100% INFANT MORTALITY IN ORCAS *UPDATE 10/30/2016*, WEST COAST MASS DIE-OFFS FOR 4TH YEAR

ABOVE: The beautiful 20-year-old male orca known as L95 was found dead, apparently as a result of a botched tagging effort.
Photo taken under federal permits NMFS:15569 / SARA: 388
Photograph courtesy Center for Whale Research

ABOVE: October 2, 2016, Possibly one of the last photos taken of emaciated mother orca J28 with her 10-month-old calf, a male called J54 who may also now have died.

Above: Dying orca calf J54's back shows tooth rakes left by his sister who was trying to help him surface and who has been trying to feed him since their mother died this month.

UPDATE, OCTOBER 30, 2016
I AM VERY SAD TO REPORT MORE DEATHS OF THE PACIFIC ORCAS.

THE SOUTHERN RESIDENTS WERE HARD-HOT BY LOSS THIS YEAR.

"A 10-month-old orca that still needs its mother's milk is not expected to survive now that its mother has died, an expert says.

The baby – known as J54, or Dipper – was born to his mother J28 (also known as Polaris) in December.

"Regrettably, now that Mother has died, he will not survive, and he in fact probably is already dead, along with two other of the boomers, J55 and L120," Kenneth Balcomb, a senior scientist with the Center for Whale Research in Washington State said.
At a news conference on Friday, Balcomb said experts tracking the whales believe J28 died in mid-October.

In her mother's absence, J28's first-born has been seen trying to care for the young calf. The young female, known as J46, has been seen catching salmon and offering them to the baby.

Balcomb said J46 was also seen trying to feed her mother, in the months before she died: "She's trying, but she can't work hard enough and catch enough to feed three whales."

YOUNG mothers are dying faster than they are being replaced by maturing adults, so the population isn't being replenished.

Balcomb said the population of Southern Resident killer whales was 100 in 1995.
The most recent numbers suggest that it has fallen to 80 in the years since.

"We have seen virtually no growth in this population in 20 years in spite of large amounts of money spent to study and 'recover' them," Balcomb said."
THERE ARE SIMPLY NOT ENOUGH SALMON IN THOSE WATERS TO FEED THEM, AND "SOMETHING" IS CAUSING BOTH REPRODUCTIVE FAILURE AND INCREASED SUSCEPTIBILITY TO INFECTIONS IN THE ORCAS AS WELL AS MASS DIE-OFFS OF THE FOOD FISH THEY ALL NEED TO SURVIVE.

ANOTHER ORCA'S RECENT DEATH WAS ATTRIBUTED TO ITS GEO-TRACKING TAG, THE SITE WHERE THE ORCA WAS TAGGED BECAME INFECTED AND IT DIED.


NOAA admits the tag "could" have caused the death.

A necropsy by British Columbia pathologist Stephen Raverty showed that fungi that may have originated in the surface film of the water, or perhaps on L95's skin, appeared to have gotten into the animal's blood vessels, eventually making it to the lungs. Concentrations of the fungi were largest near the entry point of the dart, where pieces had broken off in the fin. "That was our biggest clue," Raverty said.

"This infection may have been introduced at the tag wound," said NOAA's Merrick.

THEY HAVE SUSPENDED THE TAGGING...FOR NOW.
IT GRIEVES ME VERY MUCH TO SEE THESE LOSSES.
IT GRIEVES ME MORE THAT WE WILL SEE OTHERS.
"SOMETHING" IS OUT THERE KILLING THESE MAGNIFICENT ANIMALS AND THE FOOD SOURCES THEY DEPEND ON.  

UPDATE JANUARY 9, 2016:
THE TEA ROOM IS DEEPLY SADDENED TO REPORT THE DEATH OF ONE OF THE NEWBORN ORCA CALVES IN THE GROUP SPOKEN OF BELOW.
IT WAS A FEMALE CALF.

FROM THE CANADIAN PRESS, December 30, 2015 :
 "A female orca calf has been found dead on the west coast of Vancouver Island. Paul Cottrell of Fisheries and Oceans Canada said a surfer spotted the dead whale washed up on Mussel Beach near Ucluelet on Dec. 23… a necropsy was conducted on Christmas Day. Scientists are still awaiting results of tissue-sample testing and a cause of death is not yet known…"

[PLEASE NOTE: THIS ARTICLE IS WRITTEN BEFORE THE OFFICIAL COUNT OF ORCAS FOLLOWING THE EXPECTED BIRTHS FROM THE 2015 MATING SEASON.

SEEMS THE COUNT IS NOT OFFICIAL UNTIL IT IS DETERMINED HOW MANY NEWBORNS SURVIVE UNTIL JUNE OF 2016. THEN THE NEW CENSUS IS PUBLISHED IN JULY.]

BELOW, MANY OTHER SPECIES OF WHALES ARE ALSO WASHING ASHORE, DYING, WITH NO REAL EXPLANATION FROM SCIENTISTS, JUST CONJECTURE, THOUGH NECROPSIES WERE PERFORMED ON MANY.

ALL ABOVE IMAGES ARE FROM 2014-2015 AND I COULD HAVE POSTED HUNDREDS... OF JUST WHALES.
ALL WHALES...MANY SPECIES OF WHALES.

ALL WHALE SPECIES HAD A VERY BAD YEAR IN 2015, BUT THE ORCAS (SUCH AS ARE DEPICTED IN IMAGES 1 AND 2) MAY BE UNABLE TO RECOVER.

WITH ONLY 77 OF THEM LEFT IN THE "SOUTHERN GROUP" OF THE WEST COAST REGION, NO CALVES MEANS A POSSIBLE END TO ORCAS THERE.

IT WAS ANNOUNCED IN DECEMBER, 2014, BY CONCERNED MARINE BIOLOGISTS THAT THE KILLER WHALES OF THE PACIFIC WEST COAST HAD AGAIN EXPERIENCED NO INFANT ORCA SURVIVORS.

2014 MARKED 3 FULL YEARS WITH NO LIVING NEWBORNS. 

[It had been 3 years since the Fukushima disaster, marks 4 years in 2015.]

THEY WERE ALSO FINDING PREGNANT WHALES DYING OR DEAD WITH ALREADY DECOMPOSING FETUSES.Times Colonist, Dec 5, 2014:
The death of J32 [and] her unborn baby, paints a grim future for the southern resident whales… Ken Balcomb of the Center for Whale Research said. 
“We haven’t had any survivals in babies for a couple of years. We have had stillborns and newborns die… It’s like zero survival in birth rate here.” 

Howard Garrett of Orca Network said… “There was a calf born in early September that lived less than a month and that was the first calf in two years… There should be two or three births at least per year… Instead, there have been seven mortalities and no births.”

2015 ALSO SAW THE DEATHS OF YOUNG ORCAS AND SEVERAL OLDER ONES.

SPEAKING OF THE DEATH OF AN 18-YEAR OLD FEMALE ORCA, EXPERTS PAINTED A GRIM PICTURE OF SURVIVAL FOR THE SPECIES.

Dr. Peter Ross, a senior scientist at the Vancouver Aquarium said, “This was a female who was at the sunrise of her reproductive life.”…
 “There’s virtually no survival of the babies anymore,which of course means there’s no future… We have to turn this around somehow,” said Ken Balcomb of the Center for Whale Research.

Balcomb told The Associated Press the death is a severe blow to the pod population, which was placed on the U.S. Endangered Species List in 2005.
"They'll be extinct in 20 years maybe."

There are now just 77 left, he said.

Members of the resident pod are commonly spotted off the B.C. coast between April to November, but usually go into mainland inlets or offshore during the colder winter months.

NOAA LISTS THEM AS ENDANGERED.

 

Resident killer whales in the U.S. North Pacific consist of the following populations:

-Southern residents
-Northern residents
-Southern Alaska residents
-Western Alaska North Pacific residents

In the northeastern Pacific (from California to the western Aleutian Islands and
Bering Sea), the population of ALL 4 GROUPS of orcas is estimated around 2,500.
Beginning in the late 1960s, the live-capture fishery for oceanarium display removed an estimated 47 whales and caused an immediate decline in Southern Resident numbers.
Due to its small population size, we listed this segment of the population as endangered under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) in 2005 and designated critical habitat in 2006.
NOAA HAS A LONG LIST OF ENDANGERED SPECIES AND CRITICAL HABITATS FOR THE EAST COAST NOW.
http://www.westcoast.fisheries.noaa.gov/maps_data/endangered_species_act_critical_habitat.html

Orcas feed on fish, squid, seabirds, and marine mammals.
ALL OF WHICH HAVE SEEN MASS DIE-OFFS FOR YEARS NOW.

“They're All Gone”: Shock as sardines vanish off California ...

Back in 2011, 2012, 2013, Indigenous Tribes tried to get the attention of federal agencies to look into unusual deaths of many marine creatures, orcas included.

Some orcas appeared to be changing their migration pattern, attempting to go further north, becoming trapped in sea ice, drowning there.

The walruses, seals, polar bears were emaciated, dying, covered with lesions, walruses dying ashore rather than go back to the sea, the elders said.

No one came for years to see what was wrong.
It was mainly the unusual mortality event of the whales and salmon that finally brought them.

The population of sockeye salmon along the coastlines of Alaska is at a “historic low”…
So are many other species of fish that both orcas and Tribes count on for food.   

Orca gestation is 13 to 16 months. 
A calf is born in Autumn weighing almost 400 pounds and measuring up to seven feet in length. 
A calf will remain with its mother for at least two years.

No calves again this year.

UNUSUAL MORTALITY EVENTS AMONG PACIFIC WHALE.
AND NOW, THE BLUE WHALES, LARGEST ANIMALS ON EARTH, ARE DYING, THE FIRST TO WASH ASHORE ON THE OREGON COAST IN OVER A CENTURY WAS DISCOVERED EMACIATED AND HEMORRHAGING ON NOVEMBER 5th. 

The massive marine mammal is very rare in Oregon, a state natural resources specialist said. “We don’t usually see blue whales this close in,” said Calum Stevenson, ocean shores specialist with the state Parks and Recreation Department. 
“They are not even on our radar for Whale Watch because they are so uncommon… The blubber layer was emaciated — 4 inches or less,” compared with up to 12 inches in a healthy blue whale, Stevenson said.

 Bruce Mate, who serves as marine mammal director at Oregon State University’s Hatfield Marine Science Center, said this is the first time he’s seen a blue whale on Oregon beaches. He’s been doing research in the state since 1968… Mate said the environment may have also played a role… Mate described the whale as emaciated and said it had a “very sick blubber layer.”

IN APRIL THIS YEAR, 13 GRAY WHALE INFANTS WASHED ASHORE DEAD, ALONG WITH ANOTHER 55 DOLPHINS AND A RASH OF HUMPBACK WHALES. 

[UPDATE, 09 JAN 2016: OTHER NEWBORN GRAY WHALES WASHED ASHORE IN CALIFORNIA IN DECEMBER, 2015: 

NBC San Diego, Dec 11, 2015: Lifeguards closed off beach access to Del Mar Shores Friday morning after a dead, newborn gray whale washed ashore, officials confirmed… According to Jim Gilpatrick with the NOAA Fisheries, the calf is about three to four weeks old.

AND,  DECEMBER 23, 2015, AS REPORTED IN THE ARGONAUT, A DAYS-OLD BABY WAS DISCOVERED. Lifeguard Capt. Kenichi Haskett said… officials believe the whale died a day or two after its birth.]

FROM APRIL TO MAY OF 2015, ANOTHER 5 WHALES WASHED ASHORE, A SPERM WHALE JUST A SHORT WALK FROM A HUMPBACK ON THE SAME BEACH.

ALSO IN MAY, ANOTHER KILLER WHALE WASHED ASHORE WITH 3 GRAY WHALES IN THE SAME AREA.

ALONG THE BAJA PENINSULA IN MARCH, 2015, DEATHS OF SEVERAL MARINE SPECIES WERE NOTED BY SCIENTISTS.

What’s Killing Baja’s Marine Animals?

"Dead gray whales and dolphins. Corpses of sea lions, birds and sea turtles decomposing on the beach.
Since the beginning of the year, the coasts of Baja California have been the scene of multiple discoveries of dead marine animals. 

The latest find was reported last week…55 dead dolphins and 4 sea lions… 
[The government will] probe the reasons for the mysterious deaths..

 In mid-January… 550 dead sea birds and 4 dead sea lions near San Felipe. 

Another zone of mystery surrounds the Laguna Ojo de Liebre… where 150 dead sea turtles were discovered at the end of January. 

About two weeks earlier, 14 lifeless gray whales (13 babies and 1 adult) and 16 dead sea turtles were found in the same area…
The baby whales likely died from malnourishment."


California Gray Whale Coalition, Nov. 2014: 

"The coast’s winter whale watching season brings real fear for visiting humpbacks and grey whales encountering “radiation hot spots” along West Coast waters as they migrate to and from Alaska and Mexico. 

The central Oregon coast’s whale watching training features more than 100 volunteers at 25 whale-watching sites… this year’s whale-watching volunteers have been trained in the dangers of radiation… there has been a rash of dead humpback whales washing-up along central Oregon."

 Jul 10, 2015
"5 more dead whales found in Alaska waters since June; total 14 dead; Researchers try to understand mysterious whale deaths… 

Kate Wynne, a Marine Mammal Specialist for the Alaska Sea Grant Marine Advisory Program, told Channel 2 News that since the June 18 announcement of the nine dead fin whales, four humpback whales and another fin whale have been found dead. 

Tests on tissue from one of the whales have proven NEGATIVE for domoic acid, a biotoxin, and results on two other tests, for Paralytic Shellfish Poisoning (PSP) and Cesium-137 radioactivity, are still pending."

June 18, 2015
“You don’t usually see large mortality events in that area… I don’t know if there’s a connection or not between all the bird, walrus, and whale deaths.”

Meanwhile, several dead walruses and hundreds of dead seabirds have been discovered in an Alaska Peninsula region about 300 miles southwest of Kodiak Island, federal officials report.

About 25 walrus carcasses were found near Izembek National Wildlife Refuge, an unexpected occurrence in an area where walrus tramplings are rare, said U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service spokeswoman Andrea Medeiros.

“We rarely see more than one fin whale carcass every couple of years,” said Kate Wynne, a UAF professor and Alaska Sea Grant marine mammal specialist, and the recent rash of dead whale discoveries is "mysterious."

August, 2015
An orphaned and injured seal pup… was one of several found this summer, federal agency officials said… The pup was lethargic and very thin — only 16.5 pounds… It was the second such case this week, NOAA spokeswoman Julie Speegle said Friday. “We don’t know what’s going on in the environment, but it does seem to be an unusual year,” Speegle said." 


MEANWHILE, OFF THE CALIFORNIA COAST, SEAL PUPS THERE DIED BY THE HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS IN 2015, AND, OF THOSE TESTED, MANY RESULTED IN FINDINGS OF LEUKEMIA.

"No one has yet proven that there is a direct link between the 100 percent mortality rate seen among orca infants and the effects of the radiation contamination of the Pacific Ocean from the Fukushima reactor leak in Japan, but it certainly can't be ruled out as a possibility."

Bruce Wright, senior scientist for the Aleutian Pribilof Islands Association, 
Jul 17, 2015: 
“During the last 10 days I have received reports of dead and dying whales, gulls and forage fish (sand lance) from… the eastern Aleutian Islands and Adak in the western Aleutian Islands… alert me if you observe sand lance predators such as gulls, eagles, foxes, bears, whales acting sick or dead in coastal Alaska.” 

Juneau Empire, July 17, 2015: … unusual happenings, worried scientists… Unprecedented things are happening in Alaska’s marine environment.   
“I’m really worried. I’m very concerned,"  said Juneau-based marine ecologist Michelle Ridgway.

THE COUNT NOW APPROACHES 700 DIFFERENT SPECIES OF MARINE CREATURES THAT HAVE EXPERIENCED UNUSUAL DIE-OFFS, "MASS MORTALITY EVENTS" JUST SINCE 2011. 

Facts to remember...
OF ALL THOSE CREATURES, MANY DO JUST FINE IN WARM WATER, OTHERS THRIVE IN COLD WATER, SO NO ONE CAN POINT TO WATER TEMPERATURE AS THE CAUSE OF DEATH FOR ALL!

THESE MASS DEATHS HAVE COME IN SPRING, SUMMER, FALL, AND WINTER, FROM THE TIP OF SOUTH AMERICA TO THE ARCTIC CIRCLE.

WHAT HAS BEEN COMMONLY FOUND IN ALMOST ALL IS EMACIATION, HEMORRHAGING OF SOME TISSUE, LESIONS, TUMORS, DISORIENTATION, WEAKNESS, HIGH INFANT MORTALITY OR CESSATION OF REPRODUCTION.THE ORCAS HAVE GROWN SILENT

  Dr. Lance Barrett-Lennard, senior marine mammal scientist at the Vancouver Aquarium, has been "sounding the alarm" over the unprecedented mortality rate and the changes in behavior seen in orca pods off the coast of Canada and Alaska.

Dr. Barrett-Lennard says that he and other scientists have noticed that the mammals have become strangely quiet over the past two summers. When teams went out to study the pods and record their vocalizations as part of their normal research routine, they were surprised at how little the cetaceans were communicating with each other:

They weren't vocalizing, and that was quite a striking change after years and years of being very familiar with how noisy they are and how easy to find acoustically.
He believes that "something is likely wrong with the ocean environment," as paraphrased by News1130.com, and that more research is needed to understand the reasons behind the high death rates and the behavioral changes recently observed by the scientists."

A SIMPLE TEST FOR RADIATION...ON A SAMPLING OF PERHAPS A DOZEN OR TWO DOZEN PER SPECIES...IS ALL IT WOULD TAKE TO DETERMINE IF RADIATION IS MORE THAN A POSSIBILITY.

BERKELEY HAS DEVELOPED A "SIMPLE BLOOD TEST" JUST FOR DETECTING IONIZING RADIATION.

"Currently, it takes several days to determine the level of radiation exposure – far too slow for those who would benefit from immediate treatment. But the Berkeley scientists have now developed a blood test that quickly detects if a person has been exposed to radiation, measures their dose, and separates people suffering from inflammation injuries.
The test could help emergency personnel quickly identify people exposed to high radiation doses who need immediate care, and people exposed to lower doses who only need long-term monitoring."

SEVERAL DAYS FOR RESULTS?
THE TESTS DONE ON SEALS, WALRUSES, ONE WHALE AND SOME POLAR BEARS IN ALASKA ARE ALL "STILL PENDING" 3 YEARS AFTER THEY WERE SUBMITTED, IF WE CAN BELIEVE SUCH A THING.
3 YEARS!

ON THE WEST COAST, SEVERAL LABS OFFER SPECIFIC TESTING FOR THE "FUKUSHIMA FINGERPRINT", CESIUM 134.


ONE SEAFOOD COMPANY HAD ITS FISH TESTED TO SATISFY CUSTOMERS!

"The company took the unusual and expensive step of getting its fish tested for radioisotopes cesium-134 and cesium-137 that could be traced directly to the Fukushima disaster. It sent seven samples of salmon caught in Southeast Alaska and Puget Sound to a laboratory in Louisiana, at a cost of $1,200. The company released the reports in January and posted the results on its website."    

IN 2014 SEVEN SAMPLES COST JUST $1200, NOT HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS AS FEDERAL/U.S. LABS CHARGE!!!


AT A COST OF EVEN $1000 PER SPECIMEN SENT TO INDEPENDENT LABS, OUR MARINE CREATURES ARE WORTH THAT AND MORE!   
WE DON'T HAVE TO SEND SAMPLES TO WOODS HOLE WHICH CHARGES $600,000 PER SAMPLE!

BUT OLD KEN BUESSELER OF WOODS HOLE TELLS HIS "DONORS" THAT SAMPLING KITS PER FISH CAN BE HAD FOR $500 to $600 PER KIT!!!    
THAT'S A FAR CRY FROM $600,000, KEN!

IN A QUICK LOOK ON ANY WEBSITE THAT REPORTS ON CONGRESS' PORK BARREL SPENDING, ON THE CRAP THAT WE TAXPAYERS PAY FOR SO CONGRESSMEN CAN LOOK "PRODUCTIVE FOR THEIR STATES", WE CAN FIND BILLIONS WASTED!

IF WE KEEP PAYING FOR CRAP AND WON'T PAY TO TEST THESE DYING CREATURES, THEN JUST WRITE AMERICA OFF.

WHEN IT'S HUMANS DYING LIKE THESE ANIMALS ARE IT WILL BE POINTLESS TO TEST FOR ANYTHING.

WE CAN KNOW NOW, WITHIN DAYS, IF THESE DEATHS ARE FROM RADIATION.

THE ONLY REASON WE DON'T SEE TESTS AND/OR TEST RESULTS IS BECAUSE , IF THEY TESTED POSITIVE FOR RADIATION POISONING, THEN THE WORLD WOULD KNOW THAT FUKUSHIMA HAS BECOME AN EXTINCTION LEVEL EVENT, JUST AS PREDICTED BY SOME OF THE GREATEST SCIENTIFIC MINDS WAY BACK  IN 2011!

TEST THE MARINE LIFE!
IT'S WAY PAST TIME TO JUST FIND OUT!  

“We hardly saw any living things. 
We saw one whale, sort of rolling helplessly on the surface with what looked like a big tumour on its head. It was pretty sickening.

“I’ve done a lot of miles on the ocean in my life and I’m used to seeing turtles, dolphins, sharks and big flurries of feeding birds. 

But this time, for 3000 nautical miles there was nothing alive to be seen.”

PLEASE, listen to those who know the ocean and the life in it.
And no matter what, never stop trying to help them any way you can.
Call, write, visit your congressmen, the EPA, NOAA, anyone, everyone you may think of, and often.

We're the voices they don't have, these creatures of the sea.

WE'RE LOSING AN OCEAN, AN ENTIRE OCEAN OF LIFE!  

---------------

***UPDATE, NOV. 22, 2015***
WHILE THE "OFFICIAL" COUNT WON'T BE PUBLISHED FOR THIS YEAR'S BIRTHS, SURVIVORS, DEATHS UNTIL NEXT JULY, READER 'CORYNDER' OFFERS US THIS BIT OF HOPE:

"What are you guys talking about? There's been six calves this year! http://www.timescolonist.com/news/local/baby-boom-a-fifth-orca-calf-for-endangered-southern-resident-pod-1.2053396 
---

MY REPLY:

Thank you SO much for this info.
I will do an update in just a bit to include this data on the 2 of 4 pods, J,K, L1 & L2.
Information on births and survivors here: http://www.orcanetwork.org/Main/index.php?categories_file=Births%20and%20Deaths .

The yearly count comes out each July, following the autumnal births, and due to the fact that about half of the newborns typically survive.
 "“The whales are barely breeding at replacement rate, when what we really need is population recovery. For this population, and L122, to grow and flourish, the main limitation, a lack of food, must be addressed.” - See more at: http://www.timescolonist.com/news/local/baby-boom-a-fifth-orca-calf-for-endangered-southern-resident-pod-1.2053396#sthash.DttVQSWX.dpuf

The orcas have just begun arriving in Puget Sound for their wintering and one has already been rescued off some jagged rocks, a juvenile. http://www.kplu.org/post/orca-pods-expected-arrive-puget-sound-soon

While the count won't be "official" until July, 2016, this is good news for pods J & L2.

Replied to your email before posting your comment, which should appear within 10 minutes on the blog.

The point in the news articles I had referenced was that there have been NO survivors in any of the pods except for J50, born in 2014, since 2012, and pods K & L1 have had either no births or no survivors since 2011 and 1993 respectively.

Your post should make it clear that some are not concerned about these orcas' future given the "explosion" of recent births.

Good to post both sides of the coin.
ALL points of view SHOULD be offered, thus your comment will be posted, with this email as reply to it.

Many thanks. Be well.

_____________________

FURTHER READING,  MARINE DEATHS

~ "Meanwhile, industrial and radioactive waste from the Japanese tsunami in 2011 and the dumping of modern chemical and agricultural debris are combining with a monster El Nino to push existing species to the brink of extinction."   


~ 6th November 2015 - 29 pilot whales dead after stranding on a beach in New Zealand.

~ 4th November 2015 - Millions of salmon 'mysteriously disappear' in rivers in British Columbia,Canada

~ 37 dead whales found washed ashore near the Gulf of Penas, Chile

~ 15th October 2015 - 21 Dolphins, 11 turtles, 4 sea lions found dead along the coast of Sinaloa, Mexico.

~ Hundreds of marine mammals, including seals and whales have washed up dead during winter in Quebec, Canada   

~ 13th October 2015 - Hundreds of sea otters washing up dead or dying in Kachemak Bay, Alaska, America

~ 4th August 2015 - 6 Whales dead after 16 became stranded in Cape Breton, Canada  

~ 7th May 2015 - 12 dead whales have washed up during past couple months in California

~ 26th May 2015 - Thousands of dead lobsters wash up on the coast of Baja California, Mexico