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Published: 22:18 EST, 19 December 2015 | Updated: 03:17 EST, 20 December 2015
For the second time in two months, a rare deadly sea snake has washed ashore at one of southern California's most popular beaches.
A dead 27-inch-long male yellow bellied sea snake was discovered last week during a coastal cleanup campaign by volunteers for the Surfrider Foundation in Huntington Beach, the Los Angeles Times reported.
In October, a two-foot-long yellow bellied sea snake was discovered slithering onto Silver Strand State Beach in Ventura County, but it died shortly after being taken to a US Fish and Wildlife Service office nearby.
The venomous sea serpent, known to scientists as Pelamis platura, was first spotted in 1972 during an El Niño in San Clemente.
Deadly: A dead 27-inch-long male yellow bellied sea snake (above) was discovered last week during a coastal cleanup campaign by the Surfrider Foundation
The latest yellow bellied sea snake discovered was found at the popular Huntington Beach in California (file photo above)
A descendant of Australian tiger snakes, experts believe the arrival of the sea snake is a harbinger of El Niño because the last time it appeared in California was during the weather system in the '80s.
Rescuers placed cold-stunned turtles in fruit boxes.
By Reenat Sinay Globe Correspondent December 21, 2015
Massachusetts
Audubon Society volunteers recovered about 120 “cold-stunned” sea
turtles during the weekend after strong winds caused them to wash up on
the shores of Cape Cod Bay.
The majority of the reptiles found on
the beaches of Wellfleet, Truro, Eastham, and Brewster were Kemp’s
ridley sea turtles, a critically endangered species and the rarest type
of sea turtle.
It was an unusually large late-season stranding for
the turtles, who most often get stuck on Cape Cod shores around
Thanksgiving as they try to make their way south to warmer waters for
the winter.
Young sea turtles often feed in Cape Cod Bay during
the summer but can get trapped in the “hook” of the Cape and become
hypothermic as temperatures drop, according to Mass Audubon.
Despite their rarity, Kemp’s ridleys are the type of turtle most often found stranded on Massachusetts beaches.
Algae Causing Sea Lion Brain Damage in California, Study Shows
byReuters
In
this September 11, 2013 file photo, a sea lion scratches himself on
Pier 39 at Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco, California. DON EMMERT / AFP - Getty Images
WASHINGTON
— A toxin produced by marine algae is inflicting brain damage on sea
lions along California's coast, causing neurological and behavioral
changes that can impair their ability to navigate in the sea and survive
in the wild, scientists said on Monday.
Brain scans on 30
California sea lions detected damage in the hippocampus, a brain
structure associated with memory and spatial navigation, in animals
naturally exposed to the toxin known as domoic acid, the researchers
said.
Domoic acid mimics glutamate, a chemical that transmits
nerve impulses in the brain, and leads to over-activation of hippocampus
nerve cells and chronic epilepsy, according to Emory University
cognitive psychologist Peter Cook, who worked on the study while at the
University of California-Santa Cruz.
"The behavioral deficits
accompanying brain damage with domoic acid are severe, and may
negatively impact foraging and navigation in sea lions, driving
strandings and mortality," Cook said.
Hundreds of sea lions
annually are found stranded on California beaches with signs of domoic
acid poisoning such as disorientation and seizures. Thousands are
thought to be exposed to the toxin.
5. They’ve been around longer than nearly every other living organism.
Tardigrades
roamed the earth and seas far before humans did – and will most likely
outlast us. Will the tardigrades be nature’s last organisms standing?
Only time will tell.
Tardigrades, already impossible to kill, also have foreign DNA
Tardigrades,
already made of indestructible win, have shown up again in the
scientific weirdness Hall of Fame this week, thanks to a new study
that sequenced the first tardigrade genome and found that 17.5% of it
came from other species. Otherwise known as water bears, tardigrades are
actually a large group of related species which have a key trait in
common: They’re impossible to kill. Tardigrades are the only species
ever observed to survive outside Earth’s sheltering atmosphere. Now
scientists are speculating that horizontal gene transfer, the phenomenon
identified by a team of researchers at UNC as the reason for the
unprecedented proportion of foreign DNA discovered in the tardigrade
genome, may also be responsible for some of the tardigrade’s famous
durability.
If the idea of fully a sixth of an animal’s genome
being of foreign origin seems far-fetched, you’re in good company. Most
organisms have a maximum of 1% foreign DNA. Creatures like Elysia
chlorotica, which literally consumes a steady diet of other organisms to
acquire their powers (of photosynthesis), have been known to science
for many years – until now the rotifer, distant cousin to the water
bear, was the most extreme example in its class for having acquired
about 10% of its DNA from other species via horizontal gene transfer.
Even the alarming phenomenon of increasing resistance to antibiotics has
its roots in the fact that some single-celled organisms are very good
at shaking down other microbes for their spare plasmids. But the
proportion of foreign DNA in this clearly successfully adapted organism
surprised even the researchers who did the experiment. Bob Goldstein,
one of the co-authors of the study, said “We had no idea that an animal
genome could be composed of so much foreign DNA. … We knew many animals
acquire foreign genes, but we had no idea that it happens to this
degree.”
Super rare lancetfish found out of its depth on New Plymouth shore
JEREMY WILKINSON
Last updated 19:25, November 19 2015
CHARLOTTE CURD/FAIRFAX NZ
A rare Longsnouted lancetfish has been found just offshore at Fitzroy beach in New Plymouth.
The lancetfish is no Finding Nemo but one has been found a long way from home.
A lancetfish - usually found around 1000 metres deep - has been found just offshore at Fitzroy beach in New Plymouth.
Nik
Pyselman was running with his friend Cam Twigley along Fitzroy beach on
Wednesday evening when he saw an iridescent blue shape in the water.
"It looked like it had been washed in and was struggling to swim back out to sea," he said.
"I've heard of people catching them on long lines but I've never seen one myself."
"I've also heard them called cannibal fish before because they eat their own kind."
Pyselman took the fish to Keith Mawson of Egmont Seafoods who was able to identify the species as a longsnout lancetfish.
What is it? Weird glowing blue sea creature that eats jellyfish washes up on Australian beach
13:01, 15 Nov 2015
Updated 13:02, 15 Nov 2015
ByRoss Logan
Sylke Rohrlach/Flickr
Blue glaucus aka Blue Dragon
A strange and seldom-seen sea creature has made a rare public appearance.
This is the Blue Dragon - or glaucus atlanticus - which was caught on camera after washing up on Australia's Gold Coast.
The
bizarre-looking creature is in fact a sea slug, and feeds on blue
bottle jellyfish - otherwise known as Portugese Man O' War.
While the jellyfish has a powerful sting that can severely injure humans, the Blue Dragon is unaffected by the venom.
In fact, the Blue Dragon packs a fairly nasty sting of its own.
A snowy owl rests on a car in the Kohler Corporation parking lot Tuesday morning.
Snowy
owls, the big, white birds that nest in the Arctic and sometimes fly
south in the fall and winter, have begun showing up in Wisconsin over
the last week, captivating wildlife watchers and raising questions among
scientists.
About 30 snowy sightings were reported through
Wednesday in Wisconsin, according to Ryan Brady, a wildlife biologist
with the Department of Natural Resources who oversees the Wisconsin
eBird website.
The reports are earlier in the season and higher in number than any year on record.
"It's
unprecedented," said Tom Erdman, curator of the Richter Museum of
Natural History at UW-Green Bay who began conducting snowy owl research
in Wisconsin in the late 1950s. "It's causing us to ask 'Why?"
The
first snowy of the season was sighted Oct. 15 near Ashland in Bayfield
County on Lake Superior. The next day one was seen in Crawford County in
southwestern Wisconsin. On Tuesday lone snowies were reported in Kohler
and Milwaukee.
And on Cat Island in Green Bay earlier this week, six snowies were seen at once, Erdman said.
Last year, the first snowy was reported in Wisconsin on Nov. 1. In 2013, the initial observation was Nov. 15.
In recent decades, the first snowies have typically appeared in Wisconsin in mid-November, Brady said.
"This year is completely taking people by surprise," Brady said.
So far this fall, snowy owls have been reported in the western Great Lakes region, but none in the eastern U.S.
The arrival of winter, traditionally heralded by the migration of Siberian swans, has come early as 300 birds flock to Britain
The first Bewick's swan of the year has arrived at the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust reserve at SlimbridgePhoto: SWNS
By Lexi Finnigan
7:05PM BST 12 Oct 2015
Britain
is facing its longest winter in 50 years after the earliest-ever
arrival of a Siberian swan which traditionally heralds the start of the
season.
Each year around 300 Bewick's
swans migrate 2,500 miles from Arctic Russia to escape the approaching
cold weather which follows closely behind them.
They flock to the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust reserve at Slimbridge, Glos, where their arrival has been recorded since 1963.
A
hive of honey bees is on display at the Vermont Beekeeping Supply booth
at the 82nd annual Vermont Farm Show at the Champlain Valley Expo in
Essex Jct., Vt., on Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2014. (AP Photo/Andy Duback)
ESSEX
JUNCTION, Vt.— Vermont beekeepers face mite infestations, extreme
temperature swings and the possibility of colony collapse. Last fall, a
new threat emerged: zombie bees.
Beekeeper Anthony Cantrell of
Burlington discovered zombie bees in his hive in October, the first time
they’d been found in the eastern United States.
John Hafernik, a
professor from San Francisco State University, discovered the first
zombie bees in 2008. A fly called Apocephalus borealis attaches itself
to the bee and injects its eggs, which grow inside the bee, Hafernik
said. Scientists believe it causes neurological damage resulting in
erratic, jerky movement and night activity, “like a zombie,” Hafernik
said by phone Tuesday.
These aren’t undead bees doomed to roam for eternity. They often die only a few hours after showing symptoms, Hafernik said.
Hafernik
and his team of colleagues and students have been tracking the zombie
bee spread across the United States. California, Washington, Oregon and
South Dakota all have confirmed zombie bees while this is the first time
the bee has been found this far east, said Hafernik. The fly previously
attached to bumblebees as hosts, not honeybees, according to Hafernik.
“Right
now, we don’t know if it’s an isolated thing,” Stephen Parise, Vermont
agricultural production specialist, said Tuesday at the state’s annual
farm show.
How whales lose their way: Toxins, tides and other troubles
Alan Boyle, Science EditorNBC News
00:08
Video: A
race to save a group of stranded pilot whales in a remote part of the
Florida Everglades continues Thursday. NBC’s Mark Potter reports.
How did dozens of pilot whales get so seriously stranded
in Florida's Everglades National Park? This week's marine mammal drama
raises questions about the peculiar biology and sociology of
short-finned pilot whales, as well as factors ranging from disease
outbreaks to astronomy. How common is it to have wayward whales? "These sorts of strandings with pilot whales are not uncommon," said Phillip Clapham,
who heads the Cetacean Assessment and Ecology Program at the National
Marine Mammal Laboratory in Seattle. The most recent whale stranding in
the Everglades was back in 1995, but about 20 whales were beached
elsewhere on the Florida coast in 2011, and again last year.
This
time around, 51 whales wound up stranded: As of Thursday afternoon, 11
whales were found dead or had to be euthanized. About 35 were alive and
making their way offshore, said Blair Mase, a fisheries stranding
coordinator for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. She
said that left about five missing whales. At least some of those whales
may have died and sunk beneath the surface. What causes the whales to lose their way? Lots of factors can play a part. "Every time you throw in one more element, you increase the chance of stranding," Clapham said.
For example, researchers say parasites or infections can confuse the whales' sense of navigation. Pilot whales can suffer from morbillivirus, a strain that's related to the virus implicated in this year's dolphin die-off.
Clapham doubts that virus caused this week's strandings. Nevertheless,
biologists in Florida have taken tissue samples from the 11 dead whales,
and they'll be studying those samples for signs of toxins over the
weeks and months ahead.
Human activity has the potential to
confuse whales as well — perhaps through sonar or seismic disruptions,
or interaction with fisheries. Those causes also seem unlikely in the
Everglades case. The most likely factors are environmental: shifts in
currents, changes in the underwater terrain, a turnabout in the weather,
or perhaps the influence of tides. Read More and Watch Video Here
..........
Wildlife
officials in southwest Florida who are struggling to save dozens of
beached pilot whales say there's hope that at least some of the animals
might escape after they spotted at least 20 of them swimming in deeper
water.
The Associated Press reports:
"Blair
Mase, a fisheries stranding coordinator for the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration, said a Coast Guard helicopter found two pods
of whales in about 12 feet of water, 'significantly north' of their
previous location in Everglades National Park. The short-finned pilot
whale is a deep-water species that cannot survive long in the shallows."
, the stranding of about 45 pilot whales was first noticed on Tuesday in a remote area of Florida's Everglades.
NPR's
Greg Allen reports from Miami that more than 30 people and about 15
boats are involved Thursday in an ongoing operation to redirect the
whales. Read More Here
..........
Whale rescue effort continues in Florida's Everglades as pods move to deeper waters
A pod of more than 30 stranded pilot whales have moved into deeper water. NBC's Mark Potter reports.
By Daniella Silva and Daniel Arkin, NBC News
Pods
of 35 stranded pilot whales were moving into deeper waters of Florida’s
Everglades National Park, raising hopes for their survival, officials
said Thursday.
Three pods were located nine miles north of their
original location on the Gulf of Mexico side of the park and moving
offshore, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration fisheries
official Blair Mase said at a Thursday afternoon teleconference, adding
that the animals were in 12 feet of water by midafternoon.
Mase said the whales may defy the odds and reach their normal deep-ocean range.
By Thursday afternoon, 11 whales had been found dead and five others were unaccounted for, according to Mase.
The whales had been stranded in a remote area of the park near
Highland Beach, more than 20 miles from waters deep enough to support
them.
Earlier in the day, the U.S. Coast Guard had spotted two
pods of whales “significantly north” in 12 feet of water swimming
offshore near Seminole Point, Mase said.
The movement was a “rare
occasion” and an encouraging sign, Mase said. She said the organization
was prepared for the worst as mass strandings are often difficult to
reverse.
“They’re still out of their normal home range,” she said,
adding that the whales may be suffering from dehydration and
malnutrition.
"They need to be in deep water in order to feed. If
we can’t get them out, they could begin to be starving themselves," said
Linda Friar, spokesman for Everglades National Park.
Citing a
similar mass stranding in the mid-90s, Mase said, “We did have animals
strand in the park area and they split up and groups were further south,
but they all ended up stranding eventually.”
As a part of the new
rescue efforts, teams from NOAA, the National Park Service and state
wildlife organizations used noises, including aluminum pipes and
engines, in an attempt to steer the whales away from the shallows.
“This
particular area is extremely unique, it’s not herding them out of a
lagoon,” Mase said early Thursday. “We’re herding them miles and miles.
It’s very tricky.”
The low-frequency mating call of the male
midshipman fish may be behind the mysterious hum heard in Hythe,
England, since August. Some residents say the sound is so bad that it
keeps them up at night. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)
Residents of the southern England town of Hythe, Hampshire, have
been complaining about a mysterious humming sound since August. One
resident told the BBC
that the hum is "a pulsing, vibrating sort of sound, like a
turbine....It sounds ridiculous but it does keep you awake all night."
The hum is so bad that some residents have to leave town
at night if they want to get some decent sleep. No one knows exactly
what's causing the hum, but one theory is that it's caused by male
midshipman fish trying to attract a mate and intimidate other males. Like Us on Facebook
"It's not beyond the realms of possibility," Ben Wilson of the Scottish Association for Marine Science told the Telegraph. "There are certainly 'sonic fish' in the north Atlantic and the approaches to the English Channel."
The sound that midshipman fish make has a very low frequency
and a long wavelength, and is able to resonate through the ground and
the walls of homes. (Listen to the midshipman fish's amorous call here.) And because midshipman fish are nocturnal, sleep-deprived residents of Hythe are particularly unlucky.
Andy Bass, a Cornell Univeristy biologist who has made recordings of the fish, told NPR in 2009 about his experiences studying midshipman fish.
Are fish having sex keeping part of a city awake? Amorous animals
could be behind mystery humming that starts at 10pm and goes on all
night
Residents in Hythe, Southampton, are being kept awake by the noise
Some have even moved away from the area and are staying with friends
Scientists are studying whether the noise could be caused by fish
Midshipman male fish are known to let out drone while searching for mate
By
Daily Mail Reporter PUBLISHED:
09:39 EST, 23 October 2013
|
UPDATED:
12:26 EST, 23 October 2013
Amorous fish could be responsible for a mysterious humming noise keeping people awake at night. Residents
in a part of Southampton, Hamsphire, have been struggling to get to
sleep because of the puzzling noise, which starts at 10pm and drones on
all night. Some people have even moved away from the affected area around Hythe and are sleeping on friends’ sofas to escape the nightmare.
Midshipman fish are believed to be responsible for a humming noise keeping residents in a part of Southampton awake at night
The sound heard on Southampton Water (pictured)
is said to be similar to the so-called West Seattle Hum which plagued
parts of the US city this time last year
Now scientists are studying whether the noise could be being caused by fish having sex in an estuary nearby. Midshipman male fish let out a distinctive drone to let females know they are searching for a mate. The noise can go on for hours and often increases in volume as competing males attempt to out-hum each other.
