‘An Enormous Ecological Disaster’: Hundreds Of Animals, Fish, Birds From Florida Lagoon Inexplicably Die

By PF Louis, Natural News – “More events of mass wild-life species deaths are occurring exponentially, usually without explanation. Often the immediate problem is recognized, but what caused the problem remains unknown.

The term ‘non-point pollution’ pops up, indicating that the source of the problem comes from more than one polluter.

Although several usual suspects are named and gathered in the media, they are merely loosely discussed, but not seriously investigated by journalists, government agencies, or legal authorities.

Industrial representatives routinely influence media and government to ignore the situation or, at best, go through the motions, skim the event’s surface, and leave with nothing conclusive. Either way, there’s no accountability or environmental resolution.

The Gulf BP disaster was a major example of industry’s sway over media and government with the worst man-made ecological disasters in the USA ever.

The recent Indian Creek Lagoon crisis in the central east coast of Florida is an enormous ecological disaster that some consider an inexplicable natural occurrence while others call it a non-point (multi-source) pollution problem. [1]

But something is fishy about the circumstances that precipitated this incident.

The Indian River Lagoon stretches out for 156 miles along the eastern Florida coast and has been a leading North American haven of bio-diversity with 600 species of fish and sea mammals and 300 species of birds. They are in jeopardy now.

At one point, dolphin deaths occurred daily while manatees (sea cows) were dying at a rate of one a week. Over 300 pelicans, 46 dolphins, and 111 manatees have died as of June 20 2013. Even worse is the destruction of their natural feeding habitat, 47,000 acres of sea grass beds on the lagoon’s shallow water floors. [2]” Read more.

Mississippi: Red Tide, Low Oxygen Blamed As 80+ Tons Of Dead Fish Wash Ashore Southern Coast

WLOX – “Eighty tons of dead fish and there’s still more. On Wednesday crews with the Harrison County Beach Authority were back cleaning up the dead fish from Monday’s Jubilee fish kill.

The Jubilee left thousands of dead fish floating in the Mississippi Sound mostly between Long Beach Harbor and the Biloxi Small Craft Harbor. Several people got in the water to scoop up an easy catch. But, beach vendors say the fish kill is also an easy way to hurt busy.

‘Fifteen-feet of just straight fish floating out in the water and by midday they all washed out onto the shoreline. So when our customers saw that they kinda, they all decided to leave. It smelled pretty bad. Your eyes were burning if you were down here. You kinda hurt your respiratory system. You could feel it tingling,’ said beach vendor Damien Mckeown.

Harrison County Sand Beach Director Chuck Loftis says crews will be back out Thursday to clean up the left over fish found primarily inbetween Debuys Road and the coliseum. All the fish are going to a landfill.” Source – WLOX.

Researchers Blame Red Tide, Low Oxygen Blamed For ‘Jubilee’ Fish Kill – “Researchers now know what caused a widespread fish kill along the beaches of South Mississippi Monday. Thousands of dead fish started washing ashore in Harrison County, Hancock County, and Cat Island in the early morning hours.The Department of Marine Resources says one reason is low oxygen levels, due to the warm water. Several samples also pointed to Red Tide algae blooms in the Mississippi Sound that can deplete the oxygen and clog the gills of fish.” Read more.

Minnesota: Officials Worried After 7000+ Pounds Of Fish Die In Beaver Lake ‘Even Though There Is An Aeration System’

CBS Minnesota – “ST. PAUL, Minn. (WCCO) – The spring weather brought with it something pretty unsightly near St. Paul. Hundreds of fish recently died in Beaver Lake, and many of them ended up all along the shoreline.

Fish kills are not unusual this time of year, but this one has Ramsey County officials worried. The fish died even though there is an aeration system in Beaver Lake.

Ruth Klabunde walks her dogs around the lake about three times a week. The first thing she noticed was the smell.

‘This is a really fun little lake to walk around,’ Klabunde said. ‘And the stench was kind of bad.’

And then Klabunde says she saw the source.

‘This whole little bay area here was thick with dead fish,’ she said.

When the ice finally went out on Beaver Lake a week and a half ago, it left behind schools upon schools of dead fish.

It’s estimated that more than 7,000 pounds of dead fish – mostly catfish, sunfish and bass – have been taken out of Beaver Lake. But what caused this unusually large fish kill is still a mystery.

Beaver Lake has an aeration pump that can be turned on when oxygen levels get low.” Read more.

Australia: Gulf St Vincent To Be Tested To Explain Dead Penguins, Fish And Dolphins On Adelaide Beaches

Adelaide Now – “SWIMMERS and fishers have been reassured that they have nothing to fear from the water in Spencer and St Vincent gulfs in the wake of mass fish and dolphin deaths off the state’s coastline.

SA Health told The Advertiser algal blooms, found across the state’s coastline most likely due to March’s prolonged hot weather and heavy winds, did not affect human health in any way.

‘Consumption of fish caught alive do not represent health concerns, however SA Health advises fish caught dead should not be eaten due to concerns over decomposition and spoilage,’ a spokeswoman said yesterday.

The assurance comes as a taskforce of experts starts testing water to help solve the mystery of the thousands of dead fish and 16 dead dolphins.

The Fisheries Department, Environmental Protection Authority and SA Water will lead the taskforce, which will also conduct tests on the fish and some of the dolphins.

Several other nations around the world have also experienced unexplained mass sea deaths in recent months.

Scientific experts from SA Museum conducted autopsies on two dead dolphins yesterday, but said they were still stumped as to how and why such large numbers died in recent weeks.

SA Museum senior researcher of mammals Dr Catherine Kemper said the dolphin samples would be sent to pathology for further analysis. She said preliminary analysis showed one of the dolphins was heavily bruised.

‘It had lots of bruising on it which means for some reason something bumped it or it bumped itself very badly,’ she said.” Read more.

• Flashback: Australia: Mass Deaths of Racehorses Continue to Defy Scientific Explanation Despite Exhaustive Testing
• Flashback: Australia: Scientists Investigate Cause Of Thousands Of Catfish Deaths In Brisbane River
• Flashback: Australia: After Marine Animal Deaths Explained, ‘We Still Know Nothing At All’
• Flashback: Australia: Mystery Turtle Deaths Stump Scientists In North Queensland

Fukushima Radiation Blamed For Thousands Of Sick Seals Washing Up On California Beaches; Expert: Fukushima Disaster 1,000 Times Worse Than IAEA Estimate

By Daily Mail Reporter – “Radiation from Japan’s nuclear disaster could be the reason why more than a thousand sick sea lion pups have washed up on the beaches of Southern California in the past few months, experts believe.

Earlier this week, The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration declared an ‘unusual mortality event’ after the starving pups washed ashore in record numbers since the start of the year.

The NOAA has assembled a team of biologists, veterinarians and public health officials to try and determine why roughly 1,100 of the frail animals have become stranded and had to enter marine mammal rehabilitation centers up the west coast.

The pups have turned up, sick or dying, on the beaches of Los Angeles, Orange, Santa Barbara, Ventura, and San Diego counties.

The number that have been admitted to rehabilitation facilities has far outpaced historical stranding rates for 2008 to 2012, according to NOAA. Last year, the number that washed up was just 100.

And the number washing ashore likely represents just a fraction of the animals in trouble in the ocean.” Read more.

Sea Lion Pups Washing Up On SoCal Beaches at Alarming Rate – “Federal marine wildlife officials said that a mass stranding of malnourished sea lion pups along the Southern California coast since January has intensified in recent weeks and researchers remain unsure of the cause. Officials declared an “unusual mortality event” for the California sea lion, a designation that prompts immediate federal response after a significant die-off of a marine mammal population. The declaration comes as sea lion pups have been found stranded on Southern California beaches — from Santa Barbara to San Diego — at rates exponentially higher than in years past.” Read more.

Gundersen: Death Toll From Fukushima Disaster To Be 1,000 Times IAEA Estimate – “Arnie Gundersen, chief engineer at Fairwinds Associates, has called the new estimate that the Japanese nuclear tragedy released 20-30 times the amount of cesium that has been reported. Calling this a ‘game changer,’ he has estimated 100,000 deaths more than widely released Fukushima data. ‘When there’s no liquid inside the containment, there’s no capture of the cesium. So whatever cesium was inside that containment was leaking out of the containment. […] Well that changes the game dramatically. Instead of 1% of the cesium, it’s likely that 20 or 30% of the cesium were released,’ Gundersen explained.” Read more.

Two Years Later, Fukushima Radiation May Be Affecting The Health Of Young Children In California (Video)

UK: Envirionmentalists Sound Alarm After Thousands Of Dead Crabs, Lobsters, Mussels, Fish, Birds And More Wash Up On East Coast

By Alex Wood, Yorkshire Post – “ENVIRONMENTALISTS have raised concerns for marine life on the East Coast after extreme weather claimed tens of thousands of animals.

The ‘mass mortality’ has been put at an estimated 150,000 velvet swimming crabs, 10,500 edible crabs, 2,000 common lobsters and a staggering 635,000 mussels in just one 10-mile stretch from Barmston to Bridlington along the Holderness Coast – in all around 800,000 individuals.

Cuttlefish bones have been recorded along the length of the East Coast, as well as increased numbers of dead harbour porpoises on Lincolnshire beaches.

The death of hundreds of seabirds, found washed up on beaches from Aberdeenshire to North Yorkshire, has also been blamed on the weather, with over 200 dead or dying puffins recorded on Yorkshire beaches alone between Scarborough and Withernsea.

The RSPB have described it as the worst puffin ‘wreck’ seen for half a century, with around 10 per cent of the puffin population lost at Bempton.

The Natural History Museum Strandings team says over 150 porpoises have washed up along the East Coast this year, with 12 reported on the Lincolnshire coast. Evidence from post-mortem examinations shows a high level of disease and bacterial infection, which is being attributed to the prolonged winter and stormy weather.

Fisherman have been unable to put out to sea because of the strong easterly winds and when they have been able to fish the catches have been low, less than half this time last year, with lobsters still dormant because of the unseasonally low temperatures.

Kirsten Smith, Living Seas Manager for the North Sea Wildlife Trusts, said the loss of so many mature adults who should be producing eggs was a cause for concern: ‘Fishermen are suffering a direct loss of earnings but if anything happens to the habitat or the creatures themselves then you have a knock-in impact for the season after as well.'” Read more.

Brazil: Thousands Of Dead Fish Wash Up On Shores Of Rodrigo de Freitas Lagoon

Fox News Latino, EFE – “Thousands of dead fish washed up on the shores of the Rodrigo de Freitas Lagoon, a Rio de Janeiro tourist attraction, Brazilian authorities said Wednesday.

A large amount of organic matter that entered the lagoon as a result of two recent large storms consumed oxygen and brought it down to critically low levels, Carlos Alberto Muniz, the municipal environment secretary, told Efe.

This situation caused a massive die-off of shad, whose number had risen since mid-February after the fish had entered the lagoon to spawn, Muniz said.

The city government now is working to remove the rotting fish and the strong odor associated with them and had collected 12 tons of dead shad as of Wednesday, the official said.

The lagoon is connected to the Atlantic Ocean via a canal that splits the beaches of Ipanema and Leblon, and that feeding-in of seawater on Wednesday helped improve oxygen levels, Muniz said.

A 65-year-old fisherman named Walter told Efe on the shores of Rodrigo de Freitas, which is to be cleaned up and used for aquatic events such as rowing in the 2016 Olympics, that he believes the large fish die-off occurred because the water in the lagoon is not renewed.” Source – Fox News Latino.

‘Catastrophic’: Lingering ‘Red Tide’ In Florida Killing Record Number Of Manatees

By Melissa Gray and Joe Sutton, CNN – “Florida’s endangered manatees have long suffered from human activity, but this year they face an especially deadly threat hidden in the waters where they swim.

An algae bloom off southwest Florida, called Florida red tide, has killed 174 manatees since January, the highest number to die from red tide in a calendar year, state wildlife officials said Monday.

A red tide is a higher than normal concentration of a microscopic algae that appears in the Gulf of Mexico. At high enough concentrations, the algae can turn the water red or brown, hence the name.

Red tides happen almost every year in southwest Florida and sometimes last just a few weeks, but this year the red tide has lingered and settled in an area of warm water where the manatees have migrated.

‘It’s kind of filled in an area where they’ve congregated and are feeding on sea grass where the toxins settle on,’ said Kevin Baxter, a spokesman for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

Those toxins can affect the central nervous systems of fish and other vertebrates, causing the animals to die.

Wildlife officials and their partners have this year rescued 12 manatees suffering from the effects of red tide. They asked the public to alert them to other ailing manatees who may be showing a lack of coordination and stability in the water, muscle twitches or seizures, and difficulty lifting their heads to breathe.” Read more.

‘Absolutely Incredible’: Thousands Of Dead Fish Found Along 10 KM Stretch Of Beaches In South Australia, ‘I’ve Never Seen A Fish Kill Like It’

By Tim Jeanes, ABC News – “Authorities hope to establish within a day or two why thousands of fish were found dead on Eyre Peninsula in South Australia.

Thousands of young leather jackets washed up in the Port Neill area.

Kirk Gibbons from the caravan park said it was a big talking point among locals.

‘The three main beaches here at Port Neill there’d be, on the high-tide mark, literally hundreds and hundreds and hundreds on each beach,’ he said.

‘[It is] not a pleasant sight, you literally couldn’t take a step without stepping on half a dozen or more.

‘At least the birds had a good feed, there were lots of birds around there feeding.’

Fisheries regional manager Andrew Carr doubted there was too much cause for alarm.

‘If, for example, there was some sort of spillage in the water or the ocean, some sort of toxic chemical you would think every fish, every species, would be killed and that’s why it would seem to be more environmental or natural causes,’ he said.

‘But we’re going to make sure and do a biopsy just to double check.'” Read more.

The Powers Of Heaven Shaken: Earthquakes, Mass Animal Deaths, Violent Storms, Meteorites Light Up Skies, Strange Signs February 2013

Haggai 2:6, “For thus says the LORD of hosts: Yet once more, in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land.”

Romans 8:20-22, “For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.”

‘This Is A Serious Event’: Millions Of Dead Fish Wash Ashore In Iceland, Entire Season’s Worth Of Herring Lost

FoxNews – “Researchers in Iceland are blaming low oxygen levels in a shallow fjord for the deaths of tens of thousands of tons of herring.

Masses of dead herring have been found in Kolgrafafjordur fjord for the second time this winter, raising concerns about Iceland’s fishery.

The Morgunbladid newspaper estimated the value of the 10,000 tons of fish found dead this week at 1.25 billion kronur ($9.8 million). An even larger number of fish died in December.

Roughly one season’s worth of herring has been lost, Johann Sigurjonsson, director of Iceland’s Marine Research Institute, said Wednesday.

He said herring tend to winter in large populations and may have depleted the oxygen in the shallow fjord. The danger should ease in spring when the herring spread out into a wider area, he said, downplaying fears that the entire herring fishery is in danger.

‘We regard this as a serious event,’ he said. ‘We are investigating; we would like to find out if it is necessary to try to step in somehow.’

The government’s economic minister has increased funding for monitoring in the area to determine what can be done to prevent more fish from dying off.” Read more.

Again: Thousands Of Dead Fish Wash Ashore In South Carolina’s Pawleys Island

WMBF – “When you go to the beach you don’t expect to find hundreds of dead fish covering the shore.

Pat Hawkins was heading out to the beach Tuesday morning to enjoy the weather, but when she saw the sea of dead Menhaden fish she was in shock.

Pawleys Island isn’t the first place this week to see the dead Menhaden fish on their shores. DeBordieu Beach had the same issue the day before, according to Chief Michael Fanning of the Pawleys Island Police Department.

Events like this happen from time to time, last year an influx of Star Fish were found on the same beaches, Fanning said.

It may be confusing to the people who live nearby, but Fanning says the state is looking into what may have killed the fish.

Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) and Department of Natural Resources (DNR) visited the area Tuesday and took water samples. No results were available at this time, but experts think a lack of oxygen caused the dead Menhaden to wash ashore.

The fish fell victim because they are more prone to feel the effects of the loss of oxygenated water, said Dr. Dan Hitchcock of Clemson University.

‘When it’s one species like that the species is menhaden all over the beach that’s usually indicative of a low dissolve oxygen situation because they tend to be more fragile,’ Dr. Hitchcock said.” Read more.