MidnightWatcher – Prophecy in Motion

RIANOSTOVI – “A new massive wave of deaths among the extremely endangered saiga antelope has been registered in northern Kazakhstan, the Agriculture Ministry’s press service said on Thursday.

The ministry said earlier that 540 saiga carcasses had been found in the Kostanai region of Kazakhstan.

‘Aviation monitoring today … discovered a new concentration of saiga deaths with the approximate number of dead animals reaching beyond 400,’ the ministry said.

Last year, at least 12,000 saiga died in western Kazakhstan, presumably from pasteurellosis infection and from overeating. In November 2010, Kazakhstan introduced a ban on saiga hunting.

The latest statistics put the number of saiga in Kazakhstan at 85,500. The country spends $800,000 annually to prevent the animals’ deaths.

Saiga were virtually exterminated in the 1920s but then increased their numbers in the Soviet Asian republics in the 1950s. The animals mostly became endangered because of hunting and the high demand for their horns in Chinese medicine.

Apart from Kazakhstan, saiga live in the Russian Kalmykia region and in Mongolia.” Source – Ria.ru.

By Timothy B. Wheeler, The Baltimore Sun – “Something’s rotten on the Baltimore area waterfront. Fish are washing ashore by the thousands in a mass die-off that officials say appears to be caused by a weather-driven worsening of the pollution that chronically plagues the Chesapeake Bay.

State investigators expanded their probe Wednesday into what they believe are algae-related fish kills in Marley, Furnace and Curtis creeks in Glen Burnie, raising the estimated death toll there tenfold, while finding a new batch of finny carcasses in a Dundalk creek.

Jay Apperson, spokesman for the Maryland Department of the Environment, said the agency’s fish-kill investigators estimated anywhere from 60,000 to 100,000 fish of several species dead in the three creeks in northern Anne Arundel County. Only a day before, Apperson had said investigators figured there were about 6,000 dead.

‘You could smell it through the neighborhood,’ said Rob Rogers, 45, who took a break from work at the Point Pleasant Beach Tavern to describe what he called ‘unbelievable’ conditions on the creeks. Rogers said boaters reported dead fish floating in the water so thick they couldn’t avoid hitting them.

The state investigators also found about 300 dead fish in Bullneck Creek in eastern Baltimore County, Apperson said, where residents on Tuesday had reported seeing fish and crabs thrashing on the water’s surface in apparent distress. The investigators measured little oxygen in the creek’s deepest water for fish to breathe.

The die-offs are a drastic byproduct of algae blooms that have discolored water in much of the upper bay for over a month now, officials said.

‘We’ve been having lots of algae blooms in Middle River, in Baltimore harbor, even down on the Severn River,’ said Thomas Parham, tidewater ecosystem assessment chief for the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. ‘This is earlier than normal,’ he added, and while algae blooms are a common phenomenon on the bay in spring and summer, they normally are ‘not at this level.'” Read more.

Tip of the hat to Jack Smith for the link …

By Adam Mertz, KFOR-TV – “EDMOND, Okla. — Wildlife officials are trying to determine why dead fish are washing up on shore at Arcadia Lake.

Campers and fishers contacted officials after they noticed some fish ‘belly up’ in the water Wednesday.

‘When the fish kind of just start popping up like that, it’s kind of scary,’ fisherman David Cox said.

A biologist was at the lake taking water samples that will now be sent to a lab.

The Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation said the dead fish all appear to be white bass.

The fish were found near the south side of the lake.

‘Fish kills are not that uncommon but usually they might take place later in the year when it is hot and dry and there is a problem with oxygenation in the water and that’s usually a typical cause,’ Michael Bergin said, Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation.

It is still unclear what may have killed the fish.

Officials expect the results from the lab later this week.” Source – KFOR-TV Channel 4.

By DAVID JOLLY and ANDREA ZARATE – “Late last year, fishermen began finding dead dolphins, hundreds of them, washed up on Peru’s northern coast. Now, seabirds have begun dying, too, and the government has yet to conclusively pinpoint a cause.

Officials insist that the two die-offs are unrelated. The dolphins are succumbing to a virus, they suggest, and the seabirds are dying of starvation because anchovies are in short supply.

But even three months after officials began testing the dolphins, the government has not released definitive results, and there is growing suspicion among the public and scientists that there might be more to the story. Some argue that offshore oil exploration could be disturbing wildlife, for example, and others fear that biotoxins or pesticides might be working their way up the food chain.

At least 877 dolphins and more than 1,500 birds, most of them brown pelicans and boobies, have died since the government began tracking the deaths in February, the Environment Ministry said last week. The dolphins, many of which appeared to have decomposed in the ocean before washing ashore, were found in the Piura and Lambayeque regions, not far from the border with Ecuador.

The seabirds, which seem mostly to have died onshore, have been found from Lambayeque to Lima. ‘Never in my 40 years as a fisherman have I seen anything like this,’ said Francisco Ñiquen Rentería, the president of the Association of Artisanal Fishermen in Puerto Eten, in the Lambayeque region. ‘Sometimes in the past, you’d randomly see a dead dolphin or a pelican, but this, what’s happening now, is really alarming.'” Read more.

By Heidi Voight, WWLP.com – “EAST LONGMEADOW, Mass. (WWLP) – Families visiting East Longmeadow’s Heritage Park Sunday were shocked by the sight and smell of dead fish.

Upset viewers alerted 22News using our Report It feature, so we sent a crew to investigate. We found hundreds of what appear to be sunfish floating on the surface of the water and lining the shores.

One local fisherman told 22News he noticed the fish stopped biting after a kid’s fishing derby a couple weeks ago. ‘I thought maybe the water’s been polluted, or even maybe the kids just took the hooks off and damaged the fish and just threw them back in, could be any reason for it,’ Tony Calvanese.

‘I wouldn’t let my kids be around this area after seeing that. I think it’s disgusting and I think it’s unsanitary,’ said Lina of Springfield.” Read more.

“Over 50 thousand fish in a pond near an industrial area in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen died overnight on Monday, CRI Online reports.

The dead fish are mostly concentrated in the northern corner of the pond, and half of the body of water is now covered with rotting fish.

Located in the Qiangxiaxin Village at the junction of the Guangming New District and Dongguan in Shenzhen, the fish pond is larger than two basketball courts in area.

‘We have invested a total of 350 thousand yuan (about 56 thousand USD) in the form of 60 thousand fish; now it’s all over,’ said Ms. Liu, the fish pond owner. ‘These fish have been raised for one year, and could have been sold at market three months later.’

Liu said she will not sell the dead fish at market despite suffering great financial losses as a result. She also suspects that heavy rain may have led to the pond being contaminated by toxic and harmful substances from a nearby building site in the Maike industrial area.

A manager surnamed Wen at the building site said that he is willing to cover any losses but stated that he is unaware of the presence of toxic materials at the site.

The Guangming New District environmental protection office has already begun investigating the case.” Source – CRI English.

By Jeff Dute, Press-Register – “MOBILE, Alabama — Scientists say it is highly possible they will never be able to determine what caused the deaths of hundreds of bull red drum on Mobile Bay over the past couple days.

What they believe is that the deaths of the highly regulated fish, which at this size are the primary spawners, likely won’t have significant or long-lasting impacts on populations in Alabama.

Kevin Anson, Alabama Marine Resources chief fisheries biologist, reassured people who have reported seeing the dead red drum, commonly called redfish, that the population is healthy enough to sustain such a one-time loss…

Estimates from reports of dead fish to the newspaper on Sunday put the total at between 400 and 500 fish. Most of the those fish were seen between Mullet Point and Point Clear on the east and from south of Gaillard Island to Dog River on the west.

Additional sightings from the weekend put dead redfish being seen from as far north as the Mobile River and Arlington Ship Channel to Weeks Bay on the southeast.” Read more.

By Jill Langlois, Global Post – “Peru’s oceanographic agency said it will investigate the deaths of 1,200 pelicans on northern beaches, the same place where nearly 900 dolphins were recently found dead.

The dead pelicans were found by Puerto Eten Fishermen’s Association on Thursday and Friday along 105 miles of coastline, reported the Associated Press. The government’s Institute of the Sea said it found nearly 600 dead birds, mostly pelicans and also some gannets, along a 43-mile stretch.

The pelicans have been appearing dead on Peruvian beaches over the past 10 to 12 days, according to Perú21. The Peruvian Sea Institute (Imarpe) hasn’t been able to explain the phenomenon.

Dozens of other dying birds have been seen on beaches, Puerto Eten Fishermen’s Association president Francisco Ñiquen told Fox News. Imarpe will investigate the cause of the mass deaths.” Read more.

Peru: Hundreds of Dead Dolphins Counted Along 90-Mile Stretch of Peru Beaches, Number of Dead Will Reach Into the Thousands – “Conservationists counted 615 dead dolphins along a 90-mile stretch of beaches in Peru, a wildlife group said Wednesday, and the leading suspect is acoustic testing offshore by oil companies. ‘If you can count 615 dead dolphins, you can be sure there are a great many more out at sea and the total will reach into the thousands,’ Hardy Jones, head of the conservation group BlueVoice.org, said in a statement after he and an expert with ORCA Peru walked the beaches. Indeed, the head of a local fishermen’s association told Peru21.pe that he estimated more than 3,000 dolphins had died so far this year …” Read more.