“One of largest mass die-offs of seabirds ever recorded”

[EE_]

“One of largest mass die-offs of seabirds ever recorded” now underway on West Coast — Gov’t: “I’ve never seen anything like this, ever” — Experts: “Just massive, massive, unprecedented” … “Strong possibility of it escalating to affect other species” — “Significant uptick in mass-mortality events in marine world”
Published: January 23rd, 2015 at 11:43 pm ET
By ENENews
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138 comments

National Geographic, Jan 23, 2015 (emphasis added): Mass Death of Seabirds in Western U.S. Is ‘Unprecedented’… [It's] becoming one of the largest mass die-offs of seabirds ever recorded… about Halloween, thousands of juvenile auklets started washing ashore… Since then the deaths haven’t stopped. Researchers are wondering if the die-off might spread to other birds or even fish. The gruesome auklet deaths come just as scientists around the globe are seeing a significant uptick in mass-mortality events in the marine world, from sea urchins to fish and birds. Although there doesn’t appear to be a link to the virus that killed tens of millions of sea stars along the same shores… some scientists suspect a factor in both cases may be uncharacteristically warm waters… At first scientists weren’t too surprised by the carcasses washing ashore… But they now are perplexed by the sheer numbers of dead birds and the spreading geographic extent of the die-off… By comparison, not one of the five largest U.S. bird mortality events tracked by USGS since 1980 is estimated to have topped 11,000 deaths. In Europe… the worst die-off on record [was] 57,000… On some beaches the Cassin’s auklet death toll was a hundred times greater than any bird die-off ever… and six times worse per kilometer than the body count recorded after the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill… Research in the waters off Oregon already has shown that some of the tiny crustaceans at the bottom of the marine food chain were replaced by smaller species… It’s still not clear [if] changing climate contributed to any of these shifts.

Julia Parrish, Univ. of Washington seabird ecologist overseeing a survey team tracking seabird deaths: “This is just massive, massive, unprecedented… We may be talking about 50,000 to 100,000 deaths so far [estimated total population is between 1,000,000 and 3,500,000]… Death at this level and over this much real estate has to be from more than just [lack of food].”

David Nuzum, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife: “I’ve never seen anything like this, ever, and I’ve been here since 1985.”

Mike Szumski, US Fish & Wildlife Service biologist: “You’d find them piled up in clusters… every now and then we’d… find a bird that was just barely clinging to life. They were just skin and bones.”

Bonnie Wood, patrols beaches for dead birds: “It’s so distressing… They’re just everywhere.”

Bill Sydeman, senior scientist at California’s Farallon Institute: “I think there’s a strong possibility of it escalating to affect other species in the near future.”

See also: Cataclysmic die-off of birds on West Coast – Expert: Never seen anything like it…We ignore it at our peril…Canary in coalmine…Trying to find what’s wrong w/ ecosystem (VIDEO)
http://enenews.com/one-largest-mass-die-offs-seabirds-recorded-place-west-coast-significant-uptick-mass-mortality-events-marine-world-govt-ive-never-anything-like-experts-massive-massive-unprecedented-strong-po

[mick silver]

looks like the world maybe at it end with all the stuff that's been done to it , wonder if what happen in japan has anything to do with this

[Ponce]

We will be the last ones to die..........but we will die.........time for a new Earth.

V

[Glass]

do any of these "scien-tits" have a gieger counter? Maybe run it over the bird and see if anything is making them tick.

[Hitch]

I'm on the west coast, and locally the talk is of something foreign in the water that gets into the birds wings and kills them. Some sort of floating fungus perhaps. We've been seeing what we think is the problem at the surface of the water, but haven't really seen any dead birds. I'm keeping my eye out though. I have phone number with me to call the bird rescue center if I need to.

[EE_]

Japan & U.S. Gov’t Experts: West Coast hit by radioactive plumes from both massive Fukushima explosions — Maps of L.A. and San Francisco covered in red clouds removed from latest paper — Total releases ‘clearly larger’ than previously claimed — ‘Significantly’ higher discharges flowed toward U.S.
Published: February 3rd, 2015 at 12:00 pm ET
By ENENews

Excerpts from study by scientists from Japan Atomic Energy Agency, Japan Meteorological Agency, NOAA, UK Met Office, Canadian Meteorological Centre, 2014-2015 (emphasis added):

We estimate a detailed time trend of atmospheric releases during the [Fukushima] accident by combining environmental monitoring data with atmospheric model simulations from WSPEEDI-II (Worldwide version of System for Prediction of Environmental Emergency Dose Information)
The plume movement over the Pacific Ocean [is shown in] the WSPEEDI simulation
12 March: The WSPEEDI simulation showed that the plume discharged by the hydrogen explosion… reached the west coast of the United States on 18–19 and 21–22 March, Sand Point in Alaska on 20–21 March, and Oahu in Hawaii on 20–21 March. [The highest release rate over the course of the disaster occurred Mar. 12 at 15:30 JST, see Table 5]
13 March – evening of 14 March: The plume discharged… over the Pacific Ocean and increased air concentration at Sacramento California, Melbourne Florida, Sand Point Alaska, and Oahu Hawaii… a hydrogen explosion also occurred [during this time period] at Unit 3 at 11:01 on 14 March.
Noon of 16 March – early morning of 20 March: WSPEEDI simulation shows that the plume primarily flowed toward the Pacific… this plume affected the air concentrations… in Alaska and Oahu… [T]he release rate is revised by using recently obtained monitoring data. The release rates [are] several times larger than those estimated previously for the afternoon on 16 March to the noon on 19 March.
Interestingly, when the plume flowed toward the Pacific Ocean, our new source term often agreed well with that of Stohl et al. (2012) [the Stohl et al. cesium-137 release estimate by is far the highest of any included in this study, see Table 9]
The total release amounts of 131I and 137Cs… are clearly larger than those of Terada et al. (2012). These increases were mainly due to an increase of the release rate when the plume flowed over the ocean…
The total amounts of released 131I and 137Cs estimated in this work… were clearly larger than those of the previous work for both radionuclides. The major reason for this increase was that when the plume flowed toward the Pacific Ocean we directly computed a significantly larger release amount…
Note that another version of this study published on Jan 30, 2015 is missing the WSPEEDI maps (Fig. 6), as well as nearly all references to Fukushima fallout reaching North America (pdf)
http://enenews.com/japan-govt-experts-west-coast-hit-radioactive-plumes-both-massive-explosions-fukushima-maps-showing-la-san-francisco-covered-red-cloud-removed

CBS: Officials alarmed as several types of marine mammals begin washing up in California — “Now entire coast is being affected” — “Whole population getting hit hard… a real shock to us” — Animals of all ages sick, not only newborns — “Really hard to wrap our heads around what’s happening” (VIDEO)
Published: February 2nd, 2015 at 9:37 am ET
By ENENews

Orange County Register, Jan 25, 2015 (emphasis added): … Marine mammal experts say the numbers could hit even higher levels than in 2013 [a record-setting year for sea lion strandings], which federal officials called an unusual mortality event… The difference this year: Starving pups showed up as early as December. Sick females and juveniles are also being found… “The difference [now] is we’re not just seeing little pups,” said Lauren Palmer, a veterinarian [with the Marine Mammal Center at Fort MacArthur]. “Females and yearlings are coming in… It’s really hard to wrap our head around the story of what’s happening.”…

David Bard, operations director at the Marine Mammal Care Center in San Pedro, Jan 19, 2015: “What we’re seeing that’s different is we are seeing a wider array of species and age groups, so in other words [in 2013] we were seeing primarily California sea lion pups, this year we’re also seeing harbor seals and fur seals as well as some sub-adults and adults.”

Daily Breeze, Jan 19, 2015: This year, said, there is more diversity among the animals being brought in. “There was a distinct pattern in 2013 of malnourished (sea lion) pups,” he said. This year, harbor seals and adult animals are also affected. “We’re looking at that and any other red flags so that as we move further into the season we may get more answers.”

L.A. Times, Jan 30, 2015: Pups aren’t the only ones in trouble. California marine mammal rehabilitation centers this month have treated record numbers of sea lions of all ages… “We’ve had 67 strandings of sea lions of all different ages,” said Johnson… “The whole population is getting hit hard… It’s a real shock to us,” he added. The story’s much the same in Southern California. “It’s shaping up to be a very, very bad year as far as rehabilitation,” said David Bard, operations director at the Marine Mammal Care Center in San Pedro. There were 75 animals at the center as of the end of January. Like its sister center in Sausalito, the facility was seeing a wider age range of sea lions in January, as well as a greater cross-section of species.

KPCC, Jan 27, 2015: [Justin Viezbicke, California Stranding Network coordinator for National Marine Fisheries Service said] numbers include more older animals than are usually found.

Laguna Beach Independent, Jan 19, 2015: So far this year, [the Pacific Marine Mammal Center] has also seen an increase in adult sea lion rescues needing medical care. “We are concerned”… executive director Keith Matassa said.

Reuters, Jan 29, 2015: … emaciated adults are also turning up, Matassa said.

CBS Los Angeles, Jan 27, 2015: Further alarming the center’s experts is an influx of varying species, according to Executive Director Keith Matassa. “The difference this year is we’re also seeing different species we don’t normally see down here,” Matassa said. In 2013, a record-setting year, the problem of sea lions coming ashore was limited mostly to Southern California, but now the entire coast is being affected, Matassa said.

[b]TV: “Animals basically dying on our beaches” along West Coast — “New, worse calamity seems to be unfolding” — Experts: “Like walking skeletons”; “So hungry they gnaw on rocks”; “Skin hanging off”; “Extremely unusual… maybe the fish have all left”; “Prepare for the worst” (VIDEOS)
Published: February 1st, 2015 at 5:49 pm ET
By ENENews

Fox San Diego, Jan 27, 2015 (emphasis added): SeaWorld rescue teams have taken in more than 50 baby sea lions stranded on San Diego shores… “Their skin is so loose hanging off them, it looks like they’re wearing pajamas” [said SeaWorld's] Jody Wetberg…

LA Times, Jan 30, 2015: “Their growth is stunted,” said Shawn Johnson… at the Marine Mammal Center… “They’re basically starved to death — no muscle, no fat, just skin and bones.”… January 2015, however, has been “extremely unusual” for the Northern California center, he said. In winter, the sea lion population is concentrated in Southern California, then shifts northward in late summer, Johnson said. So for the center to see so many animals is cause for further concern… “Maybe the fish have all left, and that’s why this is happening.”

Union-Tribune, Jan 27, 2015: Wave after wave of starving sea lion pups are drifting ashore… Pups in the Channel Island rookeries were about 19% below average… said Sharon Melin, a wildlife biologist with NOAA… Some of the pups arrive barely over their birth weight.

OC Register, Jan 25, 2015: ‘Prepare for the worst’: Struggling to save starving sea lions… experts say the numbers could hit even higher levels than in 2013… The difference this year: Starving pups showed up as early as December... The mothers – to nourish themselves and provide milk – swam as far as 120 miles north toward Monterrey… [In 2013, Melin] recorded pups at only half their previous weights… last September, the weights were down again… [She had] another research trip out last month. But the skinny pups had only gained 4 pounds… “We’ve told the centers to prepare for the worst,” she said.

CBS San Diego, Jan 28, 2015: It’s a marine mammal mystery. Why are so many sick and starving California sea lion pups been found stranded on our local beaches, just since January 1? “They are so emaciated, they really do look like walking skeletons,” Jody Westberg of SeaWorld San Diego said. So far, this new year, SeaWorld San Diego has rescued well over 60 mostly malnourished sea lions. It’s an unprecedented number in such a short time, especially so early in the year. “It doesn’t seem to be slowing down…” Westberg said… “These animals are basically dying on our beaches,” Dr. Hendrik Nollens of SeaWorld said.

Santa Cruz Sentinel, Jan 27, 2015: [A]long the Central Coast, sea lion pups [are] down to skin and bones. “Sometimes they could barely lift their heads” [said veterinarian Claire Simeone].

ABC 7, Jan 27, 2015: [B]iologists believe El Nino or other ocean influences are making it harder for the mammals to find food… (ocean changes could be harming) their food source

San Diego 6 News, Jan 29, 2015: Sea lions found on San Diego County beaches recently are so hungry they’ve been gnawing on rocks. Some have been found near death, with a belly full of sand and rock, because there’s nothing else for them to eat.

San Diego Reader, Jan 29, 2015: Their skin hangs on bones… barely move around, and they crowd together for warmth… a new, worse calamity of starving babies washing up seems to be unfolding… The arrival x-rays for one sea lion revealed the critter had four pounds of rocks in its belly… their bodies have started to shut down.

KPCC, Jan 27, 2015: The number of stranded animals, at this point, outpaces even that from [the 2013] “unusual mortality event”… Justin Viezbicke [of National Marine Fisheries Service:] “We’re kind of putting all these things together and basically preparing for the worst”

[mick silver]

I hope they are kidding a fool know what going on ,,, “Really hard to wrap our heads around what’s happening” (VIDEO)

[EE_]

Got back Saturday night from a motorcycle trip to Savannah. Had a big time for 4 days!
Downtown Savannah is a great town and great place to hang out. Met a lot of amazing people and did some nice riding to other locations in GA. Had some nice weather and some shit weather too.
Doom on!

TV: Shellfish disappearing along west coast, nobody knows why — Has become systemic crisis — Finding Pacific shellfish ‘next to impossible’ — Manager: “Recently there’s no local scallops at all, supply gone” — Chef: Began a few months ago, oyster farms flourishing for years all of a sudden had to shut down (VIDEOS)

Published: February 8th, 2015 at 12:59 pm ET
By ENENews
156 comments

Yahoo News — transcript excerpts, Jan 29, 2015 (emphasis added): BC’s shellfish industry in crisis… Jennifer Palma looks at the die off of scallops and oysters and why it’s a troubling indicator of the health of our oceans. — “Getting pacific oysters and scallops is next to impossible; the industry is in crisis… So what’s killing the Pacific oysters and scallops? A possible combination of factors including warmer oceans, decreasing acidity levels, and potentially disease”… Curtis Suttle, UBC marine microbiology professor: “The hypothesis — there’s a working hypothesis — is that these changes, these excursions in ph, are making the shellfish vulnerable to infection by diseases that they would normally be resistant to.”

Global News (Canada), Jan 29, 2015: Disappearing shellfish on B.C.’s coast confounding experts — What was once a one-year slump has now turned to a systemic crisis. Shellfish are disappearing from B.C.’s coast – and nobody is quite sure why… The problems began in around 2009 and 2010 and have persisted… Island Scallops lost 10 million scallops in 2013… Lobster Man on Granville Island… have been forced to bring in frozen scallops from the east coast… Most believe the main culprit is the increasing acidity of the local waters, making them more vulnerable to diseases… A group of scientists… are waiting to see if they will be selected for a federal grant to see what’s causing the decline. Until then, researchers will continue to speculate.

Dave Ratcliff, manager of The Lobster Man: “Recently there has been no local scallops at all. The supply’s gone.”

Chris Harley, University of British Columbia marine biologist: “It’s still a little bit of a mystery… We’re not living with the same ocean our parents were living with 30 years ago. It could be warmer water, it could be more acidic water, it could be disease… We often care about particular species, but climate change affect the entire ecosystem… There’s all kind of things that are changing at once.”

Global News removed its previous headline ‘Dark days ahead for BC’s shellfish industry‘. It can be seen in the URL (dark-days-ahead-for-bcs-shellfish-industry) and Google search results.

Asian Pacific Post, Jan 27, 2015: BC shellfish industry on knife’s edge — Vancouver Island… once supplied nearly two-fifths of Canada’s farmed shellfish… But something is killing them off. In the last two years, nine-tenths of baby oysters have died in Desolation Sound farms (the normal mortality rate is about 50%). Scallop farmers off Vancouver Island have reported mass die-offs of their hatchlings since 2010. British Columbia’s share of Canada’s aquaculture industry is in a tailspin… Scientists aren’t sure what the culprit is. Environmental stressors are rising, creating a complex interplay of factors…

KCET (Los Angeles), Jan 14, 2015 (at 2:15 in): With changing water chemistry causing young oysters to never develop into adults the aqua farm can’t harvest enough… Spencer Bezaire, chef at L&E Oyster Bar in L.A.: “In the beginning it was very easy to get oysters… it was never a problem. And then coming in for the last few months or so, I’ve had farmers that were flourishing for years, and then all of a sudden they had to shut down for 8 months… They couldn’t supply enough seed to grow the oysters they needed… Because of the diminished supply, we obviously pay more for the product.”

VIDEO: Cancer epidemic underway in Fukushima — Rates up 6,000% says head of cancer research center — “This is definitely a holocaust… everything’s being swept under the rug” — “Very, very frightening… my family members are brainwashed”
Published: February 4th, 2015 at 9:56 am ET
By ENENews
674 comments

Fukushima resident Chieko Shiina, supporter of the Fukushima Collaborative Clinic (translated by Carole Hisasue), Jan 24, 2015 (emphasis added):

At 8:00 — Already, 85 children have had surgeries for thyroid cancer, there are 112-113 children who are suspected of having cancer. When children get cancers it progresses very quickly. The former person in charge of health, Yamashita Shunichi, said it would be only a 1 in a million chance of children getting any kind of cancer because of radiation. But he was lying. Right now, it’s like 1 in 3,000 — it’s an epidemic… The head of the National Cancer Research Center estimated right now in Fukushima the rate of cancer has gone up 61 times. And yet the gov’t and also the hospitals related to the gov’t are saying this is not because of radiation… How long does the gov’t think that we’ll be silent about this? In light of this epidemic, my anger will never die down. And then to think about the parents of the small children – how worried they must be.
At 12:00 — It’s not only children. There are many things happening to adults as well. Increased rates of thyroid cancer, heart attacks, leukemia, cataracts – many, many health problems, where they are wondering… there’s something definitely wrong.
At 16:00 — I can’t forgive the gov’t, they’re murderers. This is definitely a holocaust.
At 20:00 — Media won’t report on it. Everything’s just being swept under the rug.
At 26:00 — A TV program called ‘Hodo Station’… they went to Fukushima City to interview people and they also came to my clinic… The director that made this program also made a follow up show and contacted one of the interviewees telling her, ‘We’ll be airing it soon.’ But before it was aired, it was taken off the program. This director died. This director apparently told one of the interviewees, ‘If you do hear that I died, please believe that it was not a suicide, no matter what you might hear.’ There is no truth in the media in Japan today. There are all sorts of these mysterious events happening that are still unexplained and uninvestigated.
At 43:00 — Even today the gov’t is insisting the rise in pediatric thyroid cancer rates are not due to the accident…Why are they being so insistent? It’s because the moment they admit the reality of what’s going on, then they obviously can’t restart any of the nuclear plants and must change their entire nuclear policy.
Carole Hisasue, translator (at 1:15:00): It’s disappeared from the media, it’s disappeared from people’s consciousness. There’s this big culture of denial going on outside of Fukushima. They want to pretend like it never happened. I can’t talk to my own family about radiation contamination… They don’t want to hear it. They go, ‘You don’t understand because you don’t have to live here, we have to live here.’… It’s like ‘see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil’… just trying to ignore it and pretend life is the way it was before 3/11. It’s frightening, it’s very very frightening… [My sister-in-law] is completely brainwashed by the gov’t who says, ‘Oh no, it’s fine, fine, fine’… she believes it, even though her son suffers from a lot of nosebleeds — and I think that’s a serious problem. If I mention it to her, or even to my own mother, they get very offended. They go, ‘Oh no, no. He’s always been like that. It’s nothing to do with radiation.’ Talk about denial, it just hurts my heart.
enenews.com
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Isn't funny how dust from the African Saharah can travel around the world landing on cars in Florida, or a couple small volcanos in Japan or Russia can land on the west coast and the MSJM reports it, but a nuclear explosion in Japan is of no concern, or worth reporting?

Mysterious Orange Snow Falls on Russian Town
5 Comments February 4, 2015 Paul Seaburn

I survive winters by abiding by these three simple rules: enjoy the white snow, drive carefully in the grey snow and don’t eat the yellow snow. I don’t know what to do if orange snow falls and neither did the residents of the Russian city of Saratov when it was blanketed this week with a deep covering of orange flakes.
Saratov is a major port (population over 800,000) on the Volga River, 858 km (533 miles) from Moscow, and has a moderate (for Russia) climate with an annual snowfall of about 163 centimeters (64 inches) which, until now, has never been orange.
The orange snow was widespread and of various shades of orange along with patches of yellow and brown. Saratov’s residents were rightly skeptical to avoid eating snowflakes or jumping in the juice-colored banks until finding out what caused it. The most likely reason, according to Saratov weather forecast service director Mikhail Boltukhin, was a cyclone that blew colored sand from Africa’s Sahara desert into Siberian snow clouds.
The air coming from the West contains tiny particles of sand, which give the falling snow an orange hue. Similar phenomena have been observed recently in various districts of the region and in other parts of the country, particularly in Crimea.

Officials said the orange snow was “harmless” to humans and animals
Well, the second part is true. In 2007, an orange snow covered over 1500 sq km (570 sq miles) in the Omsk region of Russia. That stuff was oily and smelled rotten and was blamed on the area’s oil industry, although it also contained four times the normal level of iron ore.
Colored snow can have other causes. Red-and-pink watermelon snow is common in alpine regions and gets its colors and telltale smell of watermelon from an algae (Chlamydomonas nivalis). So-called blood snow falls near Blood Falls in Antarctica’s Taylor Glacier for a different reason. Iron-rich saltwater leaking from an ancient reservoir under the glacier oxidizes when it hits the air and turns the waterfall and snow blood red.
Saharan sand, algae, oxidation … or something else. What do you think was the real cause of Saratov’s orange snow?


Volcano Ash To Blame For 'Milky' Rain In Oregon, Washington, Meteorologists Suggest
By Jeff Stone @JeffStone500 j.stone@ibtimes.com on February 07 2015 11:00 AM

Recent rainfall in the U.S. Pacific Northwest has left a white, ashlike residue on cars left outside overnight. Reuters/Dinuka Liyanawatte
Meteorologists are stumped after rainfall in Oregon, Washington and neighboring areas in which the precipitation appeared to be dirty, or milky, in texture. Photographs posted by the U.S. National Weather Service indicate that, unlike typically clear rain, this liquid was infused with something else. But what?

The so-called milky rain, pelting the Pacific Northwest Friday morning, left cars and other outdoor fixtures covered with streaks of white, dusty material.


A number of theories abound, with meteorologists telling BuzzFeed the likeliest cause is dirt and dust from the Northwest landscape being circulated within the weather system.

“The ash is more than likely from Volcano Shiveluch in Kamchatka Krai, Russia, which spewed an ash plume to about the 22,000-foot level in late January,” the Walla Walla County Emergency Management agency in Walla Walla, Washington said in a Facebook post. It added there are a number of active volcanoes that could be responsible. “It has been deposited in a wide spread area, including Washington and Oregon,” the agency said.

The right-leaning media outlet the Blaze suggested the cloudiness of the rainwater could be caused by dust from recent eruptions of Japan’s Sakurajima volcano. Commenters beneath the article took on a decidedly more conspiratorial bent, accusing the liberal media of being too quick to blame climate change.

The NWS plans to re-examine old satellite data with the hope of finding out exactly what happened. This type of activity isn’t totally unprecedented in Oregon, although ashlike rain typically falls toward the end of a long hot summer.

“Oregon has strong winds,” NWS meteorologist Mark Tuner told BuzzFeed. “In some summer dry spells, we’ll get big dust storms, and then if it rains, we can see a similar thing. ... It’s a mystery at this point.”