Animal Behavior, Methane Poisoning, Dead or Alive and on the move (+ interactive map)

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When Planet X entered the inner Solar System in late 2002 - early 2003, it was not just the Earth that reacted, as it did with an increase in earthquakes, volcanism and extreme weather, the animal life on Earth also started showing signs of the approaching monster.

The most noticeable symptoms were:

  • Crazy Animal Behaviour:  Reports of bizarre behaviour including animal attacks from normally passive creatures and spiders spinning webs over whole fields.
  • Confused Animals:  Whales and dolphins stranding themselves on beaches in droves or getting lost upstream in coastal rivers.
  • Large fish and bird kills:  Flocks of birds falling dead from the sky and shoals of fish dying and floating to the surface of lakes, rivers and washing up along coastlines.

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Crazy Animal Behaviour

Reports of crazy animal behaviour have included sheep that charged a farmer’s wife off a cliff, deer attacking a car and rabbits biting pedestrians.  Spiders have spun webs over whole fields and caterpillar larvae have covered whole trees in silk.

As usual, the Zetas explain the true causes:

http://www.zetatalk.com/transfor/t154.htm (Jan 11th 2003)

Animal behavior also has been noted as almost crazed, where animals normally passive and seeking to avoid confrontation will attack with provocation, or fly in the wrong direction during migration. This is due to signals the animals or insects get from the core of the Earth, signals not known to man, but nonetheless there.  [……]  Spiders weaving webs to an extreme so that acres are covered under webs, get noted, but the base behavior is normal for a spider.  EOZT

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Confused Animals

Other erratic behaviour among animals included a seeming loss of direction with whales and dolphins swimming inland and stranding themselves on beaches.

Unreliable Compasses  (March 28th, 2009)

The compass is unreliable for the past few years, and lately has gotten very extreme in its variance. Many animals and insects have a biological compass, recording during migrations where that compass laid, and when taking a return trip relying on the recording to guide them back. If the Earth's N Pole swings away from the press of Planet X, which is increasingly pointing its N Pole at the Earth, then these animals are not given correct clues and aim for land or up a river. Sad to say, this will only get worse as the last weeks and the pole shift loom on the horizon.   EOZT

Are due to the Magnetic Clash   (July 1st, 2006)

The compass anomaly, swinging to the East, is indicative of the Earth adjusting to the approach of Planet X and the clash of their magnetic fields. The change is indicative of a clash in magnetic fields as Planet X comes ever closer to the Earth, their fields touching. It is the combined field that Earth must adjust to, and continue to adjust to, not the exact position of the N Pole of Planet X within these fields, and the Sun's magnetic field enters into the equation too. This dramatic change, noted by a conscientious tracker, checking dual compasses daily for years, indicates that the Earth is trying to align side-by-side with Planet X, bringing its magnetic N Pole to point toward the Sun, as Planet X is currently doing in the main. These adjustments are temporary, and change about, as magnets can make dramatic and swift changes in their alignment with each other. Put a number of small magnets on a glass, with iron ore dust, and move a large magnet about under them, and watch the jerking about they do. Are we saying the Earth's magnetic field is going to get more erratic in the future, dramatically so? There is no question that this will be one of the signs that will come, yet another not covered by the Global Warming excuse.   EOZT

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Large fish and bird kills

Hundreds, if not thousands, of these events have taken place with the frequency increasing year on year.  Poignant examples include the 20 tonnes of dead herring which washed ashore in Norway and 1200 pelicans found on a beach in Peru.

Earth Farts  (January 9th, 2007)

We have explained, in great detail, that the stretch zone does not register great quakes when rock layers pull apart and sink, as this is a silent Earth change. Nancy has carefully documented breaking water and gas mains, derailing trains, dislocating bridge abutments, mining accidents, and outbreaks of factory explosions, showing that these have occurred in rashes on occasion, when the rock layers pulled apart. [……]  In September-October of 2005, a smell of rotten eggs was sensed from LA to Thunder Bay on Lake Superior to the New England states and throughout the South-Eastern US. We explained at that time that this was due to rock layers being pulled apart, releasing gas from moldering vegetation trapped during prior pole shifts, when rock layers were jerked about, trapping vegetation. We explained in March of 2002 that black water off the coast of Florida was caused by this phenomena. Do these fumes cause people to sicken, and birds to die? Mining operations of old had what they called the canary in a birdcage, to warn the miners of methane gas leaks. Birds are very sensitive to these fumes, and die, and this is indeed what happened in Austin, TX. Were it not for the explosions associated with gas leaks, it would be common knowledge that gas leaks sicken, as the body was not structured to breathe such air for long.   EOZT

 

Zetatalk Explanation  (January 8th, 2011)

Dead fish and birds falling from the sky are being reported worldwide, suddenly. This is not a local affair, obviously. Dead birds have been reported in Sweden and N America, and dead fish in N America, Brazil, and New Zealand. Methane is known to cause bird dead, and as methane rises when released during Earth shifting, will float upward through the flocks of birds above. But can this be the cause of dead fish? If birds are more sensitive than humans to methane release, fish are likewise sensitive to changes in the water, as anyone with an aquarium will attest. Those schools of fish caught in rising methane bubbles during sifting of rock layers beneath them will inevitably be affected. Fish cannot, for instance, hold their breath until the emergency passes! Nor do birds have such a mechanism.   EOZT

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Comment by Starr DiGiacomo on September 4, 2020 at 10:21pm

https://www.brproud.com/news/fish-kill-takes-over-in-lake-charles-a...

Fish kill takes over in Lake Charles after Hurricane Laura





LAKE CHARLES, La. (BRPROUD)- After heavy rainfall brought in by Hurricane Laura, fish in Lake Charles are another victim of Hurricane Laura.

Rainfall water can carry high amounts of dissolved oxygen into large bodies of water via hurricanes.

The dissolved oxygen can cause life under water to suffocate.

Therefore, large amounts of fish in Lake Charles are showing up dead.

Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries are investigating a fish kill in Lake Charles, due to Hurricane Laura.

The department is researching what species “are impacted and the extent of the fish kill.”

The high winds and rains of a hurricane can also kill fish.

Cool and warm waters mixing at a fast pace can also significantly lower oxygen levels and cause fish kills, according to Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries.

Comment by Starr DiGiacomo on September 2, 2020 at 7:15pm

https://greece.greekreporter.com/2020/09/02/thousands-of-dead-fish-...

Thousands of Dead Fish Wash Up Onshore Along Northern Greek River

Sept 2 2020

Shocking images emerged of thousands of dead fish washed up along the shores of several bodies of water in Rhodope, a region in Western Thrace, over the weekend.

Veterinary officials from Eastern Macedonia and Thrace located the dead fish in three areas in Lake Ismarida in Rhodope, Lake Vistonida, located between Rhodope and Xanthi, and along the Kompsatos River, which begins in the Rhodope mountains and flows into Lake Vistonida.

Prussian carp, eels, flathead grey mullets, and blue crabs were identified among the dead aquatic life.

According to autopsies conducted on the creatures, as well as tests of the environment from Lake Ismarida, scientists concluded that the mass death was due to increased water temperatures and low oxygen levels in the lake.

No evidence of disease, parasites, or harmful bacteria was found among any of the samples gathered for analysis.

When water temperatures rise, the available oxygen decreases, causing asphyxiation in aquatic life. Scientists note that this particular instance is very troubling, as eels, usually adaptable to low-oxygen levels, were among the dead creatures.

Increased temperatures and low water levels led to a similar phenomenon in Greece’s Kompsatos River. Flow of brackish water from Lake Vistonida caused even more damage to the sensitive fresh-water creatures in the Kompsatos, increasing the numbers of dead fish in the river.

Officials have begun to collect the dead fish from the sites. The fish will be disposed of according to strict safety and hygienic measures. Authorities ensure the public that none of these dead fish have been placed on the Greek market for consumption.

Greece experienced extremely high temperatures last week nearing 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit), which is very unusual for this late in the summer.

Comment by Starr DiGiacomo on August 30, 2020 at 9:15pm

https://atlantic.ctvnews.ca/over-2-000-dead-fish-discovered-in-p-e-...

Over 2,000 dead fish discovered in P.E.I. river

Published Sunday, August 30, 2020 3:44PM ADT

An investigation is underway after more than 2,000 dead brook trout were discovered this weekend in Prince Edward Island’s Montrose River.

The Department of Environment, Water and Climate Change says they received a call on Friday reporting a fish kill in Alma.

The fish kill covers from Marchbank pond to the Confederation Trail in Alma. Just over 2,000 dead Brook Trout were collected Friday and Saturday and a couple hundred more were not able to be collected.

No cause has been determined. Samples have been collected and sent for analysis. The incident remains under investigation.

This section of river has had three reported fish kills since 2010, occurring July 13, 2010, Aug. 18, 2017, and Aug. 28, 2020.

Clean up is complete and the Department of Environment, Water and Climate Change is assessing the area to determine next steps to help the fish population recover.

and another:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/prince-edward-island/pei-montrose-ri...

Fish kill in Montrose River leaves more than 2,000 trout dead

Posted: Aug 30, 2020 3:07 PM AT

Officials with the province say over 2,000 brook trout are dead after a fish kill last week in the Montrose River in western P.E.I.

The affected area of about five kilometres stretches from the Confederation Trail above Route 2 near Alma down to Marchbanks Pond.


The dead fish were discovered on Friday by a landowner who has a section of the stream passing through his property.

"The fish had been dead for more than a couple of days," said Rosanne MacFarlane, a provincial freshwater fisheries biologist who responded to the incident Friday.

"We did the best we could on Friday and then the cleanup continued on Saturday."

Provincial conservation officers responded to the kill, as did both provincial and federal representatives from the respective departments of environment. The cause of the kill has not been determined.

Complications of decomposition

The collection of the fish was complicated by the fact that many of the fish had already started to decompose.

"Some of them could not be retrieved just because they were in deep pools, and then visibility is also an issue," said MacFarlane. "As soon as you walk through a filthy stream like that, you lose your visibility." 

Officials said "a couple hundred" fish could not be retrieved during the collection.

"I'm mostly looking at the condition of the fish and the condition of the stream ... so I intend to go back within the next couple of weeks and will do some assessment of what's remaining just to see how much of an impact that the event had on the system," MacFarlane said.

Third kill on the Montrose

This is the third reported fish kill in this section of the Montrose River since 2010. The first was in July 2010, followed by August 2017.

"We had one three years ago on that same stream," said John Lane, co-ordinator of the Cascumpec Bay Watershed Association. "It wasn't significant, and I think it wasn't because maybe there had been another one previously that killed most of the fish, and then you can only kill a fish once.

"But the population, that stream, we knew there was something askew."

Lane received the call from the landowner who originally found the dead fish on his property. He sent his team to have a look, which included those who had helped with previous fish kills in the area.

"When we saw that there were significant numbers, we pulled right out because then it becomes a case of we touch nothing and let the investigators do their job, which is the province's job," he said.

Sometimes it's very difficult to pinpoint what exactly may have killed the fish- Roseanne MacFarlane, Freshwater Fisheries Biologist.

For Lane, receiving the call Friday did not make for a happy day.

"I'm sure like every other co-ordinator who's had a fish kill, it just takes the gut right out of you… It just takes the wind right out of your sails," he said.

Second P.E.I. kill in 2020

This is the second reported fish kill in the province this year. The first was a manure spill in Cousins Pond on June 3.

Officials said the cleanup for the Montrose incident has been completed and the Department of Environment, Water and Climate Change is continuing to assess the area to determine next steps to help the fish population recover.

"It's never a positive thing for an ecosystem to lose a number of a species like that," said MacFarlane. 

Although the cause of the incident has not been determined, MacFarlane says past fish kills on P.E.I. have resulted from natural causes — like low oxygen in a watercourse due to frozen ponds, post-spawning stress and high water temperatures — as well as causes like pesticides.

The source of the Cousins Pond manure spill was later determined, but not made public.

Both MacFarlane and Lane said determining a cause for the Montrose River incident may be challenging due to the state of the fish upon discovery.

"The water is flowing constantly, so anything that might have been present that could potentially kill the fish would be gone at this point," MacFarlane said.

Provincial officials said the incident remains under investigation.

Comment by Starr DiGiacomo on August 26, 2020 at 8:56pm

https://www.forbes.com/sites/nishandegnarain/2020/08/26/anger-as-de...

Aug 26, 2020,11:45am EDT

Anger As Dead Dolphins Wash Up On Mauritius Beaches A Day After Wakashio Oil Ship Deliberately Sunk

A day after the controversial sinking of the 300m front section of the Japanese-owned oil spill ship, the Wakashio, there is shock and anger in the country as dozens of dead dolphins and porpoises washed up on the beaches of Mauritius earlier today in the Indian Ocean.

There has been not yet been an official statement on the exact cause of death and species, although Government fisheries officials did confirm 17 dolphins had been found on Wednesday 26 August, as the numbers kept rising throughout the day.

Videos and photos have appeared throughout the national media as well as across social media, with several videos showing both heavy oil in the mouth of the dolphin as well as a thin film of oil along the delicate breathing blowholes and skins of the mammals. Videos also emerged showing the desperate efforts to save the mammals who were clearly looking distressed

Until now, it had been dead turtles, fish, shellfish, and crabs that had been washing up on shore, and these are the largest marine life to date to be seen directly impacted, 32 days since the Japanese vessel, the Wakashio grounded on Mauritius’ pristine coral reefs, and started spilling ship engine oil from 6 August.

The dolphins washed up along a 2 mile stretch of coast along the bays and shores of Mauritius, 12 miles North from the wreck of the Wakashio.  This stretch has previously been famous for the hundreds of dolphins that could be seen jumping


11 August 2020: the extent of the oil spill within 5 days of the spill starting, can be seen from space stretching over a 14 mile distance North

11 August 2020: the extent of the oil spill within 5 days of the spill starting, could be seen by ... [+]

 URSA SPACE SYSTEM/ICEYE

out of the ocean in the calm morning waters around the edge of the unspoiled barrier reef on that part of the South Eastern coast of the island.

The location of the beaching of the dolphins is much further North than the Government had been concentrating cleanup efforts, despite satellite analysis using SAR that showed that on 11 August (five days after the spill had commenced), traces of the oil spill could be seen 14 miles North by the protected atoll and mangroves of Ile aux Cerfs, less than a mile from where some of the dolphins have now washed up in the village of Quatre Soeurs by the Grand River South East.

Although media and Government sources have reported that the species found are dolphins, it is worth noting that there are several large species of marine mammals in Mauritian waters at this time of year. Cetaceans are the name for the group of ocean mammals commonly known as whales, dolphins, and porpoises. In Mauritius, the most common dolphins are the spinner and bottlenose dolphins. Porpoises are rarer than dolphins. They are considered toothed whales and more closely related to belugas and narwhals, than dolphins. Given the physical features around the beak of the creatures, the videos and photos circulating online appear to indicate that these species may be porpoises, although an official statement from the Government has not yet been released.

article continues...

Comment by Starr DiGiacomo on August 26, 2020 at 6:18am

https://www.ktuu.com/2020/08/26/hundreds-of-salmon-found-dead-in-ko...

Hundreds of salmon found dead in Kodiak

Die-offs of salmon before they spawn are becoming more frequent. Here’s why:

Published: Aug. 25, 2020 at 8:15 PM EDT

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) - Over the weekend, Kodiak residents began to notice numerous dead pink salmon in a river popular with fishermen. The Buskin River, located near the Kodiak Airport and a short drive from town, is known for its sockeye and silver salmon runs.

This season, there was a large pink salmon run up the Buskin River, but many were found belly up having died before spawning. Some residents wondered if it was related to a nearby construction site, but Tyler Polum, the Kodiak sportfish biologist with Alaska Department of Fish and Game, said the cause was part of a larger trend seen around the state.

“It looks really consistent with what’s happened the last couple of years in various rivers around here and other places in the state,” Polum said.

The Buskin River was warmer than usual with water around 60 to 65 degrees. Warm water cannot hold as much oxygen as colder water. That, combined with low water levels, reduced the number of fish the river could support.

“It’s pretty likely that the dissolved oxygen in the water just got so low that they died of suffocation basically,” Polum said.

Kodiak Fish and Game observed several hundred fish — mostly pink salmon with some silver salmon, rainbow trout and Dolly Varden mixed in — dead in the river.

August in Kodiak is normally one of the drier months of the year, but meteorologist Kaitlyn O’Brien said this August has seen less rainfall than usual by almost an inch and a half.

“There is a notable decrease in precipitation specifically in what we would normally see in the month of August,” O’Brien said.

Across the island, rivers are exhibiting conditions that lead to salmon mortality, Polum said. In 2018 and 2019, the high water temperature, low water level and low dissolved oxygen level resulted in more salmon deaths in the Buskin River and throughout the state.

Warming waters, warming planet

Last year was a particularly difficult year for salmon migrating up the Koyukuk River with at least 1,364 chum salmon found dead. Peter Westley, an associate professor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, studied how the mortality of the chum salmon was related to the 2019 heatwave.

“All of these signs point to these types of events becoming more frequent and potentially of greater magnitude as things warm up,” Westley said. “So in some ways, it’s surprising when it happens, but I think we’re going to get to the point where we are not surprised.”

story continues...

Comment by Starr DiGiacomo on August 21, 2020 at 2:18am

https://phys.org/news/2020-08-thousands-fish-dead-biscayne-bay.html

Thousands of fish turned up dead in Biscayne Bay. Coral bleaching might be next

August 20 2020

Fish may not be the only victims of the pollution and hot temperatures that drove oxygen to insufficient levels in Biscayne Bay and led to a mortality event that shocked Miami residents last week

Coral reefs in the bay risk bleaching if water conditions don't improve soon, scientists said. Prolonged periods of high ocean temperatures cause coral to expel the algae that live inside them, leaving them more vulnerable to stressors like pollution and a deadly disease that's ravaging reefs in Florida.

"It's a one-two punch for corals," said Chris Langdon, director of the Coral Reefs and Climate Change Laboratory at the University of Miami's Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science. "Heat is breaking records and there's more nutrients flowing into the bay, so we are watching closely for signs of stress on the corals."

Even if the reefs are offshore and not near coastal areas where the recent fish kill happened, worsening conditions in Biscayne Bay could affect the patches of the Florida reef tract that are already under pressure from ocean acidification, dredging and heavy boat traffic, he said.

Early last week, thousands of dead fish were spotted floating in different locations in the northern part of Biscayne Bay as water temperatures reached about 90 degrees and dissolved oxygen dropped to levels that made it impossible for fish to survive. The fish kill was first observed by residents swimming near Morningside Park, and later spread to other parts of the bay.

While environmental authorities tested the water and didn't find evidence of toxic algal blooms, scientists think that chronic pollution and a seagrass die-off a few years ago created the backdrop for a "perfect storm" when temperatures rose very fast. Low wind, which reduced water circulation, and above-average rainfall in the Miami area also increased nutrient discharges from the Little River and other canals that feed into the bay.

Fish kills happen when warmer water and higher salinity levels lead to a drop in dissolved oxygen, especially in shallow areas. If algae blooms occur as a result of increased nutrients in the water, there's more life using the oxygen in addition to fish. At night, when the algae aren't producing oxygen through photosynthesis, the situation can reach critical levels, with fish, algae and all other microorganisms breathing but no oxygen being produced.

story continues...

and another:

  https://newsontheflipside.com/world-news/summer-heatwave-kills-th...

Summer heatwave kills thousands of fish leaving them rotting in sun as environment chiefs battle to stop more deaths

August 19, 2020

  • Hundreds of fish were found dead after oxygen levels dropped in Britain’s waters
  • Pumps are being brought in by Environment Agency to re-oxygenate the water 
  • Officers removed carcasses in five areas, including Surrey and Gloucestershire 
  • Oxygen levels in the water are particularly bad when storms follow a heatwave 
  • The crisis comes as anglers rush to bankside after easing of lockdown rules 

The summer heatwave has killed thousands of fish, leaving them rotting in the sun as environment chiefs battle to stop more deaths. 

Comment by Starr DiGiacomo on August 16, 2020 at 2:35am

https://www.abc6.com/nearly-5000-fish-found-dead-says-dem/

Nearly 5,000 fish found dead, says DEM

Comment by Starr DiGiacomo on August 14, 2020 at 3:30am

https://www.dailysabah.com/life/environment/dozens-of-dead-seagulls...

Dozens of dead seagulls wash up on Lake Van's shores

AUG 13, 2020 12:10 PM GMT+3

ozens of dead seagulls have been found on the shores of Lake Van, eastern Turkey, in recent weeks. (DHA Photo)

Flocks of dead seagulls have been found scattered around Lake Van in eastern Turkey, and even though most deaths are attributed to hunger and food scarcity, the extent of the deaths has been worrying.

The incident recently came to light after several concerned residents contacted officials about seeing the dead and dying birds around the body of water. Residents in the area have been demanding that authorities look deeper into the collective deaths, which happen on an annual basis.

Locals said the current situation with the coronavirus has only added to their worries, and the carcasses of the gulls were constituting a great public health hazard, especially to children who play around the lake.

Seagulls are known to choose places not populated by humans and areas that do not pose a risk to them during the breeding season, hence they prefer the Lake Van basin, and in particular Adır Island (also known as Lim Island).

Aptly nicknamed "seagull island" by Van locals, Adır Island becomes a nesting ground for hundreds of seagulls who come to lay their eggs every year. While most of the seagulls are reported to die from starvation, the increasing numbers of deaths has left people feeling uneasy.

Locals have complained of not being able to swim in the lake because of the dead birds and are worried about contracting possible diseases from them.

"Although it seems like it is a simple natural event, it is much bigger than that for us. There are hundreds and even thousands of dead seagulls on the coastline. We are very uncomfortable with this situation. We can't swim in the lake. And we are more concerned now because of the coronavirus pandemic," said Ahmet Çıkla, a local from the area.

Stating that the seagulls were even going inside their homes to find food, Çıkla said they have been calling on authorities to clean up the shores and find the reason behind these deaths.

and another:

https://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/video-oxygen-deprived-fish-in-mi...

Oxygen-Deprived Pufferfish Gasp for Air in Biscayne Bay

AUGUST 13, 2020 | 9:00AM

Conservationist Christopher Boykin awoke yesterday to news that thousands of fish were dying in Biscayne Bay. Not long after he arrived at work, Boykin, the executive director of the Pelican Harbor Seabird Station in Miami, witnessed firsthand what was happening. Outside the nonprofit's building on the 79th Street Causeway, dozens of stingrays, pufferfish, eels, and sea robins were clustered in the water near the shore.

Boykin began livestreaming the scene on the organization's Facebook page.

"The die-off in Biscayne Bay right now is really sad," he says in the video. Then Boykin addresses the audible gasping of nearby checkered puffers: "To have this many, this volume of fish looking for oxygen — they're almost air-gulping over there, all of those guys. It's really kind of crazy and we're very disturbed, as are all the residents along Biscayne Bay that are seeing this volume of death."

State and county officials began taking water samples and investigating Monday after thousands of dead fish surfaced in Biscayne Bay between the Venetian and Julia Tuttle causeways.

While the precise cause is still unknown, Tere Florin, a spokesperson for the Miami-Dade Department of Environmental Resources Management (DERM), says inspectors found extremely low levels of dissolved oxygen, which plants and marine animals need to survive. Florin says the warm water temperature — measured at 90 degrees Monday — is "likely contributing to or driving the situation."

DERM is continuing to monitor the water conditions and hopes the data will provide more clarity.

Miami Waterkeeper executive director Rachel Silverstein suspects the lack of oxygen could be compounded by algae blooms caused by nutrient pollution. As of yesterday, Miami Waterkeeper was still waiting on test results to see if algae toxins are present in the water samples it sent to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

"That churning of the water can create additional oxygen," he says. "They were looking for oxygen, absolutely."

He hopes this week's events will remind Miamians of the importance of conservation.

"I think we all as humans need to slow down and take care of our backyard," Boykin says. "We need to give back to this world what we've taken, like The Giving Tree. We need to take care of our waterway, our Biscayne Bay."

Until the situation improves, Silverstein is asking residents to let Miami Waterkeeper know of any large clusters of fish so the organization can attempt to provide relief by pumping extra oxygen into the area. The team is monitoring emails sent to hello@miamiwaterkeeper.org.

Comment by Starr DiGiacomo on July 25, 2020 at 7:47pm

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/pkyq7g/why-this-years-locust-inv...

Why This Year's Locust Invasion Is Setting Off Global Panic

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6bDrgQE-1U&feature=emb_logo
Huge swarms can devour so much in a day that they could cause a hunger crisis.
July 24 2020

As if 2020 hasn’t thrown enough curveballs already, desert locusts are setting off a global panic.

From Kenya to Pakistan to, most recently, Argentina, locust swarms have been on the move. The infestation is most advanced in East Africa, which is experiencing the worst locust outbreak in generations.

There’ve been six major locust plagues in the last century, one of which lasted nearly 13 years, according to the U.N. But the current infestation in East Africa is technically an upsurge, as defined by the Food and Agriculture Organization. Depending on locust control efforts and favorable breeding conditions in terms of moisture and soil, the upsurge could spread even further and get upgraded to a plague.

A locust can eat about 2 grams of food in a day. So, a New York City-sized swarm can devour the same amount of food consumed in a day by everyone in New York and California combined, presenting a serious problem: Nearly 5 million people in East Africa could face starvation this summer.

The risk of a hunger crisis comes as several affected countries already struggle to deal with supply chains disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The go-to strategy for locust control is to spray swarms with pesticides. Ground surveillance and targeted pesticide operations require the coordination of many players, including national governments and the Food Agriculture Organization.

“We need to have lots of people reporting the presence or absence of locusts, because that gives us an accurate map,” says David Hughes, an entomologist who leads Penn State's PlantVillage platform, where local scouts can log coordinates for any locust sightings.

Experts are also studying wind patterns to predict swarm movement and warn local communities of approaching pests.

First-generation swarms have been spotted forming along the Indo-Pakistan border. Swarms are also expected to move toward summer breeding areas in Sudan, Ethiopia and Eritrea through August.

and another:

https://e.vnexpress.net/news/news/locust-swarm-from-china-ravages-n...

Locust swarm from China ravages northern Vietnam bamboo forests, corn fields

July 25 2020

A locust swarm from China has been destroying bamboo forests and corn fields in Dien Bien Province in northern Vietnam since last week.

The yellow-spined bamboo locust (Ceracris kiangsu) swarm, which has an estimated 100-400 individuals per square meter, devoured bamboo leaves in 20 ha of forests in Po Nhu Kho and Ta Mieu villages in Muong Nhe District, Nguyen Trong Kinh, head of the province plant protection department, said on Friday.

They then moved on to corn fields, also spanning 20 ha, he said.

The department has sent personnel to the area to monitor and destroy the swarm, he said.

The insects have been making an appearance since 2015, often flying in from Laos in waves, but this is the first time they are coming from China, he said.

"It might be because Chinese localities near the border have been spraying pesticides. All individuals in the swarm are adults, which would breed and continue to spread."

Dien Bien, which borders Laos and China, is not the only Vietnam locality affected by locusts. Other border provinces like Son La, Cao Bang and Thanh Hoa also typically see swarms of yellow-spined bamboo locust every July, Nguyen Quy Duong, deputy head of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development’s plant protection department, said.

"They only like to eat bamboo leaves and the like. If there are no bamboos, they destroy corns. Hopefully they will leave in a few days and the plants can recover."

The National Committee for Incident, Natural Disaster Response and Search and Rescue said it has requested the High Command of Military Region 2 to monitor the swarm’s movement and assist locals in destroying it if necessary.

Comment by Starr DiGiacomo on July 25, 2020 at 7:41pm

https://www.knom.org/wp/blog/2020/07/24/mystery-of-dying-seabirds-m...

Mystery Of Dying Seabirds: More Starving Birds Found in Bering Strait Region for Fourth Consecutive Year

July 24 2020

REPORTS OF DEAD SEABIRDS found on the shores of Western Alaska are being documented again this summer. According to local experts this would mark the fourth year in a row the Bering Strait region has seen a seabird die-off, if the number of bird casualties continue to rise.

Brandon Ahmasuk, Kawerak’s Vice President of Natural Resources, says for the region to see large numbers of dead seabirds for this many years is concerning.

“Like you mentioned, the last four years, maybe five now…the amount [of dead seabirds] that we’ve been getting is alarming.”

The latest reports of dead seabirds in the Bering Strait region came from Nome, within the last couple weeks. Robb Kaler with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), says the first report from the region this summer was for a dead murre found in Nome around June 2nd.

“That was a little bit later fortunately then we’ve been getting reports from Gay [Sheffield] from the Bering Strait region for the previous two or three years, so we were hopeful that maybe it wasn’t going to be another die-off year, but…”

But alas, the reports and observations are increasingly pointing to a seabird die-off in the Bering Strait region. This would be the fourth consecutive die-off for the region, although it’s been six years in a row that large scale seabird die-....

According to Kaler, the majority of the roughly 50 deceased birds reported last month were either murres or horned puffins. Most of them came from Nome while a couple were found in Shishmaref and on St. Lawrence Island.

And then, within the first two weeks of July, Gay Sheffield of Alaska Sea Grant said she received reports of an additional 60 dead seabirds. So far, initial test results from a handful of those birds have indicated that all of them were emaciated.

But, as Sheffield explains, the unanswered question remains: why were these birds and the hundreds from previous years, starving...

“So you have a skinny bird starving. That bird could either not find food, even though he’s healthy and looking for food; or he could be sick with something and not feel like eating. Those are two different avenues. If you start looking at starvation, you really want to know whether it’s a lack of food or if there’s an overlying problem.”

Since residents and scientists are finding multiple species of birds washing up dead in the region, Sheffield says she tends to think that indicates a larger scale issue going on in the Bering Sea ecosystem.

But, scientists with USFWS and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) are still conducting their tests on the seabird carcasses to try to answer that question. Kaler says they are testing for a host of things like infectious diseases such as Avian flu, as well as biotoxins from Harmful Algal Blooms. So far infectious disease seems to have been ruled out for these particular seabirds.

Meanwhile residents of the Bering Strait region continue to rely on the birds and their eggs for subsistence. Ahmasuk says it appears that less harvesting is happening this year.

“So normally my family will go out to Sledge Island and get a cooler full of murre eggs. And I think this year my brother got one…Other communities, like Diomede, had very little egg harvest…So when you combine those two things and think about how that affects everything, then it gets scary.”

The hope was that this summer was going to be an opportunity to shed some light on this mysterious series of die-offs, but now, due to the coronavirus pandemic, essentially no outside research ve... to study the large-scale ecosystem-wide changes.

Sheffield says despite this survey setback, the Bering Strait region won’t be left floundering.

“Lack of scientific data in a region does not mean there’s a lack of knowledge. Our communities in the Bering Strait region utilize the seabirds every year, spring and fall, for food…When people are calling in with information that is not normal, that is immediately a highlight to me that we need to get an answer.”

While the region awaits more test results and answers from the federal agencies, Sheffield encourages Bering Strait residents to report any dead seabirds or unusual observations they find this summer.

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