MidnightWatcher – Prophecy in Motion

“TOKYO — Radioactive debris from melted fuel rods may have seeped deeper into the floor of a Japan’s tsunami-hit nuclear reactor than previously thought, to within a foot from breaching the crucial steel barrier, a new simulation showed Wednesday.

The findings will not change the ongoing efforts to stabilize the reactors more than eight months after the Fukushima Daiichi plant was disabled, but they harshly depict the meltdowns that occurred and conditions within the reactors, which will be off-limits for years.

The plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co said its latest simulation showed fuel at the No. 1 reactor may have eroded part of the primary containment vessel’s thick concrete floor. The vessel is a beaker-shaped steel container, set into the floor. A concrete foundation below that is the last manmade barrier before earth…

Another simulation on the structure released by the government-funded Japan Nuclear Energy Safety Organization, or JNES, said the erosion of the concrete could be deeper and the possibility of structural damage to the reactor’s foundation needs to be studied.

JNES official Masanori Naito said the melting fuel rods lost their shape as they collapsed to the bottom of the vessel, then deteriorated into drops when water pumping resumed, and the fuel drops spattered and smashed against the concrete as they fell, Naito said.” Read more.

Temperature has gone ‘over scale’ at reactor 2 – “Today Tepco started their press conference 20 mins late, which is unusual. They did not even prepare documents to explain the current situation of the reactors. According to their statement, at least 3 troubles are happening. 1) At reactor 3 […] The water cooling system is not properly working. Water coming into the system and coming out of the system shows similar temperature. They assume it is because a valve was turned off. The last time it was checked was 11/19/2011. They don’t know why the valve got turned off. 2) At reactor 2 Gas pressure controlling room’s temperature has gone over scale. It’s in suppression chamber. Because the temperature has gone too high, heat gauge can not indicate accurately. They say other 2 heat gauges are indicating normal temperature ,but they are about 100m away from the place. Also, because the point is extremely radioactive, nobody can get close to check/replace the heat gauge.” Read more.

By Kevin Lollar – “It’s a mystery: Something is killing mullet in Estero Bay, but nobody knows what.

Katie McFarland, an FGCU graduate student, first saw large numbers of dead mullet floating in the bay and washed up along the shoreline Friday.

Saturday morning, McFarland took another trip onto the bay to take water samples and saw hundreds of mullet between FGCU’s Vester Field Station and New Pass.

‘From what I’ve heard, it’s the whole bay,’ she said. ‘I’ve yet to see anything but mullet. It’s crazy, the numbers of them.’

Soon after he made that comment, McFarland found one dead Atlantic spadefish.

One suspect is red tide, a natural phenomenon that occurs when the toxic single-cell alga Karenia brevis undergoes a population explosion, or bloom.

To determine the strength of a red tide, scientists take water samples and count the number of Karenia cells per liter of water.

Fish can start dying when concentrations are ‘low,’ 10,000 to 100,000 cells per liter; the effects of medium concentrations, 100,000 to 1 million cells, are ‘probable fish kills.’

According to the state’s latest red tide status report, a Karenia bloom stretches for 30 miles along the shore from southern Lee County to northern Collier County and 30 miles offshore. Water samples taken Tuesday showed medium concentrations at Lighthouse Beach on Sanibel and low counts at Lynn Hall Park and Lovers Key State Park.

‘Satellite imagery shows that the bloom we had up in Sarasota County worked its way down off Captiva and kept heading south,’ said Gary Kirkpatrick, manager of Mote Marine Laboratory’s Phytoplankton Ecology Program. ‘Clearly it’s in the area, but I can’t tell what’s killing the fish without having somebody do a toxin analysis. It seems likely that it’s red tide.’

But if it’s red tide, which can kill any fish species, as well as birds, marine mammals and sea turtles, why is it killing almost exclusively mullet?” Read more.

“THIRTY-two pilot whales were confirmed dead today while the lives of 34 others hung in the balance after a mass stranding on tidal flats off New Zealand’s South Island.

The remote location of the stranding meant rescuers were unable to help the marine mammals and their survival will depend on the tide, the Department of Conservation’s area manager, John Mason, told the Nelson Mail.

Mr Mason said the whales, up to five metres long, were stranded on the tidal flats at the tip of Farewell Spit in Golden Bay, located nearly three kilometres offshore at the northern end of South Island.

‘There’s really nothing we can do for them so we just have to hope that they manage to get out by themselves,’ Mr Mason added.

The deaths of the mammals follow the stranding in Australia’s island state of Tasmania over the weekend.

Twenty-three sperm whales, up to 18 metres long, died after they became stuck on Ocean Beach, near Strahan, on Saturday. One of the whales died overnight on Monday, leaving the sole surviving whale stranded off a nearby sandbank at Fraser Flats.

Rescuers had to abandon their attempts to refloat the final whale today due to wild weather, The Mercury reported.” Read more.

“The identity of a mystery clump of alien-like creatures found beached in Lyall Bay yesterday has puzzled experts.

Thousands of the tiny creatures were spotted washed up yesterday afternoon.

The transparent creatures with black eyes and little legs could be from deeper water as they were darker than what is normal for intertidal species, a Niwa spokeswoman said. Auckland University associate professor Mark Costello said the creatures could be either Phronima or Hyperia amphipods.

Phronima lived inside salps – gelatinous animals that float in plankton – and fed on their innards while using the tube for their home. Hyperia live inside jellyfish.

Both swam through the water using their back legs and despite their gruesome appearance were harmless to humans.

‘I wonder if the maker of the movie Predator had seen them as they could inspire some good sci- fi,’ Mr Costello said.

But Victoria University PhD student Lisa Bryant said it appeared to be a Themisto australis, which is the only species found in coastal mainland New Zealand.

They formed in dense swarms and other strandings had been reported in places such as England and Canada.” Read more.

Guyana: Large number of birds and fish found dead – “Guyana’s government is trying to determine what is causing an outbreak of illness among Amerindians in the South American country’s gold mining region. Health Minister Leslie Ramsammy said Saturday that his agency has sent doctors to test dozens of people suffering from diarrhea and vomiting. He said an unusual number of birds and fish also have been found dead in the region near the western border with Venezuela. The World Wildlife Fund this week warned that mercury and other toxins are contaminating the region’s rivers and jungles as more people rush to seek gold due to record world prices.” Source – Taiwan News.

Florida: Nearly 400 Manatees Have Been Found Dead So Far This Year – “NORTH PALM BEACH, Fla. — A 1,000-pound manatee is being released after 20 months of recovery from severe injuries. The female manatee, named Illusion, is set for release Wednesday in North Palm Beach. Illusion was rescued in March 2010 in Riviera Beach after suffering deep lacerations in a boat strike. She went through rehabilitation at the Miami Seaquarium and the Cincinnati Zoo before being deemed ready for release. Nearly 400 manatees have been found dead in Florida so far this year.” Source- Miami Herald.

By KAREN NELSON – “GULFPORT — So far in October, 14 dead dolphins have washed ashore in Mississippi and Alabama.

Three were found Friday in Mississippi — one on Deer Island, one floating 200 yards off the beach at Cowan Road and one on the beach in Long Beach.

‘Generally, you don’t see this in October,’ said Moby Solangi, director of the Institute for Marine Mammal Studies. ‘This is not normal.’

There was a time when one dolphin death was an unusual event.

But dolphins dying consistently, month after month, is something that has continued in the northern Gulf since the BP oil spill.

NOAA, the federal National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, is investigating the deaths.

The agency said in a statement Thursday five of 21 dolphins that died in Louisiana in 2010 were killed by the bacterium brucella. That’s 21 of the 580 that have been discovered dead in the northern Gulf since February 2010, three months before the spill.

NOAA has said something was killing dolphins before the spill, but added exposure to the oil could have worn down the animals and made them more susceptible to disease.

NOAA hasn’t drawn any conclusion about the deaths, but the investigation is continuing.

Doug Inkley, senior scientist with the National Wildlife Federation, said Friday the fact that an unusual number of dolphins began dying before the spill “in no way means the oil spill did not contribute to dolphin deaths.

‘What we do know is that every single month since the oil spill began through present, dolphin deaths have been far above normal and this is a real cause for concern.'” Read more.

“PENSACOLA, Fla. — State scientists will head to the Florida Panhandle this week to check on East Bay oyster beds where oystermen are reporting a die-off.

Oyster season opened Oct. 1. Oystermen have reported pulling up dead oysters from beds that had been filled with large, healthy oysters at the end of the last harvest season on June 30.

‘We’re finding very few alive,’ Pasco Gibson, a main supplier of the East Bay oysters, told the Pensacola News Journal (http://on.pnj.com/t1Ziy7). ‘This time of the year, we should be catching 500 to 1,000 pounds per boat a day. We’re not even catching a hundred pounds.’

Gibson’s six oyster boats are mostly idle, and some of his freelance oystermen are heading to Apalachicola to look for work. He said the meager harvests have cost him 40 percent of his income.

Depending on what’s killing the oysters, once they start growing back, it could take up to three years to grow them large enough to harvest, he said.

‘Something happened in August, and it had to be massive because some of these beds are 10 miles apart,’ Gibson said of the beds scattered near the shorelines of East Bay.

Scientists from the Department of Agriculture’s Division of Aquaculture will check the oyster beds this week.” Read more.