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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsAnother dead whale washes ashore on Bay Area beach
SANTA ROSA (KRON) The carcass of a 28-foot juvenile gray whale washed on Portuguese Beach this weekend.
This is the sixth dead whale to wash ashore since mid April, raising concern as to what is killing these enormous mammals.
Park officials say the whale came ashore on the Sonoma Coast on Friday night or Saturday morning, but that it had most likely been dead for some time.
California State Parks Ranger Damien Jones says the marine Mammal Center took a tissue sample in an attempt to determine the cause of death.
http://kron4.com/2015/05/25/6th-dead-whale-washes-ashore-on-bay-area-beach/
RobertEarl
(13,685 posts)Not only whales, but sea lions, seals and sea stars are dieing like crazy all up and down the west coast of the N. Pacific.
I heard birds are getting rare, too.
Gee, I wonder what could be causing all these deaths?
MoonRiver
(36,926 posts)RobertEarl
(13,685 posts)Then we are in for a world of hurt. Fukushima has been polluting the ocean for four years now and it looks like it will continue for the rest of our lives.
MoonRiver
(36,926 posts)How could it be otherwise?
RobertEarl
(13,685 posts)Elect a president who will do whatever it takes to put a stop to the pollution.
I think you can guess who that man is?
MoonRiver
(36,926 posts)uppityperson
(115,677 posts)What birds have you heard are getting rare?
http://kazu.org/post/baby-sea-stars-offer-hope-amid-mass-die
The purple and orange baby sea stars Moritsch found are about the size of a quarter. She says their size dates them to being born during the mass die off from the wasting disease.
Weve seen more babies in the last 12-ish months than we have had in the previous 14 years combined, says Pete Raimondi, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at UCSC. His office overlooks Terrace Point, and Moritsch is a student in his lab.
Now, thats not characteristic of all sites, but it is an indication that there is substantial recruitment occurring, he continues.
http://time.com/3714036/sea-lions-stranded/
Theyre not really capable of diving deep or traveling far, says Sharon Melin, a NOAA wildlife biologist. Theyre not really capable of being out on their own. And so the pups are washing up on shore, emaciated.
The root cause of the crisis, officials believe, is the odd wind patterns that arent cooling the ocean like they normally do. They arent certain of whats behind the lack of cold winds, but they believe the patterns are creating a ripple effect through the food chain. The sea lions, at the top of that chain, are signaling that bigger things may be amiss among the larger marine food web. There are a lot of puzzles here that were trying to put together, says Nate Mantua, a NOAA climatologist. We dont understand it. Its a mystery.
Jefferson23
(30,099 posts)Brother Buzz
(36,444 posts)abelenkpe
(9,933 posts)Maybe they've just eaten too much plastic trash like in this older article:
http://www.invw.org/node/1029
Gray whale dies bringing us a message -- with stomach full of plastic trash
(snip)
The gray whale was dead, but had been in good health. A bottom feeder, it had ingested about 20 plastic bags, surgical gloves, plastic pieces, a pair of sweat pants, a golf ball, and other cast-off bits of our lives. It was the fifth dead gray whale to be found in two weeks on Puget Sound, according to the Cascadia Research Collective. Several of those whales were malnourished. The photo above, by Cascadia Research of Olympia, WA, shows researchers near the whale.
(more at link)