MidnightWatcher – Prophecy in Motion

Dead fish, eels and cray fish are washing up on beaches in the thousands. “Dead fish as far as the eye can see. These waters, usually a beautiful turquoise, now a murky brown.”‘; “I’ve been here for 28 years, I’ve never seen anything like it. To us it’s a local ecological disaster …”

Biologists suspect a lack of oxygen may have caused thousands of fish to die at Sebastian Inlet State Park in Florida. “I have been here 10 years, 12 years, and never saw that before in my life.”

“There is a mystery over dead birds found in and around a private park in Manhattan.

In Gramercy Park, you expect to see pigeons, not zebra finches, and never like the ones Eyewitness News saw Tuesday afternoon dead.

‘Every time I see a dead bird, I feel terrible,’ said Joanie Watkins, a Gramercy Park resident.

It’s the mystery hanging over this normally quiet enclave; how did these birds, that are native to Australia, end up here?

‘I was really upset Sunday night,’ said Lisa Anastasi, a Gramercy Park resident.

Anastasi is one of many who spotted the birds Sunday, in and around the park, dozens of them that were dead, near death, or completely in a daze.”  Read more.

Reporter:  “I know these waters, these are the waters I grew up in … I’ve never seen anything like this – this massive fish die off …”; Police: “We have millions of dead anchovies … even the ones you can see on the surface there’s ones on the bottom about a foot deep all throughout this basin …”

“EXPERTS have no answers on what has caused the death of thousands of squid in the River Derwent this week.

Dead and dying arrowhead squid have been washed ashore or spotted floating on the water at Austins Ferry and Berriedale since Tuesday.

Locals say they have never seen so many dead fish.

The Environment Protection Authority yesterday confirmed reports of more dead squid further down the river.

It is the third case of mass fish deaths in the Derwent in the space of two weeks.

Early this week a large mass of dead juvenile barracouta was found in Windermere Bay near Claremont Primary School.

This followed a similar number of juvenile barracouta being found dead just south of the Norske Skog paper mill at Boyer the week before.”  Read more.

“California sea otters capture people’s hearts. Kids line up and squeal in excitement when spotting them.

Recently, the otters have begun losing ground in their struggle to survive, reports CBS News correspondent John Blackstone. Many are mysteriously falling victim to a ruthless killer: The great white shark.

‘This year was an alarming number of white shark attacks that we identified,’ says Dr. Michael Murray, a Monterey Bay Aquarium veterinarian. ‘I think the jury’s still out on, ‘a’ what it means and ‘b’ why it happens.’

It’s puzzling because the sharks don’t eat the otters, but one bite is enough to kill the furry creatures. It’s one reason for a worrying decline in the number of California sea otters.

The latest count of this threatened species shows their population dropped to just 2,711, a decline of 3.6 percent. The number of sea otter pups, which represent the future of the species, is down 11 percent.

Dr. Melissa Miller, of the Calif. Dept. of Fish and Game, points to a female that died right around the time that she was going to give birth.

When otters die they often end up in Miller’s lab, which is a kind of crime scene investigation unit for otter deaths. Sharks are not the only problem.

‘We know something’s happening where otters that are prime-aged animals are dying of heart failure,’ Miller said.” Read more.