strange animal behavior signals catastrophe

[nashville_brook]

Funny how history is recorded in memories.

My grandmother who lived through all the last century's worst hurricanes, used to say crabs and sandpipers and all kinds of beach life would hightail it west from the ocean a few days before the worst storms. She said that people were stupid for not paying attention to good old cracker wisdom on these things. When the animals pack up and go it's something to pay attention to.

I was reminded of this a few weeks ago when stories surfaced about mysterious runs of fish fleeing the Gulf of Mexico along the shoreline of Florida's west coast. It's called <a href="http://www.pca.state.mn.us/publications/mnenvironment/fall2000/hypoxia.html">Jubilee when fish exhibit this behavior</a> because locals pluck hundreds of delicious fishes from the water like manna from heaven. This last reported Jubilee was associated with an enormous red tide, coincidentally passing Katrina on the way out of the Gulf as she was on her way in.

There seems to be a lot of mass behavior going on with <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/08/31/iraq.main/index.html">nearly a thousand dead Shiites</a> trampled and jumping to their deaths off the bridge in Bagdad.

At least there's phone service in Iraq, that's how come we have a body count, something we don't have in New Orleans. We have rumors and second- and third-hand accounts. How many in the Superdome? 15,000? 20,000? 60,000? How many dead? How bad is the social situation? anyone who has ever attended a large demonstration knows headcounts always vary wildly depending on who you ask.

When the hurricane was still out in the Gulf, people were anticipating all sorts of authoritarian transgressions as MARTIAL LAW would no doubt be imposed. No one predicted a complete deficit of authority.

While we've been waiting for Bush to finish up his marathon vacation, many wondered what Presidential Daily Briefing would be ignored. What "new products" would be introduced after August. I've read scenarios detailing a false flag operation/cloaked drill in South Carolina involving nuclear weapons brought into the port. While Cheney banged the drum of nuclear confrontation with Iran pending a terrorist attack, our imaginations ran wild trying to find the pattern in the noise. What would it be? How would IT happen? Bush's second term 9-11. What will it be?

As it turns out, it doesn't take a nefarious plan (LIHOP/MIHOP), to create a national emergency. All it takes is NEGLIGENCE.

It was the retreat of beach critters that tipped my grandmother to gathering storms.

It's been the retreat of our president for the rest of us. He didn't have to make this happen on purpose -- all he had to do was continue what he does best, NOTHING. Why am I not surprised <a href="http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/index.html?blog=/politics/war_room/2005/08/31/warnings/index.html">he was warned this would happen in 2001</a>?



Where's Bush? Is this the first he's seen of the destruction, I wonder.

[Tesla]

1. He needs his nap first...

[nashville_brook]

9. he DOES look like a little boy scrunched down in the window

i can't wait to hear him speak

[phantom power]

2. This spring, there was a story about a weird bee migration.

I'm still wondering what that portends. So far, I cannot find the link, but I'll keep looking.

[nashville_brook]

10. yeah, thry to find that --- i'm still looking for the fish story

i read it in more than one place. and Juliee was on To The Best Of Our Knowledge or This American Life or something. it was a personal essay. but i think i'd be cool to see if there's any other stories. i had not heard about the bees. i wonder if bee-keepers might have noticed it? maybe look for a bee-keeping journal.

[sniffa]

3. outstanding

and reccomended. :thumbsup:

i'm aLso reminded me of the tsunami - and the story of the LittLe girL saving 100+ peopLe on a beach, because she noticed sea creatures fLeeing. she had recentLy had a Lesson on it.

[nashville_brook]

12. i had forgotten about the creatures fleeing the tsunami!

wow. there should be lots of info related to that.

i love the story about the little girl. it's so typical of children to have their heads screwed on tighter. just watched the Yes Men. another good example of that.

[nashville_brook]

31. from slate: What Sri Lanka's animals knew that humans didn't.

Surviving the Tsunami: What Sri Lanka's animals knew that humans didn't.
By Christine Kenneally
Posted Thursday, Dec. 30, 2004, at 2:47 PM PT
http://slate.msn.com/id/2111608/

Reports from Sri Lanka after Sunday's tsunami say that despite the enormous number of human casualties—116,000 deaths and rising, at last count—many animals seem to have survived the tidal wave unscathed. At Sri Lanka's national wildlife park at Yala, which houses elephants, buffalo, monkeys, and wild cats, no animal corpses were found on Wednesday. (Yet according to Reuters, the human devastation there was as tragic as elsewhere: Only 30 of the 250 tourist vehicles that entered the park on Sunday returned to base.) Did Yala's animals sense the oncoming tsunami and flee to safety?

There's a good chance the wildlife knew trouble was on the way. History is littered with tales about animals acting weirdly before natural disasters, but the phenomenon has been hard for scientists to pin down. Sometimes animals get crazy before a quake, sometimes they don't. Here's what we know: Animals have sensory abilities different from our own, and they might have tipped them off to Sunday's disaster.

First, it's possible that the animals may have heard the quake before the tsunami hit land. The underwater rupture likely generated sound waves known as infrasound or infrasonic sound. These low tones can be created by hugely energetic events, like meteor strikes, volcanic eruptions, avalanches, and earthquakes. Humans can't hear infrasound—the lowest key on a piano is about the lowest tone the human ear can detect. But many animals—dogs, elephants, giraffes, hippos, tigers, pigeons, even cassowaries—can hear infrasound waves.
<snip>
What about humans—where were our red flags? Humans feel infrasound. But we don't necessarily know that that's what we're feeling. Some people experience sensations of being spooked or even feeling religious in the presence of infrasound. We also experience Rayleigh waves via special sensors in our joints (called pacinian corpuscles), which exist just for that purpose. Sadly, it seems we don't pay attention to the information when we get it. Maybe we screen it out because there's so much going on before our eyes and in our ears. Humans have a lot of things on their minds, and usually that works out OK.

[MuseRider]

4. ALWAYS stay close to nature.

It is the best way to live and know how things really are around you. I live by those instincts and they have served me pretty well most times.

[nashville_brook]

13. one of the things i've learned about having dogs is they can be

your eyes and ears. they notice people coming up the drive way before we do.

something else grandmother said was to never touch a bird. they carry diseases. i hope i don't have the opportunity to see that little pearl be added to her true cracker wisdom.

[MuseRider]

19. Some of it is more

a precaution than a real truth I think. I watch my horses and can tell about the weather temps, my cats about storms and my dogs give me warning. The birds are good at weather too, when the storms start up I always watch them. I have never seen a tornado without the birds going totally silent before.

I wish I knew more about plants. Apparently there is much to read there too.

My own instincts are fairly well honed at this point, I trust them but the animals always confirm before I act. To many it sounds silly I suppose but I have always stayed very close to nature. It would be very different trying to do it in a large city I would guess but out here it is a way of life.

[nashville_brook]

21. come to think about it, my joints are pretty outspoken about weather

i usually know a full day before a front comes in.

[MuseRider]

23. He Heee

Me too! Darn un fun to get older but it does have a few benefits!

[LunaSea]

5. I'd been puzzled over the "fish parade" story I read a couple of weeks ago

http://www.sun-herald.com/NewsArchive2/080505/ew11.htm?date=080505&story=ew11.htm
08/05/05

Strange fish parade seen in Englewood


ENGLEWOOD -- A bizarre freeway of fish swimming by the thousands along the shore of Englewood Beach Thursday morning left crowds of beach-goers agog and marine biologists bewildered.

"I've lived her for 10 years, and I've never seen anything like this. It's incredible," said Bob Ricci of Englewood.

Beach-goers reported that a wide variety of sea creatures came swimming south in a narrow band close to the beach at mid-morning.

[nashville_brook]

26. that's IT! cool!

[Karenina]

28. I read that and FREAKED

having grown up by the shore. When the critters pack up and leave...
:scared::hide::scared:

[nashville_brook]

30. i thought it was totally creepy

this story got a lot of play. i think there's something very Stephen King about these stories. didn't make the connection until last nite. i've been meaning to put it on "paper" since.

[nashville_brook]

27. so many fish you could "walk on them"

(from the article)

"Included in the swarm were clouds of shrimp, crab, grouper, snapper, red fish and flounder. They were joined by more usual species, including sea robins, needlefish and eels.

Ten-year Manasota Key resident Nick Neidlinger spotted the commotion from his condominium shortly before 9 a.m.

The fish were moving in a narrow band in about 18 inches of water, he said. They were headed south, and, so far as he could tell, the moving mass of sea life stretched a good mile long.

"We're talking thousands and thousands of them," Neidlinger said. "It was so thick we couldn't walk out."

[KoKo]

6. What an interesting post....Many thanks.

I grew up in a rural area and have always been glad of it. It helped me be very observant of nature and when things get a little "out of whack" whether it's leaves turning a little too early...or flowers blooming a little late.

It drives my city raised friends crazy when I notice little (what they would call) "oddities" but my observations have helped me survive in many
instances because of it. I miss many of the "old timers" who could relate what to look for and love to hear stories from other folks whose grandparents were good observers.

Thanks! :hug:

[nashville_brook]

14. my deep roots are extreme native coastal floridian

my great-grandfather was a cracker guide for a famous naturalist. the grandmother had something to say about everything. i wish i had recordings.

[KoKo]

7. Wasn't there a post about hundreds of dolphins congregating off Wales

a few months ago. No one knew what it meant. :shrug:

[nashville_brook]

15. there's another i had not heard about!

i knew there were a lot of beachings thought to be caused by some kind of sonar.

[kweerwolf]

8. * saw some of the destruction on TV in Crawford and was VERY upset!

They interupted "Judge Judy" to show live shots from New Orleans and the Gulf Coast.

[nashville_brook]

16. oh i can't WAIT till 5 or is it 4?

doen't matter -- it'll be on everything.

[nashville_brook]

24. dammit -- i missed it

was that it? the 10 minute thing?

[nashville_brook]

25. a fly-over? that's it?

[enki23]

11. er... i can goddamned guarantee we had more warning than the birdies

and the fishies.

[nashville_brook]

18. have you seen the salon article about the 2001 PDB. not joking!

http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/index.html?blog=/politics/war_room/2005/08/31/warnings/index.html

"...the Center for American Progress note, the Federal Emergency Management Agency issued a report in early 2001 that identified the three catastrophes most likely to hit the United States: a terrorist attack on New York, an earthquake in San Francisco and a hurricane in New Orleans."

[nashville_brook]

29. and this:

Here's what: They cut funding for flood and hurricane projects planned by the New Orleans district of the Army Corps of Engineers. According to one published report, the New Orleans district had $147 million to spend on such projects in 2001. In fiscal year 2005, which ends next month, the district will have had about $82 million, a drop of about 44 percent. As we reported earlier this week, the Bush administration proposed further cuts for the district for fiscal year 2006.

[KittyWampus]

17. 10,000 fish washed up dead in 3 Mile Harbor Last Week. From

overheated water. not enough O2.

[nashville_brook]

20. i wonder if the extra warm water in the gulf

sucked the storm up a current -- like a positive feedback loop.

there've been dead zones and warming water out there for years and the thing they called the red tide this year was way bigger than usual. i read something that described the floor of the gulf for twenty miles as completely dead. "Not a living thing," was a quote. damn, i need to start bookmarking all the animal stuff.

[nashville_brook]

22. crap -- sorry for the messy links

got too many pots on the stove.

[nashville_brook]

32. shameless self-kickee

[nashville_brook]

33. ANT BALLS!

http://www.nola.com/newslogs/breakingtp/

Ant balls not an urban myth
In addition to all of the other horrors befalling New Orleanians during the flood was the creepy discovery that red ants form themselves into floating clusters to avoid drowning. As Dante Ramos and I paddled along Carrollton Avenue on Wednesday, I saw two glittering, golf ball-sized masses of ants floating beside our canoe.

- Doug MacCash

[sniffa]

34. have you thought of putting this together for pubLishing?

newspaper, bLog or what have you? i think it's that briLLiant. ;)