More Than 800 Tons of Fish Die and Rot on Fish Farms South of Philippine Capital

The Associated Press
Sun, 29 May 2011

 

A fish pond worker scoops up dead milkfish locally known as Bangus after thousands of them were found floating on Taal Lake in Batangas province, south of Manila, Philippines, Sunday May 29, 2011.

 

The Government Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources are still investigating the cause of the fish kill. The damage of the fish, the most in-demand fishes in the country, is estimated at least 50 tons.

 

More than 800 tons of fish have died and rotted on fish farms in a lake near Taal volcano south of Manila, with authorities blaming it on a sudden temperature drop.

The massive fish deaths started late last week but have eased. Officials have banned the sale of the rotting fish, which are being buried by the truckload in Talisay and four other towns in Batangas province, Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources official Rose del Mundo said Sunday.

The deaths are unrelated to recent signs of restiveness in Taal volcano, which is surrounded by the lake where many villagers have grown milkfish and tilapia - staple food for many Filipinos, officials said. The volcano and lake are a popular tourist draw.

Talisay agricultural officer Zenaida Mendoza said an initial investigation showed the deaths may have been caused by the temperature change as the rainy season set in last week after a scorching summer, which also depleted the lake's oxygen levels.

Sinkholes Have Residents Fleeing QC Neighborhood

CBC News, Canada
Fri, 27 May 2011

Quebec City officials said experts will be on this Charlesbourg district site Friday to find out what's causing sinkholes.

Officials in Quebec City are trying to figure out what's caused dozens of sinkholes to appear in a north-end neighbourhood.

They served evacuation papers on Wednesday to about 15 homes and one business in the city's Charlesbourg district.

Almost 40 holes between five and eight metres wide appeared in the last week. The holes were mostly found in a field, but another was in a resident's driveway. One is big enough to fit a car.

"The field is is like, there is nothing, no trees or anything and you see everywhere some holes, some deeper than others, like 30 or 40 holes everywhere on the field. You can see this is not normal. You can see this is a problem on this land," said city spokesperson François Moisan.

420 Whale Sharks Swarm Mexican Coastline

Jennifer Viegas
Discovery News
Wed, 25 May 2011

 

Whale shark aggregation off the coast of Mexico.

Up to 420 whale sharks gathered off the coast of the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico, forming the world's largest known assembly of this species, according to a press release issued by the Smithsonian National Zoological Park.

The discovery counters the widely held belief that whale sharks, which can weigh more than 79,000 pounds, are solitary filter feeders that prefer to be alone in the open ocean. The impressive shark assembly proves they will gather for the right reasons. Food now appears to be the draw.

"Whale sharks are the largest species of fish in the world, yet they mostly feed on the smallest organisms in the ocean, such as zooplankton," Mike Maslanka, biologist at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute and head of the Department of Nutrition Sciences, says in the press release. "Our research revealed that in this case, the hundreds of whale sharks had gathered to feed on dense patches of fish eggs."

Maslanka and his team identified the whale shark assembly using both surface and aerial surveys. Considering these sharks can grow to more than 40 feet long, the surface-level surveying must have been extraordinary.

Strange He-She Birds Present Gender-Bending Mystery

Livescience
Thu, 26 May 2011

A strange bird showed up in Larry Ammann's backyard on Jan. 14. Clearly a cardinal, it had the bright red plumage of a male on its left side and gray, female feathers on its right.

"I had no clue how on Earth something like that could happen," said Ammann, a professor of statistics and a wildlife photographer who lives in a suburb of Dallas. "It was a learning experience."

Ammann and the biologists he consulted concluded the bird was most likely part female, part male. Creatures with this condition are called gynandromorphs. They are genetic anomalies: Some cells in their bodies carry the genetic instructions for a male, some for a female. While this gender-bending also occurs among insects, spiders and crustaceans, birds like this cardinal have raised questions about how sex identity is determined among some animals.

As the breeding season began, other cardinals became more territorial, and the bird disappeared before it could be trapped and its feathers collected for genetic testing.

Japan Quake Raises Shaking Risk Elsewhere in Country

OurAmazingPlanet
Wed, 25 May 2011

Map showing the 11 March 2011 magnitude 9.0 off Tohoku mainshock and 166 aftershocks of magnitude 5.5 and greater until May 20. Warmer color indicates more recent events. Larger symbol indicates greater quake magnitude.

The massive 9.0 magnitude earthquake that devastated Japan in March built up stress on other faults in the country, putting some areas, including Tokyo, at risk of aftershocks and even new main shocks over the next few years, scientists have found.

After studying data from Japan's extensive seismic network, researchers from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), Kyoto University and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) have identified several areas at risk from the quake, Japan's largest ever, which already has triggered a large number of aftershocks.

Data from the Tohoku earthquake on March 11 has brought scientists a small step closer to a better assessment of future seismic risk in specific regions, said Shinji Toda of Kyoto University, a lead author of the study.

"Even though we cannot forecast precisely, we can explain the mechanisms involved in such quakes to the public," he said. Still, he added, the findings do bring scientists "a little bit closer" to being able to forecast aftershocks.

Sri Lanka: Dengue Epidemic in Colombo

Daily Mirror
Wed, 25 May 2011

The Colombo City is facing the worst dengue epidemic ever Colombo Municipal Council (CMC) said yesterday revealing that there had been 195 cases reported this month. CMC which dropped a bomb shell, said in and round the National Hospital Colombo, Military Hospital and vicinity of the Colombo Port had been identified as the major mosquito breeding grounds in the city.

There had been 885 reported dengue cases in the city this year out of which 50 percent is reported to be school children.

Chief Medical Officer CMC Dr. Pradeep Kariyawasam told a news conference yesterday that few doctors attached to the National Hospital Colombo had fell victim to Dengue while the nurses quarters is also found to be a breeding ground. In addition, several Chinese nationals who were working at development projects in Colombo were also infected.

He also warned that new complication of dengue DEN 3 had also raised its head in the city.

Dr. Kariyawasam claimed that the school principals have turned a deaf ear to the repeated requests made by the CMC to keep the schools clean while lack of public support as a whole had been one of the reasons for the epidemic.

He said all school principals in the city had been called for a meeting by the Special Commissioner, CMC, Omar Kamil on Thursday to brief them on the situation.
However, he said the Colombo City only accounts to 7 percent of the country's total number of cases though there is a school of thought that most reported cases are from the capital city. He said the disease had come from elsewhere though there is an idea that the germs had existed within the city itself.

He said the CMC had conducted dengue prevention campaigns but lack of public support, legal impediments have not brought much results.

  

12-Mile-High Ash Plume Shutters Iceland Airports

msnbc.com
Sun, 22 May 2011

 

More than a year after an Icelandic volcano wreaked havoc for millions of air travelers across the globe, a new eruption has spewed an ash plume 12 miles in the air. Iceland's airports have been shut down, and ash could affect Europe later this week.

Ash could reach northern Scotland by Tuesday and parts of Britain, France and Spain by Thursday or Friday if the eruption continues at the same intensity, airlines were warned on Sunday.

The warning is based on the latest 5-day weather forecasts, but is being treated cautiously because of uncertainties over the way the volcano will behave and interact with the weather.

The Grimsvotn (GREEMSH-votn) volcano, which lies beneath the ice of the uninhabited Vatnajokull glacier in southeast Iceland, began erupting Saturday for the first time since 2004, sending ash, smoke and steam 12 miles into the air.

Volcano Erupts in Iceland, Spurs 50 Quakes

MSNBC
Sat, 21 May 2011

 

Reykjavik, Iceland - Iceland's most active volcano erupted Saturday, with a white plume shooting 18,000 feet into the air, scientists said.

The eruption was followed by around 50 small earthquakes, the largest of which measured 3.7 on the Richter Scale, according to Iceland's meteorological office.

There was a similar eruption at the same volcano in 2004.

Scientists don't believe this eruption will lead to air travel chaos like that caused by ash from the Eyjafjallajokul volcano in April 2010.

The Grimsvotn volcano is located underneath the Vatnajokull glacier in southeast Iceland.

Sparsely populated Iceland is one of the world's most volcanically active countries and eruptions are frequent.

They often cause local flooding from melting glacier ice, but rarely cause deaths.

Last year's Eyjafjallajokul eruption left millions of air travelers stranded after winds pushed the ash cloud toward some of the world's busiest airspace and led most northern European countries to ground all planes for five days.

In November, melted glacial ice began pouring from, signaling a possible eruption. That was a false alarm but scientists have been monitoring the volcano closely ever since.

Scotland: Fear For Mass Stranding of Whales on South Uist

BBC
Fri, 20 May 2011

Rescue team leader Alasdair Jack says some of the whales have serious head injuries.

Marine animal experts are preparing for a potential mass stranding by up to 100 pilot whales in South Uist in the Western Isles.

The whales were spotted in Loch Carnan on Thursday afternoon and about 20 were said to have had cuts to their heads.

It is thought the injuries may have been caused by the whales' attempts to strand themselves on the rocky foreshore of the sea loch.

Sick and injured whales are known to beach themselves to die.

However, at times, dying whales have been followed to shore by healthy animals.

Conservationists have also suggested the whales may have got lost, or entered the loch following prey.

Rescuers said inflatable pontoons for refloating whales were on the way.

The pod had been moving back and forth from the shore and rescuers said the animals were "very vocal", which may be a sign of distress.

The whales, a deep water species, have since moved from the loch back to a nearby bay, where they were seen earlier on Thursday.

Members of the British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR) fear the whales could die in a massive beaching - which could be Scotland's largest stranding.

BDMLR Scottish organiser Alasdair Jack said preventing the mammals from stranding would cause unnecessary suffering and the animals would only move on to another shoreline.

Turkey: Earthquake Magnitude 6.0 - Western Turkey

US Geological Survey
Thu, 19 May 2011

 

Date-Time:
Thursday, May 19, 2011 at 20:15:23 UTC

Location:
39.115°N, 29.124°E

Depth:
4.6 km (2.9 miles) (poorly constrained)

Region:
WESTERN TURKEY

Distances:
53 km (32 miles) NNW of Usak, Turkey

82 km (50 miles) WSW of Kutahya, Turkey

120 km (74 miles) S of Bursa, Turkey

332 km (206 miles) WSW of ANKARA, Turkey