While marine biologists, environmental activists and researchers are baffled over the continued rise of dead dolphins washing ashore along Mumbai’s coastline over the last month, the State Environment Ministry, on the other hand, is completely oblivious to these incidents,
said a report in DNA.
REUTERS IMAGE, 2015.
Shown above: Since 1999, over 10,000 dead turtles, mostly Olive-Ridley turtles, have washed ashore on the coast of Andhra Pradesh, India, EACH YEAR.
Above: Massive die-off of clams, shrimp, fish, oyster, Vietnam
[TO MY READERS, 2 HAVE SAID THE ABOVE PHOTO DOES NOT LOAD.PLEASE USE COMMENTS IF YOU HAVE TROUBLE SEEING THIS IMAGE. //WW]
Dead starfish line the shore of the German island of Sylt.
"Recent shifts in the occurrence, cause, and magnitude of animal mass mortality events",
(A peer-reviewed research)
Approved for publication December 22, 2014 (received for review August 5, 2014).
"Our analysis uncovered the surprising finding that there have been recent shifts in the magnitudes of MMEs and their associated causes.
Mass mortality events (MMEs) are rapidly occurring catastrophic demographic events that punctuate background mortality levels. Individual MMEs are staggering in their observed magnitude: removing more than 90% of a population, resulting in the death of more than a billion individuals, or producing 700 million tons of dead biomass in a single event.
Despite extensive documentation of individual MMEs, we have no understanding of the major features characterizing the occurrence and magnitude of MMEs, their causes, or trends through time. Thus, no framework exists for contextualizing MMEs in the wake of ongoing global and regional perturbations to natural systems.
Here we present an analysis of 727 published MMEs from across the globe, affecting 2,407 animal populations. We show that the magnitude of MMEs has been intensifying for birds, fishes, and marine invertebrates; invariant for mammals; and decreasing for reptiles and amphibians. These shifts in magnitude proved robust when we accounted for an increase in the occurrence of MMEs since 1940."
TAKE THOSE 727 MMEs AND ADD THE ONES FROM 2014-2017 AND WE HAVE OVER 800 SUCH REPORTED EVENTS.
WE'D HAVE A LOT MORE THAN THAT IF EVERY EVENT THAT MADE LOCAL HEADLINES SOMEWHERE ON EARTH WERE "RECOGNIZED" AS MMEs.
ALSO, THE TABLES IN THAT STUDY VERY OFTEN DON'T SHOW EVENTS PAST 2000 OR PAST 2010.
AS THE PAPER ADMITS, " As the actual lag distribution is skewed on the basis of the fact that many events between 1990 and 2014 have likely not been published (SI Appendix, Fig. S3), we only used the data between 1940 and 1990. With these estimated proportions, we could adjust the number of reported MMEs as if all MMEs had been published. "
WAIT...WHAT?
ESTIMATE?
GO FIGURE...
WELL, FUKUSHIMA HAPPENED IN 2011, HAS BEEN PUMPING OUT RADIATION EVER SINCE, SO MAYBE THAT WAS A CUT-OFF DATE?
AS MUCH AS 90% OF SOME SPECIES OF MARINE LIFE HAVE DIED-OFF SINCE 2011.
CBS
Jan. 2015
Thousands of birds fall from the sky.
Millions of fish wash up on the shore.
Honey bee populations decimated.
Bats overtaken by a deadly fungus.
Piglets die in droves from a mysterious disease.
It was tragic stories such as these that prompted a group of researchers from the University of San Diego, UC Berkeley and Yale to embark on a broad review of all the reports of large animal die-offs in the scientific literature since the middle of the last century. They turned up 727 such papers documenting "mass mortality events" (MME) of 2,407 global populations of mammals, birds, fish, reptiles, amphibians and marine invertebrates.
Their analyses, published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, revealed that not only are these events becoming more frequent, they're also increasing in magnitude, with the number of fatalities higher for birds, fish and marine invertebrates. Thirty-five events completely or nearly wiped out an entire population.
"Going from one event to 70 each year is a substantial increase, especially given the increased magnitudes of MMEs for some of these organisms," said Adam Siepielski, University of San Diego assistant professor of biology and the study's co-lead author.
The cumulative death toll reaches into the billions... BILLIONS, WITH A 'B'.
WHY ARE SO MANY SEA CREATURES DYING ALONG THE WEST COAST?
~ Cassin’s auklets—one of the largest mass die-offs of seabirds ever recorded.
~ Starfish, dying by the millions up and down the West Coast, scientists warned of the possibility of localized extinction of some species.
~ The collapse of the sardine population, creating a crisis for fisheries and marine wildlife which depend on them as a major food source.
October, fisherman reported that they came back empty-handed without a single fish after 12 hours of trolling and some $1000 spent on fuel.
Sandy Mazza, for the Daily Breeze, reported a similar phenomenon in central California: “[T]he fickle sardines have been so abundant for so many years – sometimes holding court as the most plentiful fish in coastal waters – that it was a shock when he couldn’t find one of the shiny silver-blue coastal fish all summer.
~ "Hundreds of dead nutria washed ashore on a Hancock County, Miss. beach on Friday (June 23), another aftermath of Tropical Storm Cindy, according to our news partners at WVUE Fox 8 News. Mississippi officials are not sure where the rodents came from, speculating they could have been washed out of the Louisiana marshes."
~ June 14, 2017: Thousands Of Dead Fish Mysteriously Wash Up In Coastal Texas Town.
ADD BALEEN WHALES TO THE MME LIST.
Mass mortality events (MMEs) are well known for toothed whales but are rare in baleen whales due to their less gregarious behavior.
While in MOST cases the cause of mortality has NOT been conclusively identified, some baleen whale mortality events have been linked to bio-oceanographic conditions, such as harmful algal blooms (HABs).
In southern Chile, HABs can be triggered by the ocean-atmosphere phenomenon El Niño.
The frequency of the strongest El Niño events has been increasing.
"HABs" WORLDWIDE?
EVEN IN THE ICY WATERS OF THE NORTHERNMOST SEAS?
I SERIOUSLY DOUBT THAT AND LAB TESTS DID PROVE THAT WAS NOT WHAT KILLED THE ALASKAN WHALES, SEALS, WALRUSES AND POLAR BEARS WHO ALL APPEARED WITH SKIN LESIONS, TUMORS, ABNORMAL INTERNAL ORGANS, ESPECIALLY LIVERS AND REPRODUCTIVE ORGANS.
In March 2015, by far the largest reported mass mortality of baleen whales took place in a gulf in southern Chile.
The synchronous death of at least 343 baleen whales (primarily Sei whales) can be attributed to HABs during a building El Niño.
Although considered an oceanic species, the sei whales died while feeding NEAR to shore in previously unknown large aggregations.
This provides evidence of NEW FEEDING GROUNDS for the species.
The combination of older and newer remains of whales in the SAME area indicates that MMEs have occurred more than once in RECENT years.
Large HABs and reports of marine mammal MMEs along the north-east Pacific coast may indicate similar processes in both hemispheres.
In the course of 2012, 116 southern right whales (Eubalaena australis), mostly calves, washed ashore at their breeding ground in Valde´s Peninsula, Argentina. [Source}
96 humpback whales died in Brazil during 2010, most of them calves and juveniles (Rowntree et al., 2013).
420 Southern Right Whales died near Peninsula Valdes (Argentina) 2005–2011, Mostly calves.
2011 Mass Mortality Events in the NW Adriatic Sea: Phase Shift from Slow- to Fast-Growing Organisms.
2015, February to early April, mainly near Golfo de Penas (Chile), 343 mostly all Sei Whales, adults and juveniles died.
2015, May-June, Alaskan peninsula and British Columbia, 38 Fin, Gray and Humpback whales died, MME declared by NOAA..
AUGUST 25, 2016
In recent months, unusually large numbers of neonates and juvenile Black Sea Harbor Porpoises have washed up on beaches along the Black Sea coasts of Bulgaria and Turkey (more than 150 individuals found along a 22km stretch of coastline in July alone).
For a subspecies that is already considered Endangered, the high mortality of young animals, year after year, could be a serious impediment to recovery.
UNPRECEDENTED MASS DIE-OFFS, END OF 2010 TO JANUARY, 2011, WORLDWIDE
In the final week of December, 2010, 100,000 dead and dying drum fish washed up along a 20-mile stretch of the Arkansas River, about 100 miles west of Beebe, Arkansas.
Shortly before midnight on New Year's Eve, between 3,000 and 5,000 red-winged blackbirds fell from the sky in Beebe.
The Beebe bird deaths were repeated again on New Year's Eve of the following year, 2011, with the reported number of dead birds being 5,000.
January 11, 2011, "Birds Fall From Sky In California, Thousands Of Dead Fish Found In Chicago"
Hundreds of blackbird carcasses littered a quarter-mile stretch of road in Labarra, La., on Jan.3, 2011. after they inexplicably fell from the sky.
Brazilian news site Parana-Online reported that up to 100 tons of dead fish have washed ashore in coastal towns since Dec. 30, 2010.
January 4, 2011, Gilbertsville, Kentucky, Department of Fish and Wildlife confirmed that hundreds of birds, including grackles, starlings, and robins, had been found "scattered around" the town. The birds did not appear to have been poisoned or diseased, and show no signs of trauma.
Beachgoers at Little Bay and Waikawau Bay in New Zealand found "a carpet" of dead snapper floating in the water on Jan. 4, 2011, many of which were missing their eyes. The New Zealand Department of Conservation speculated that the fish starved. (What accounts for missing eyes?)
2 million fish dead in Chesapeake Bay. The fish, which normally migrate to warmer waters this time of year, began washing ashore last week. (This was during the last week of December, 2010) The Maryland Department of the Environment has admitted it's puzzled.
Over 40,000 dead and dying velvet swimming crabs washed up on the shores of Kent in Britain on Jan. 5, 2011.
Jan. 10, 2011, over 700 dead birds had fallen from the sky in Italy. The countless turtle doves were scattered about the town of Faenza, many with strange blue marks in their beaks that some officials suggested may have been signs of hypoxia.
On January 14, approximately two hundred cows were found dead in a field in Stockton, Wisconsin.
BUT THE MASS DEATHS CONTINUED THROUGHOUT 2011
On March 7, 2011, millions of small fish, including anchovies, sardines, and mackerel were found dead in the area of King Harbor at Redondo Beach, California.
From The New Yorker, June 4, 2013, on a gravel strand called Beach 4 on Washington’s Olympic coast, the first official record of an ongoing outbreak of a sea-star wasting disease that has killed millions of starfish from Baja California to southern Alaska, typically wiping out more than 90% of each population it strikes. It’s the greatest wildlife mass-mortality event, or “die-off,” of the present day.
Elizabeth Kolbert described frog and bat die-offs in a 2009 article.
Several disquieting tales have already made the 2015 news cycle, most notably hundreds (THIS BECAME THOUSANDS) of dying sea-lion pups that began turning up on California beaches in January, and two thousand snow geese that dropped out of the sky to die in Idaho in March.
At the time of this writing, the National Wildlife Health Center had recorded fifty-six mass-mortality events in the U.S. so far this year, among them the sudden deaths of fifty black vultures in Ascension Parish, Louisiana; thirteen hundred waterfowl in Humboldt County, California; and two thousand bats in Pierce County, Wisconsin.
The typical number of bird deaths per reported die-off has risen, from about a hundred in the nineteen-forties to some ten thousand today.
The over-all number of bird die-offs also seems to have increased.
“That paper supports a lot of what many of us have been suspecting,” Jonathan Sleeman, a wildlife epidemiologist who heads the National Wildlife Health Center, said. “I do think we’re seeing more catastrophic events.”
Every biologist I spoke with who is researching mass-mortality events said that many wildlife die-offs today really could be signals of serious problems with the ecological fundamentals of the planet."
USGS AND NWHC REPORTS
The National Wildlife Health Center (NWHC) produces quarterly mortality reports to the USGS containing information about wildlife mortality events throughout the United States and on occasion across North America.
Their website with access to collected mortality data can be accessed <HERE>.
Data is available from 1981 to first quarter 2017.
For me, it was a heartbreaking read when first I discovered it, and still is today.
Then, more recently, we have WHISPers, a Wildlife Health Information Sharing Partnership event reporting system with current and historic information on wildlife morbidity or mortality events in North America. Events typically involve five or more sick or dead wild animals observed in the same general location and time period. This information is collected opportunistically and provided there by multiple State, Federal, and other agencies to enhance collective understanding of disease in wildlife populations.
NOAA provides us with a somewhat 'tilted' version of "Mass Marine Mortality Events" on its website.
"From 1991 to the present, there have been 63 formally recognized UMEs in the U.S., involving a variety of species and dozens to hundreds of individual marine mammals per event."
FORMALLY RECOGNIZED...BY NOAA, AND NOAA DOESN'T "RECOGNIZE" EVERY EVENT.
NOAA ALSO IS NOT BIG ON DIAGNOSING EVENTS UNLESS THE DIAGNOSIS FITS WHAT NOAA WANTS DIAGNOSED.
FOR EXAMPLE:
"Causes have been determined for 32 of the 63 UMEs documented since 1991."
Have a look at their "UNDETERMINED" in the list <HERE>. Just scroll down a bit.
BELOW, MASS DEATHS, SINCE APRIL, 2017, SO FAR, SINCE I ALREADY POSTED DEATHS FROM MARCH, 2017 AND BEFORE EARLIER THIS YEAR... (SOME LINKS WILL TAKE YOU TO ARTICLES THAT WILL NEED TRANSLATING.)
I OMITTED MANY ARTICLES, LOCAL REPORTS, MOSTLY THOSE THAT LISTED AVIAN FLU, STARVATION, HEAT-RELATED CAUSES, FIRES, FLOODS AND POLLUTION BY KNOWN TOXINS.
292 Known MASS Death Events in 64 Countries TOTAL SO FAR, 2017.
JULY
-- 10th July 2017 - 40+ dead Sea Lions and 2 dead Whales found along the coast of Lambayeque, Peru. Link
-- 9th July 2017 - 300 dead turtles found washed up this year, 1,200 found last year on Sao Paulo coast, Brazil. Link
-- 9th July 2017 - Thousands of fish die in a canal in Wambrechies, France. Link
-- 7th July 2017 - Thousands of dead fish wash up due to pollution in the waters of Paranoa, Brazil. Link
-- 6th July 2017 - Dozens of sea birds, hundreds of fish, plus turtles found dead on a beach in Queensland, Australia. Link
-- 6th July 2017 - 9 dead pilot whales found stranded along Taylor and Dixie County coast, Florida, America. Link
-- 5th July 2017 - 'Alarming number' of dead fish wash up in a lake in Ohio, America. Link
-- 5th July 2017 - Thousands of dead fish wash up in a lake in Wisconsin, America. Link
-- 5th July 2017 - Thousands of dead fish washing up in a lake in Minnesota, America. Link
-- 4th July 2017 - Massive die off of fish in a nature reserve in southern Gambia. Link
-- 4th July 2017 - Large die off of fish in a river in Hangzhou, China. Link
JUNE ... JUNE WAS A VERY BAD MONTH FOR EARTH' CREATURES.
-- 29th June 2017 - 76 dead Shearwater birds found washed up on Long Island beaches in New York, Link
-- 29th June 2017 - 167 dead dolphins have washed up during past 4 months in Black Sea coast, Russia. Link
-- 28th June 2017 - Large number of dead fish wash up in Ganjam, India. Link
-- 28th June 2017 - Thousands of dead fish found in a river in Copan, Honduras. Link
-- 28th June 2017 - Hundreds of dead fish found in a river, 'causes alarm' in Northern Italy. Link
-- 27th June 2017 - Dozens of dead seaguls found washed up on a beach in Buffalo, America. Link
-- 27th June 2017 - 4.5 TONS of fish dead due to pollution in the Guadalquivir river in Spain. Link
-- 26th June 2017 - Hundreds of dead fish wash ashore in Radazul, Tenerife, Spain. Link
-- 26th June 2017 - Hundreds of ducks and fish found dead in Quang Nam, Vietnam. Link
-- 26th June 2017 - Thousands of dead fish found in a lake in Saone-et-Loire, France. Link
-- 26th June 2017 - Thousands of dead fish wash ashore in Bursa, Turkey. Link
-- 25th June 2017 - 6 right whales found dead, is 'unprecedented' in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, Canada. Link
-- 25th June 2017 - Several dead dolphins wash ashore in Anapa, Russia. Link
-- 24th June 2017 - 9 dead turtles found along the coast, north of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Link
-- 24th June 2017 - Hundreds of dead water rodents (Nutria) washed ashore in Mississippi, America. Link
-- 21st June 2017 - Massive fish kill in the waters of Nootdorp, Netherlands. Link
-- 21st June 2017 - Thousands of various fish found dead in a lake in Cleder, France. Link
-- 20th June 2017 - Hundreds of dead fish wash ashore in Prince Edward Island, Canada. Link
-- 19th June 2017 - Thousands of fish and shrimp die off in a river in Guerrero, Mexico. Link
-- 18th June 2017 - Hundreds of dead fish wash up in the waters of Porto Empedocle, Italy. Link
-- 18th June 2017 - Thousands of dead fish found washed up in Brunswick Bays, America. Link
-- 16th June 2017 - Thousands of dead fish found in a river in Oliveira do Bairro, Portugal. Link
-- 16th June 2017 - Hundreds of dead seagulls found along a road in Detroit, America. Link
-- 14th June 2017 - Massive amounts of fish 'mysteriously' washing up dead along the coast in Texas, Link
-- 10th June 2017 - 23,000 turtles, sea birds and dolphins have been found dead during past two years along coast of Santa Catarina and Sao Paulo, Brazil. Link
-- 10th June 2017 - 100 dead gannets have washed up the past couple of months in Massachusetts, America. Link
-- 6th June 2017 - Large number of baby turtles found dead in Cancun, Mexico. Link
-- 6th June 2017 - 40,000 lbs of fish die in a reservoir in Fujian, China. Link
-- 5th June 2017 - Thousands of dead fish found in the Concho River in Texas, America. Link
-- 5th June 2017 - Massive die off of fish in Puget Sound in Washington, America. Link
-- 5th June 2017 - Hundreds of dead fish found along the coast of Mullaitivu, Sri Lanka. Link
-- 2nd June 2017 - 50 TONS of fish have died in a reservoir in Ceara, Brazil. Link
-- 1st June 2017 - 243 dead seals have washed up during the past 2 months in Mangystau, Kazakhstan. Link
Recall that over 200 corpses of dead seals were discovered in Tupkaragan district of Mangystau region in late April. The dead animals were washed up on the shore.
-- 1st June 2017 - Tens of thousands of fish suddenly die in a river near Mandurah, Australia. Link
MAY
-- 31st May 2017 - Hundreds of dead sea birds and sea lions washing up on beaches in California, America. Link
-- 31st May 2017 - Tens of thousands of fish are dying in lakes in Hyderabad, India. Link
-- 31st May 2017 - Large amounts of dead fish washing ashore in La Brea, Trinidad and Tobago. Link
-- 30th May 2017 - 17,000 fish have died in the river Saane in Switzerland. Link
-- 30th May 2017 - 18,000 dead fish found in a river in Friborg, France. Link
-- 30th May 2017 - Large numbers of dead sardines found 'due to red tide' in port El Agallito, Panama. Link
-- 29th May 2017 - Thousands of lobsters are dying in Phu Yen Province, Vietnam. Link
-- 25th May 2017 - Hundreds, maybe thousands, of dead fish found in a river in Jinotega Nicaragua. Link
-- 22nd May 2017 - 3 dead whales have washed ashore in East Anglia, England. Link
-- 21st May 2017 - Tens of thousands of fish die 'suddenly' in Guangxi, China. Link
--19th May 2017 - Dozens of dead sea birds found washed up on a beach in San Pedro de la Paz, Chile. Link
-- 18th May 2017 - Die off of sea birds along the coast of Florida, America. Link
-- 17th May 2017 - Dozens of dead turtles found on a beach in Ras al-Jinz Oman. Link
-- 16th May 2017 - 103 dead dolphins washed up along Black Sea coast since April, in Russia. Link
-- 16th May 2017 - Thousands of dead sardines wash up on the coast of Muscat, Oman. Link
-- 14th May 2017 - MASSIVE die off of clams, fish, oysters and shrimp in Kien Giang Province, Vietnam. Link
-- 11th May 2017 - 'Mega-swarm' of jellyfish wash up, 'never seen this big before', on beaches in Wales. Link
-- 11th May 2017 - Thousands of animals and birds dead due to a storm in Comodoro Rivadavia, Argentina. Link
-- 9th May 2017 - 6 dead dolphins have washed up along the coast of Alagoas, Brazil. Link
-- 6th May 2017 - Hundreds of leopard sharks washing up dead in San Francisco Bay, America. Link
-- 6th May 2017 - 18,000 cattle dead after flash flooding in Samburu, Kenya. Link
-- 4th May 2017 - 10,000 cattle dead due to 'rare Spring snow storm' in Colorado, America. Link
-- 4th May 2017 - Hundreds of migratory birds found dead in Galveston, Texas, America. Link
-- 1st May 2017 - Thousands of dead fish found in the waters of Dunkerque, France. Link
APRIL
-- 30th April 2017 - Thousands of dead fish found floating in the Yarkon River in Israel. Link
-- 29th April 2017 - Massive die off of deer newborns and female deer this winter, 'catastrophic' in Wyoming, America. Link
-- 29th April 2017 - TONS of dead fish wash up on beaches in Kuwait. Link
-- 26th April 2017 - 41 humpback whales have washed up dead during the past year, 'unusual mortality event' declared, along east coast of America. Link
-- 26th April 2017 - Thousands of dead fish are washing up in St. Petersburg, Florida, America. Link
-- 25th April 2017 - Hundreds of sea birds washing up dead or dying in Santa Barbara, California, America. Link
-- 21st April 2017 - Dozens of dead or dying sea lions, seals, dolphins and sea birds washing up along Southern California, America. Link
-- 13th April 2017 - Thousands of bats still dying off, only 7 long-eared bats found this year i
-- 9th April 2017 - 'Countless' numbers of blue Velella velella wash ashore in Oregon, America. Link
-- 6th April 2017 - Thousands of dead fish found along a lakefront in Chicago, America. Link
-- 5th April 2017 - Thousands of dead fish wash up on beaches in Eden, NSW, Australia. Link
-- 4th April 2017 - Thousands of birds are dying in Atlanta, America. Link
-- 1st April 2017 - 38 dead dolphins found washed up along Sundays River coast, South Africa. Link
MIND-BLOWING, ISN'T IT?
SO MUCH DEATH HAPPENING ALL AROUND US, NO MATTER WHERE WE ARE ON EARTH, AND YET WE READ VERY LITTLE ABOUT IT, AND OFTEN, WHEN WE DO, THE ARTICLE WILL BASICALLY STATE, "DON'T WORRY, BE HAPPY", OFFER NO PROVEN REASONS FOR THE DEATHS, OFFER NO SOLUTIONS, POSSIBLE REMEDIES FOR THE AFFECTED SPECIES AND NEVER ADDRESS IT AGAIN.
HERE'S SOMETHING ELSE WE MAY NOTICE...EVEN WHEN MARINE LIFE ARE SUCKED INTO INTAKE PIPES AT NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS, THOSE POWER PLANTS ARE NEVER, OR SELDOM, LISTED AS THEIR CAUSE OF DEATH.
ISN'T THAT ODD? IT IS NOT ALWAYS "RED TIDE", OR EL NINO, OR ANY OTHER CONVENIENT DIAGNOSIS, YET THE ARTICLES, EXCEPT FOR A FEW OUT OF CANADA, NEVER MENTION RADIATION.
NO, I DON'T THINK ALL THESE DEATHS WERE CAUSED BY RADIOACTIVE WATER, SOIL, AIR, BUT SOME WERE.
WHY NOT JUST SAY SO?
WHY?
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$, THAT'S WHY.
IT WOULD COST TOO MUCH TO SHUT-DOWN AND CLEAN UP EVERY NUCLEAR REACTOR.
UNTIL THAT CHANGES,SOMEHOW, WE'LL JUST KEEP SEEING "UNDETERMINED CAUSE OF DEATH" AND, IT APPEARS TO ME THAT THE MAJORITY OF THE WORLD'S POPULATION WILL ACCEPT "UNDETERMINED" AND MAYBE NOT MISS THOSE BILLIONS OF CREATURES WHO HAVE DIED AND WILL DIE IN DAYS, WEEK, YEARS, DECADES, CENTURIES AHEAD.
I'LL MISS THEM.
I'LL MISS THEM ALL.
____________________________
A POSTSCRIPT:
In 1983, long-spined sea urchins, then a common Caribbean species, began to waste away; their bony casings soon littered shorelines from Panama to Florida. The species had been abundant for a long time, possibly hundreds of thousands of years, but within thirteen months its population had declined by 98%.
Even today, the urchins number not much more than 10% of their former plenitude.
I remember well how plentiful those fragile creatures were along Florida beaches.
I regret very much that my grandchildren and great grandchildren will never see them in the numbers they once existed.
As the most fragile go, so go we all.
The Deepwater Horizon oil spill released 134 million gallons of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico making it the largest oil spill in US history and exposing fish, birds, and marine mammals throughout the Gulf of Mexico to its toxicity. Fish eating waterbirds such as the double-crested cormorant (Phalacrocorax auritus) were exposed to the oil both by direct contact with the oil and orally through preening and the ingestion of contaminated fish.
This study investigated the effects of orally ingestedMC252 oil-contaminated live fish food by double-crested cormorants on oxidative stress. Total, reduced, and oxidized glutathione levels, superoxide dismutase and glutathione peroxidase activities, total antioxidant capacity and lipid peroxidation were assessed in the liver tissues of control and treated cormorants.
The results suggest that ingestion of the oil-contaminated fish resulted in significant increase in oxidative stress in the liver tissues of these birds.
Do you see?
They never actually say that's what killed them and will continue to kill them because no oil company is forced to clean up their murderous messes.
The Tea Room sincerely thanks the one website dedicated to keeping close watch over the dying and reporting their demise.
//WW
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