-picking - but it is still awaiting a vehicle.
But it seems the team are not fast enough for the city’s “phantom pigeon strangler” who has taken the ‘by-law’ into her own hands - literally - and has been snapping the birds’ necks.
The street is home to a cluster of fast-food outlets which attract the scavenging birds looking for scraps.
Robin Aveling, manager of Campkins Camera Centre in Rose Crescent, said the pensioner has called on the council to cull the creatures but have refused.
He said: “We have a terrible problem with the pigeons in the street because of the fast food being thrown about in the road. “But we have one elderly lady who has had enough and goes around strangling the pigeons.
“You see a lot of things in the city but that is really odd. She told me she has asked the council to cull the pigeons but they won’t do it. I suppose she decided to take the matter into her own hands. When I saw her with a dead pigeon she just said,“I strangled it”. You just learn to say OK to something like that.”
Frank Harrison, the city council’s safety operations manager, said: “Anyone who goes about strangling pigeons we would report to enforcement authorities. It is illegal in that it is harmful to wildlife. We would never condone such actions.”
A spokesman for the RSPB said: “It is illegal for an individual to kill pigeons just because they don’t like them. A local athority can do it if the pigeons are causing a health hazard.”
Cllr Jean Swanson, the city council’s executive member for environmental services, said the council had no plans to cull the birds.
She said: “I know that they are pests but I have never heard this issue raised.”
Royston town councillors considered shooting or poisoning the birds. |
http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/News/Serial-pigeon-strangler-strikes-in-historic-Cambridge-city-centre-street-20130902022903.htm |
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| JamesWhitehead Piffle Prospector Joined: 02 Aug 2001 Total posts: 5779 Location: Manchester, UK Gender: Male |
| Posted: 02-09-2013 12:36 Post subject: |
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Wiping away a tear, I feel a musical coming on:
Early each day to the Crescent of Rose
The little old bird woman brings
In her own special way to the people she goes
"Come, see my bags full of strings
Come kill the little birds,
Show them you care
And you'll be glad if you do
Their young ones die hungry
Their nests stay so bare
All it takes is tuppence from you
Kill the birds, tuppence a bag
Tuppence, tuppence, tuppence a bag
Kill the birds, Kill them like that!"
While overhead, pigeons, they shit on her hat.
All around Cambridge, the students and dons
Look down as she sells her wares
Although you can't see it,
You know they are smiling
Each time someone shows that he snares.
Though her words are simple and few
Listen, listen, she's calling to you
"Kill the birds, tuppence a bag
Tuppence, tuppence, tuppence a bag"
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| Monstrosa Joined: 07 Feb 2007 Total posts: 506 |
| Posted: 02-09-2013 17:10 Post subject: |
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| Surely she's been taking pointers fromMr Lehrer |
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| gncxx King-Size Canary
Great Old One Joined: 25 Aug 2001 Total posts: 13561 Location: Eh? Gender: Male |
| Posted: 02-09-2013 17:56 Post subject: |
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| How on Earth does Mrs Pigeon Deathbringer catch the little guys in the first place? I've seen David Blaine and Teller do it as a trick, was she making notes and taking tips? |
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| CarlosTheDJ Dazed and confused for so long its not true
Great Old One Joined: 01 Feb 2007 Total posts: 1928 Location: Sussex Age: 37 Gender: Male |
| Posted: 02-09-2013 22:43 Post subject: |
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| I watched a pigeon taken down mid-flight today, right outside my office window. Taken down by a peregrine falcon though, not by an old lady. |
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| Pietro_Mercurios Heuristically Challenged
Gender: Unknown |
| Posted: 02-09-2013 22:50 Post subject: |
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| gncxx wrote: | | How on Earth does Mrs Pigeon Deathbringer catch the little guys in the first place? I've seen David Blaine and Teller do it as a trick, was she making notes and taking tips? |
Most these flying rats have become so fat on fast food leftovers they're only able to waddle. In the city centre, I keep having to swerve my bike to avoid running the winged vermin over and I'm not going fast at all. |
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