Tag Archives: Fish deaths

Problems in the Ocean

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S. California fishermen ‘skunked… haven’t seen a squid’, usually 10,000+ lbs/day — ‘Complete crashes’ at oyster hatcheries — Sardines, mackerel missing in areas — Pelican sites alarmingly deserted — Record # of sick sea lions — Ultra-rare whales appear after decades — Mammals, birds, fish in odd  places

Junw 11, 2014: Unusual Fish Catches Off San Diego Signal Large-Scale El Niño […] “We’ve already started to see very unusual fish catches here,” [Tim Barnett, Scripps Institution of Oceanography said.] “Yellowfin tuna was caught in May — that has never happened before to anybody’s recollection [and] dorado Mahi Mahi — first of June […] has never happened” […]

Pete Thomas Outdoors, June 13, 2014: Unusual catches, whales in odd places, pelican woes could be signs that impending El Niño will be significant […] mammals, birds and fish showing up where they don’t typically belong […] Earlier this week two Bryde’s whales [were] off Huntington Beach […] Sightings off California, however, are extremely rare. […] between 1991 and 2005, there was only one […] Less than a week earlier, a large pod of pilot whales showed off Dana Point […] nearly 20 years since they were last spotted off Southern California. In late March, false killer whales, another ultra-rare visitor [were] off Orange County. […] Sam Anderson, a UC Davis biologist […] would typically encounter tens of thousands of breeding pairs of pelicans, there were only sparse numbers. Some nesting sites were alarmingly deserted. […] Anderson, however, was reluctant to place all of the blame for the pelicans’ plight on the developing El Niño.

Wall St. Journal, June 7, 2014: Record numbers of distressed sea lions have washed ashore in California for a second straight year […] a record 367 California sea lions have been admitted to the Marine Mammal Center here just north of San Francisco, nearly five times the average. […] The problem may have implications for humans, researchers say. “Sea lions are living and feeding on the same resource as humans are.” […] Evidence suggests a problem with one of the animal’s major food sources, sardines […] Some researchers suggest rising toxicity […]

Mark Rayor (Baja California’s East Cape region), April 13, 2014: The bait situation is still very grim […] with sardines and mackerel nowhere to be found.

Marin Independent Journal, June 16, 2014:”We are seeing an issue of availability of (oyster) seed […] There have been complete crashes at these hatcheries.”

Long Beach Press-Telegram, June 13, 2014: The squid boats that net the market squid commercially get an average of six tons nightly […] This year the boats are getting “skunked” and haven’t seen a squid for the last three nights.

See also: “Weird things” seen on California coast: Previously unknown toxic algae proliferating; Unprecedented mass of oxygen-poor water nearshore — TV: Mystery strandings of large squid covered miles and experts baffled… “killing themselves, it’s just really weird” (VIDEO)

from:    http://enenews.com/very-unusual-fish-catches-never-happened-before-california-fishing-boats-havent-squid-recently-10000-pounds-day-complete-crashes-oyster-hatcheries-sardines-mackerel-be-found-ultra-rare-wha

Norway — Tons of Dead Fish Appear & Disappear

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Tons of dead fish appear on, then disappear from Norwegian beach

Tons of dead fish appear on, then disappear from Norwegian beach

A dog walks among tons of dead herring that washed up on a beach at Kvaenes in northern Norway on New Year’s Eve.
January 4th, 2012
11:02 AM ET

Tons of dead herring that washed up on a Norwegian beach on New Year’s Eve are now gone, and no one is sure how they got there or where they went.

Local resident Jan-Petter Jorgensen told Norway’s TV2 he went to look at the thousands and thousands of fish after seeing a Facebook posting about them, according to a report on The Foreigner.

Joregensen said it was fortunate the icy cold prevented the mass of dead fish from raising a stink.

“It is 15 degrees below zero today, so the cold means they don’t smell. Nevertheless, the smell will be pretty intense in the long run,” he said, according to The Foreigner report.

Turns out that wasn’t a problem. Views and News from Norway reports that as of Tuesday, most of the dead fish were gone, perhaps pushed out to sea by tides and winds. The local mayor said they’ll likely sink in the ocean, according to the report.

Why they came to be on the shore remains a mystery.

Jens Christian Holst of the Institute of Marine Research in Norway told Norwegian Broadcasting the herring may have been chased ashore by predators, the Views and News report said.

“In this area, we know there is a lot of (pollock) that graze on (herring),” he said.

Seems like a reasonable explanation.

Of course, on the Web there are always more troubling theories around, including that the deaths could be the first sign the end of the world is coming in 2012, as some believe ancient Mayan prophecy predicts.

from:    http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2012/01/04/tons-of-dead-fish-appear-on-then-disappear-from-norwegian-beach/