MidnightWatcher – Prophecy in Motion

By Aakriti Vasudeva, The Indian Express – “The alarming number of marine deaths off the Konkan coast in the past few days, with two whales and several turtles found beached in separate incidents, could be natural or fishing-related, said experts.

A 35-foot whale identified as a Baleen whale was found beached at Priyadarshini Park at Napean Sea Road on Saturday. A similar whale was found dead at Uran on Thursday. Both were found in a highly decomposed state. There were unconfirmed reports of a third whale being beached off the Raigad coast on Monday. Meanwhile, many turtle deaths were reported over the last few days from the Raigad coast with 11 turtles found dead on the Shrivardhan coast on Saturday.

‘We have got queries from Mantralay and Fisheries department and have been trying to find out the cause of the whale deaths for the past two days, but have been unable to do so. We are studying the migrational routes of the whales along the Indian coast and gathering information on it,’ said Dr Vinay Deshmukh, principal scientist, Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute…

In case of the turtle deaths, the Roha forest department said about 24 dead turtles were found in a badly decomposed state from the Murud and Shrivardhan coast in the last month. 11 turtles were found dead at Shrivardhan on Sunday. ‘The vet we consulted said the turtles died of natural causes, but investigations are on ,’ said Deputy Conservator of Forests (Roha) Sarfaraz Khan.” Read more.

By Miguel Llanos, MSNBC – “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, based on what he saw in the water and on beaches.

BlueVoice.org stated that ‘initial tests … show evidence of acoustical impact from sonic blasts used in exploration for oil.’

The ORCA Peru expert, veterinarian Carlos Yaipen Llanos, said that while ‘we have no definitive evidence,’ he suspects acoustic testing created a ‘marine bubble’ — in essence a sonic blast that led to internal bleeding, loss of equilibrium and disorientation.

Another possibility is that the dolphins suffered from a disease outbreak, Yaipen Llanos said.” Read more.

By Stephanie Fitzpatrick, ABC News – “The State Government is investigating the death of scores of catfish found in the Boyne River, south of Gladstone in central Queensland.

Staff from Queensland’s Department of Environment and Heritage Protection (DEHP) have been inspecting more than 100 dead catfish found at the mouth of the Boyne River earlier this week.

The cause of death is unknown.

Tannum Sands resident John Mikkelson says he has seen dozens of the fish washing up in the past week.

‘Some of the ones I’ve seen are very emaciated and have white ulceration on the sides, yet others appear quite healthy,’ he said.

Local seafood processor Ted Whittingham says he has counted almost 200 dead catfish near the river in the past few days.” Read more.

By Andrew Tanielian – “Frustrated homeowners in Fort Worth’s Meadowbrook hills are wondering what’s killing hundreds of fish in their backyard pond.

Neighbors started to notice the dead fish after Tuesday’s storms.

The pond known as Lake Hollow was once a relaxing escape for Michael Anderson and other homeowners who live in Meadowbrook Hills.

‘And we just sit down in the evenings on the landing and just revel in the beauty,’ said Anderson.

An unknown problem is bringing the anxiety of a wasteland.

‘Obviously this lake is going to turn into a health hazard the way things are going,’ said Anderson.

Hundreds of dead fish including perch and catfish floated to the top of the pond.

Neighbors immediately called the city for help.

Workers ruled out a sewage leak and are investigating what else could have caused this including testing water samples.” Read more.

“THE Department of Environment will investigate the cause behind the deaths of thousands of fishes at Parit Jawa here recently.

A team of officers will be sent to the fishing village to collect water and dead fish samples to ascertain what killed them.

Johor DOE director Mokthar Abd Majid said one of the possible causes was the lack of oxygen in the water due the changing tides.

‘Of course, water pollution is another possibility.

‘Until we examine the water and fish samples, we cannot tell what could have killed the fishes,’ he told Streets yesterday.

Among the thousands of dead fishes seen along the 130-metre long Parit Jawa were ikan belanak (mullet), senangin (thread fish), gelama (jew fish) and belukang (cat fish). Most of the dead fishes were ikan belanak.

Parit Jawa is a fishing village which is also famous for its asam pedas fish.

It is learnt that fishermen who were about to go to the sea at 4am spotted the dead fishes in the waterway.

This is the first time that such a huge number of fishes were found dead.

Within six hours, most of the dead fishes had drifted to the sea at high tide.

Azman Abdul Rahman, 54, a fisherman, said he found the fishes when he went to his boat at the river at 4am.

‘The river was literally littered with dead fishes, the first time I witnessed since I became a fisherman 40 years ago.'” Read more.

By Sam Cook – “Thousands of fish, including many game fish, have died in a fish kill on the Pelican River near Orr, said Kevin Peterson, Department of Natural Resources area fisheries supervisor at International Falls.

‘It was a substantial fish kill. It’s an unfortunate loss of our fisheries resource,’ Peterson said.

The kill, probably caused by low oxygen levels in the water, occurred in an approximately 2-mile stretch of the Pelican River from the dam at St. Louis County Highway 23 and downstream past U.S. Highway 53, Peterson said. The fish kill was first reported Thursday, March 15, Peterson said. A fisheries crew visited the site Monday and traveled the river by canoe to assess the extent of the kill.

‘They saw a lot of northern pike, one smallmouth bass, lots and lots and lots of black crappies – probably thousands from 3 inches and up,’ Peterson said. ‘They saw some larger bluegills up to 10 inches, lots of yellow perch and bullheads and suckers.’

Tom Burri, assistant area fisheries supervisor at International Falls, was part of the crew that checked out the kill.

‘Definitely, there were thousands of crappies and hundreds and hundreds of pike,’ Burri said.” Read more.

“Thousands of small dead fish were found today along Sungei Api Api, which flows along an HDB estate and Pasir Ris Park.

Thousands more were also found along the banks of Pasir Ris Beach, reported The Straits Times.

National water agency PUB said the marine fish seems to have been washed in at the tide. According to the paper, it found out about the incident this morning.

Workers have already started cleaning up, and were seen scooping up the dead fish into black plastic bags for disposal.

The incident has no impact on Singapore’s drinking water, said a PUB spokesman, as the river is not part of Singapore’s drinking water supply.

The cause of the incident is being investigated by the NEA.” Source – Asia One News.

By Chris Shannon – “SYDNEY — The discovery of more than 400 dead grey seals off Cape Breton’s eastern coastline is no reason for alarm, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans said Sunday.

The seal carcasses, some without eyes from scavenging seagulls and other wildlife, are on the beaches of Hay Island, a short distance from Scatarie Island.

Federal fisheries department seal biologist Mike Hammill said the mammals showed no sign of physical trauma other than the wounds inflicted by predators after death.

‘They weren’t killed by people, so it’s something else that’s come along,’ he said from Charlottetown following a tour of the island Sunday.

‘The majority of them are weaned pups and they look in fairly good shape. They’re fat, didn’t seem to have any external markings on them.’

Parts of the seals were taken for testing to the Atlantic Veterinary College in Charlottetown. Hammill said it could be weeks before a possible cause of death is identified.

The group of DFO scientists counted about 100 to 200 live adults and about a dozen juvenile seals.

Hammill confirmed the approximate number of dead seals that was initially reported by Humane Society International/Canada on Friday.

In a release, the group’s executive director Rebecca Aldworth said she hadn’t seen ‘this kind of mortality’ in apparently healthy grey seals in her five trips to the island’s seal colony.” Read more.