MidnightWatcher – Prophecy in Motion

Arirang – “The sweltering heat wave is taking a huge toll on farm produce, livestock and fisheries.

So far 147 thousand chickens, ducks and pigs have been reported dead and 150 tons of clam in two fishery farms in North Jeolla province have reportedly perished en masse.

The Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries said the fisheries damage alone is estimated at around 350 thousand dollars.

Claims for compensation are filing in at government offices and private insurance firms and damage is expected to grow.

In response, the Ministry has called on local governments to actively help farmers minimize the damage.

Also the authorities are taking measures to fight the spread of red tide that’s spreading across South Gyeongsang and South Jeolla Province.” Source – Arirang.

Dundalk Democrat – “Environmental fisheries officers have been at the river where a large number of dead fish have been found over a 4km stretch from Dunleer to the River Dee.

The fish include adult and juvenile salmon and trout, eels, minnow and stoneloach.

The investigation to locate the source of the pollution has been continuing since Friday last when a member of the public alerted the Inland Fisheries Ireland.

Last year the Dee and Glyde Fishing Development Association launched a new project at Dunleer to increase salmon spawning on the east coast of Irealnd.

Salmon stocks in the country are low and this project creates spawning beds using rock and gravel, oxygenating deflectors and removal of silt and weeds.

The project was launched by Minister of State Fergus O’Dowd at Dunleer.

Louth Leader have provided funding for the project. This was the third phase of the project and Louth Leader gave a further €26,000 euro towards it. The Dee and Glyde Fishing Development Association spent a number of years working on this project.” Source – Dundalk Democrat.

By GRANT SCHULTE – “LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) – Thousands of fish are dying in the Midwest as the hot, dry summer dries up rivers and causes water temperatures to climb in some spots to nearly 100 degrees.

About 40,000 shovelnose sturgeon were killed in Iowa last week as water temperatures reached 97 degrees. Nebraska fishery officials said they’ve seen thousands of dead sturgeon, catfish, carp, and other species in the Lower Platte River, including the endangered pallid sturgeon. And biologists in Illinois said the hot weather has killed tens of thousands of large- and smallmouth bass and channel catfish and is threatening the population of the greater redhorse fish, a state-endangered species.

So many fish died in one Illinois lake that the carcasses clogged an intake screen near a power plant, lowering water levels to the point that the station had to shut down one of its generators.

‘It’s something I’ve never seen in my career, and I’ve been here for more than 17 years,’ said Mark Flammang, a fisheries biologist with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. ‘I think what we’re mainly dealing with here are the extremely low flows and this unparalleled heat.’

The fish are victims of one of the driest and warmest summers in history. The federal U.S. Drought Monitor shows nearly two-thirds of the lower 48 states are experiencing some form of drought, and the Department of Agriculture has declared more than half of the nation’s counties – nearly 1,600 in 32 states – as natural disaster areas. More than 3,000 heat records were broken over the last month.

Iowa DNR officials said the sturgeon found dead in the Des Moines River were worth nearly $10 million, a high value based in part on their highly sought eggs, which are used for caviar. The fish are valued at more than $110 a pound.

Gavin Gibbons, a spokesman for the National Fisheries Institute, said the sturgeon kills don’t appear to have reduced the supply enough to hurt regional caviar suppliers.

Flammang said weekend rain improved some of Iowa’s rivers and lakes, but temperatures were rising again and straining a sturgeon population that develops health problems when water temperatures climb into the 80s.

‘Those fish have been in these rivers for thousands of thousands of years, and they’re accustomed to all sorts of weather conditions,’ he said. ‘But sometimes, you have conditions occur that are outside their realm of tolerance.’

In Illinois, heat and lack of rain has dried up a large swath of Aux Sable Creek, the state’s largest habitat for the endangered greater redhorse, a large bottom-feeding fish, said Dan Stephenson, a biologist with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources.

‘We’re talking hundreds of thousands (killed), maybe millions by now,’ Stephenson said. ‘If you’re only talking about game fish, it’s probably in the thousands. But for all fish, it’s probably in the millions if you look statewide.'” Read more.

“Nakhon Ratchasima authorities met to discuss the cause of a mass fish death in the Lam Takong River, as wastewater discharged from communities and ice factories may be two reasons that lead to the incident.

Some 100,000 dead fish were found along a 3 kilometre-long stretch of the Lam Takong River, from Samrong Chan community to VIV Housing Estate, two days ago.

Nakhon Ratchasima vice governor Chayawut Chanthorn on Sunday chaired a meeting of relevant agencies to find the cause of the incident and told reporters after the one hour meeting that according to an initial investigation, dissolved oxygen level was measured at lower than two miligramme per litre, and at some points was below one milligramme per litre.

The unusually low dissolved oxygen could result from wastewater originating from nearby communities or from the factories along the river, as an oil slick was found near the fish.

Provincial authorities have collected fish and water samples to determine the cause of deaths. Results of the tests are expected by July 17-18.

Officials would also inspect the factories to see whether wastewater was discharged into the river or not. There were reportedly four ice factories located near the river.” Source – pdn.

(Google Translation) – “The initial report showed the Commission and the Ministry of Health to investigate the deaths of more than 200 tons of fish, which are reared in cages in front of the village of «Srenbaa», that the high temperature, lack of oxygen were behind the death of fish.

Dr. Mohammed grace of God, and Undersecretary of the Ministry of Health in the lake, Saturday, The Committee of the Ministry of Health will visit the province of the lake, to determine the status of water in the Nile River Mahmudiya, after the emergence of 200 tons of dead fish.

The «grace of God», told «Egyptian today», that «the Department of Health has to take samples of dead fish and water samples in the region, the joint lab for analysis in the city of Damanhur, and send samples to the central laboratories of the Ministry in Cairo».

He stressed that «what now occupies the Directorate is to tighten control over markets, to ensure that any leakage of large quantities of dead fish to it»…

He cautioned «Hamalawy» on the directorates of health and veterinary medicine and supplies to tighten control over markets, to ensure that no leakage of the dead fish.

The centers of Mahmudiya and Rahmaniya and Rashid district of the lake, have seen, Saturday, the emergence of huge quantities of dead fish, estimated at 200 tons, on the surface of the water branch of the Nile Rashid, which led to the prevalence of a state of anxiety and fear among the public of the possibility of water contamination with toxic substances.” Read more.

By Judie Steeves, Kelowna Capital News – “An investigation is going on into two fish kills in Okanagan Lake, but it’s not yet known whether they are related or not.

Hundreds of dead carp and Northern pike minnows were discovered Monday in and around Rotary Marsh in Kelowna’s downtown north end, where Brandt Creek flushes into Okanagan Lake.

Conservation officer Ed Seitz was at the scene Monday afternoon and said he couldn’t see any evidence of a chemical or fuel spill, but he removed some of the carcasses to have some laboratory tests done on them.

All the fish he saw were coarse fish rather than game fish, and he said it appeared they died within the past day or two.

City of Kelowna staff have also taken water samples both in Rotary Marsh—a re-constructed wetland that is now a city park—and at several spots upstream in Brandt Creek, but there were no results by the Capital News deadline, according to Todd Cashin, Environment and Land Use manager with the city.

Cashin had visited the site earlier in the day and said there didn’t appear to be different age classes, but he couldn’t speculate what might have caused the deaths.” Read more.

PuneMirror.in – “On Sunday, carcasses of 10 Indian flap-shelled turtles (Lissemys punctata) were found near the borders of Gevande Khadak and Thakursai villages. The number steadily rose to around 30 till Tuesday evening as more carcasses piled up on two-three kilometres of the bank. Locals now fear that the waters of the dam are contaminated.

It’s a mystery

Neither the irrigation department nor forest department officials know about the turtles washing up on the Pavana banks and so the reason behind the occurrence is still unknown. S M Londhe, Superintending Engineer, Pune Irrigation Circle and nodal officer for the district, said, ‘I do not know about the incident. I will get information from the concerned officials and only then will be able to comment.’

S K Patil, Range Forest Officer, Vadgaon Maval, said, ‘I have recently taken charge. I do not know where this phenomnenon has happened.’ He also added that since he is new to the territory, he doesn’t know what the local situation is.

Surprised constable V N Malusare of the Lonavala Police Station, said, ‘We don’t know anything of this sort. What you are saying is news to us.’

Meanwhile, R K Jagtap, an engineer at Pavana dam, visited the dam on Sunday and again on Tuesday. He was still clueless about the cause of the turtles’ deaths.” Read more.

By Toni McAllister, LakeElsinore-WildomarPatch – “Residents around Lake Elsinore are taking notice: Thousands of dead Shad fish are being spotted on the lake’s beaches this week.

Saturday, a Patch reader submitted the attached photos and expressed some concern about the dead fish.

‘I went fishing this morning back behind the abandoned boy’s military school off Grand and all along the shoreline for at least a mile there were thousands and thousands of dead Shad all over the place,’ Eric Ritchie said in an email.

Additionally, during a town hall meeting Wednesday night at Lakeland Village School, a resident voiced her concern about the lake’s odor caused by the die-off.

But Lake Elsinore Mayor Brian Tisdale told the audience assembled at the school this week that Shad are very sensitive fish that can easily succumb to sudden temperature change. He pointed to an earlier heat wave this month that was followed by a cool spell, and now more hot weather.

Tisdale said the aeration system in the lake hasn’t changed, and the Shad die-off is something to contend with when the weather causes abrupt temperature flux.

In April, Lake Elsinore had a similar Shad die-off. Then Interim City Manager Pat Kilroy said, ‘Shad are sensitive,’ and tend to be the first species hit when changes occur in the lake.” Source – LakeElsinore-Wildomar.Patch.com.