Volunteers have pulled 25 tonnes of dead carp out of a lake in eastern Germany – there are so many, locals are running out of boats. Regional officials have admitted they are baffled – only carp seem to be dying in the lake.
Dead silver carp started being found floating belly up on the surface of the Heyda lake, Thuringia, in mid-April. Since then, volunteers have scooped 25 tonnes of cadavers from the water, which is near the town of Ilmenau south of Erfurt.
On Saturday alone volunteers largely from the local angling club filled an 18,000-litre container more than half way, Der Spiegel magazine said. Helpers told the magazine that they expected the amount to double.
Tests performed on the fish showed no sign of bacteria or infection and no other fish have been found – just relatively mature silver carp, many of which had already started rotting.
This has left both town residents and experts baffled. A spokesman for the Ilm area administration, Eckhard Bauerschmidt, told The Local the council had been flooded with calls asking about the mass deaths, but they were still in the dark as to the cause.
A common killer of fish is poisonous algae, and although there are no obvious signs of deadly plant life, the head of the district authority has ordered that the water be tested every day to monitor any changes.
More than 1000 birds now dead as result of coastal chemical spill in UK
Dead guillemot covered in the glue like substance, photo by Darryl Thorpe/Cornwall Wildlife Trust
Unprecedented number of deads birds washing ashore
April 2013. A week after the first reports of birds covered in a sticky glue like substance being washed up on southwest beaches, wildlife charities have confirmed that the number of dead has passed 1000. This is in addition to the 200+ birds in the care of RSPCA and South Devon Seabird Trust.
Second recent incident
The substance has been identified as polyisobutene (PIB) by researchers at Plymouth University. It is the second time in just three months that PIB has killed hundreds of seabirds in the South West.
In this latest incident birds have been found in a wide area from Dodman Point, Cornwall to the Teign Estuary, Devon but the worst hit areas have been beaches along Whitsand Bay in south east Cornwall where locals have been counting hundreds of birds every day.
Alison Fogg, zoologist and environment campaigner who lives by the sea near Lanteglos in Cornwall has been close to the unfolding disaster; “It is hard to sum up so many different emotions, from the last few days, in a few words . Seeing more than 157 dead birds on Lansallos beach, followed by hundreds more at Lantic Bay, was quite devastating. Lansallos is a small sheltered beach on the South Coast of Cornwall. A haven for nature and totally unspoilt, this beach is popular with holiday makers, walkers and locals for swimming and relaxation.
“The scale of destruction to wildlife, in the beginning of the bird breeding season and at the start of the tourist season is quite difficult to comprehend.”
Bin bags of dead birds collected from one beach, photo by Darryl Thorpe. What is PIB? Polyisobutene (PIB), also known as polyisobutylene or butyl rubber, is a non-toxic and non- aggressive substance, used for example to manufacture chewing gum, adhesive tape and sealants. It is also very sticky – PIB is what makes cling-film stick to whatever it touches. In shipping, it is often used as a thickening agent for industrial lubricant oils. PIB was first developed in the 1940s as a synthetic alternative to natural rubber which was in short supply due to conflicts in rubber-producing regions. As a substance, it is generally colourless or light yellow, odourless, tasteless and cannot easily be identified. One of its special properties is that it is the only form of rubber that is completely impermeable to gas as well as water. PIB, along with other non-petroleum products, is transported around the world on a regular and increasing basis. The global consumption of PIB was over 850,000 tonnes in 2011, with the USA as the leading producer, but Belgium and France together produce almost a fifth of the PIB market. The UK is also a major importer. As a consequence, there is considerable transport of PIB around the UK and Western Europe. Global consumption is forecast to increase by around 40% by 2017 to 1.2 million tonnes per year. What are the impacts of PIB on seabirds and marine wildlife? PIB usually enters the water through ships ‘flushing’, or washing, their tanks and clearing ballast water. PIB is a hydrophobic substance though, so on contact with water it coalesces into a waxy, glue-like formation, generally floating at or just underneath the surface. As such it is extremely hazardous to a range of seabird species, which dive to find food. These birds become covered in the substance, which sticks their wings to their bodies and prevents them from feeding, causing immobilisation, hypothermia, starvation and eventually death. There is also a risk of ingestion of bits of PIB in its waxy form.
Unknown source
It is not known whether the substance got into the sea as a spill from a ship or as part of legal and routine tank washing operations.
We cannot go on treating our precious marine environment as a dustbin
Tony Whitehead from RSPB said; “The devastation this substance has caused has been appalling. To see the images of beaches strewn with bodies is a sobering reminder that we just cannot go on treating our precious marine environment as a dustbin.
“If this was an illegal spill, we need to support the Maritime and Coastguard Agency in tracking down the ship responsible. Although this will be difficult, surely it’s not impossible.
Legal?
“If this was the result of legal tank washing operations, we need to urge the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) to tighten up the rules and make it illegal to wash this stuff into the sea. It’s a noxious substance and we don’t want it in our marine environment.”
Since July and 2012, a total of 220 manatees have died in the lagoon in Brevard County, about 100 of them under mysterious circumstances; and since February, between 250 and 300 dead pelicans have been found in the same area.
Photographer: CHRISTOPHER ARNOLD, Scripps Treasure Coast Newspapers
Copyright 2013 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
VERO BEACH — Whatever is killing manatees and pelicans northern Indian River Lagoon remains unknown, but apparently wildlife along the Treasure Coast won’t become victims.
Since July and 2012, a total of 220 manatees have died in the lagoon in Brevard County, about 100 of them under mysterious circumstances; and since February, between 250 and 300 dead pelicans have been found in the same area.
Thomas R. “Tom” Reinert, a research administrator with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, told members of the Indian River Lagoon National Estuary Program Advisory Board on Wednesday that researchers have been stumped in their efforts to find the cause — or causes.
Asked if the mysterious deaths could migrate south into the lagoon along the Treasure Coast, Reinert replied, “I can’t answer that. The cases seem to be localized, with the zone in Brevard County from Sebastian to Titusville being where the deaths are concentrated. And it appears it will remain that way.”
In March alone, Reinert said, 56 sea cows died from unknown causes in Brevard County, where the annual manatee death count from all causes averages 111.
Reinert said dead manatees have been reported “here and there” along the Treasure Coast, but the numbers are within the usual mortality rate.
According to the commission’s website, six manatees have died in Indian River County, four in St. Lucie County and three in Martin County from Jan. 1 to April 19.
Statewide, 566 manatees have died over the same period. A record 766 manatees died in Florida in 2010.
“We’re on a trajectory to eclipse that,” Reinert said.
Dolphin deaths add to mystery in Indian River Lagoon
23 dolphins found dead in lagoon in 2013
Published On: Apr 10 2013 07:37:33 AM EDTUpdated On: Apr 10 2013 06:34:48 PM EDT
Dolphin deaths add to lagoon mystery
BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. –
Add bottlenose dolphins to this year’s list of species dying mysteriously in the Indian River Lagoon.
Researchers have documented 23 dead dolphins in the lagoon since Jan. 1, all but a few in Brevard County. That’s more than twice what researchers would expect, based on the death rate during the past decade.
“It’s especially scary now to be losing so many manatees, and now dolphins,” said Teresa Mazza, a biologist with the Hubbs-SeaWorld Research Institute, which gathers the carcasses for research purposes.
The lagoon has seen more than 90 mysterious manatee deaths in just over eight months and 250 dead pelicans in the past two months, with most in Brevard.
Most of the dead dolphin have been adult females. The bottlenose deaths have occurred from Titusville to Central Brevard.
“We have seen a few animals with shark bites,” Mazza said, adding that it’s not always clear whether those happened before the dolphin died. “There’s a chance we have sick, emaciated, dying animals that could be falling prey to sharks.”
Hubbs is consulting with NOAA Fisheries Service to determine whether that federal agency will declare the dolphin die-offs an “unusual” event, opening up federal resources and launching its own investigation. The designation has already been made for the manatee die-off in the lagoon. NOAA is examining whether the two die-offs might be linked, Florida Today reports.\
Information about large numbers of dead or dying species can be reported to Colorado Parks and Wildlife by contacting the Hot Sulphur Springs office at 970-725-6200.
It is unclear whether the birds were resident birds of the area or early migrators that were traveling through the area and were caught in the recent snowstorms.
“It’s not uncommon in robin populations to have a wide up and down, it’s actually rather typical,” said District Wildlife Manager Mike Crosby. “Nature always persists.” The robin population should have no problem recovering from the incident, he said.
It is believed the recent snowfall covered the bird’s food source and caused the birds to starve.
Robins survive mostly on insects, Crosby said. And due to the snow they were not able to get to the ground to retrieve food to keep up with their energy demands and subsequently starved to death.
Thousands of animals have been mysteriously dying in China over the past few weeks, with 410 pigs, 122 dogs, and other domestic animals in Dongtun village, Henan Province, added to the list on Monday. Dead dogs were reported to be piled on the sides of the streets, and residents said many of the surviving animals are ill. Numerous cats died, and even dead rats were found. “There are more than 300 pigs on my pig farm; nearly 200 died, and the rest are dying,” said a villager called Mr. Song, according to a report by the Dahe Daily. Local authorities are investigating the cause of the deaths, and tests have ruled out the new H7N9 bird flu virus, which has reportedly infected 77 people and killed 16 to date. Instead, locals suspect that the deaths are due to noxious fumes from a nearby chemical plant. The plant has temporarily stopped production, although officials said air quality tests had not revealed any dangerous chemicals. “There is always a smell, but this morning it was unbearably strong and repulsive,” a local resident told the Dahe Daily.
The plant makes pharmaceutical products, and has been in operation for over 10 years. Residents have repeatedly complained about the environmental pollution, but without results. In the past two years, the emissions got worse and many locals have been suffering physical symptoms. “The gas makes people feel dizzy, and hurts our throats. Many people in the village died of cancer between the ages of 30 and 50″ a resident said, according to the Daily. A reporter with Henan Business Daily said he saw a dozen walnut trees next to a pig farm with darkened wilting leaves, and a lot of the local residents had swollen throats. A security guard at the chemical plant stopped the reporter from entering. He had apparently received an order from upper management, and said, “The unreal reports by the media had damaged the factory’s credibility.” A Weibo blogger said: “410 pigs died overnight, 122 dogs died for no reason, the birds fell down while they were flying, the hedgehogs just stopped crawling … and the factory claimed that the unreal reports damaged its reputation …The carcasses are being disposed of in a remote area by burying them in a deep pit sprayed with lime. Other recent mass animal deaths in China include 16,000 pig carcasses dumped in Shanghai’s Huangpu River, hundreds of pounds of dead fish in Shanghai and Beijing, and dead wild birds in Jiangsu, Hubei, and Sichuan provinces.
Biohazard name:
Mass. Die-off (pigs, dogs and other domestic animals)
Biohazard level:
3/4 Hight
Biohazard desc.:
Bacteria and viruses that can cause severe to fatal disease in humans, but for which vaccines or other treatments exist, such as anthrax, West Nile virus, Venezuelan equine encephalitis, SARS virus, variola virus (smallpox), tuberculosis, typhus, Rift Valley fever, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, yellow fever, and malaria. Among parasites Plasmodium falciparum, which causes Malaria, and Trypanosoma cruzi, which causes trypanosomiasis, also come under this level.
Thousands of animals have been mysteriously dying in China over the past few weeks, with 410 pigs, 122 dogs, and other domestic animals in Dongtun village, Henan Province, added to the list on Monday.
Dead dogs were reported to be piled on the sides of the streets, and residents said many of the surviving animals are ill. Numerous cats died, and even dead rats were found.
“There are more than 300 pigs on my pig farm; nearly 200 died, and the rest are dying,” said a villager called Mr. Song, according to a report by the Dahe Daily.
Local authorities are investigating the cause of the deaths, and tests have ruled out the new H7N9 bird flu virus, which has reportedly infected 77 people and killed 16 to date.
Instead, locals suspect that the deaths are due to noxious fumes from a nearby chemical plant. The plant has temporarily stopped production, although officials said air quality tests had not revealed any dangerous chemicals.
“There is always a smell, but this morning it was unbearably strong and repulsive,” a local resident told the Dahe Daily.
The plant makes pharmaceutical products, and has been in operation for over 10 years. Residents have repeatedly complained about the environmental pollution, but without results.
In the past two years, the emissions got worse and many locals have been suffering physical symptoms. “The gas makes people feel dizzy, and hurts our throats. Many people in the village died of cancer between the ages of 30 and 50” a resident said, according to the Daily.
The Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito, CA has more than 127 seal and sea lion patients on site – double its normal amount for this time of year. Included in those numbers are 30 malnourished California sea lion pups that were transferred from Southern CA rescue centers that are over-run with patients. The unusual morbidity event is one of the worst in recent years. Read more at http://www.MarineMammalCenter.org/socal.
The mass stranding of sea lions at Californian shores doesn’t seem stopping anytime soon and condition has deteriorated even more. The stranding(s) spiked in January and have intensified in recent weeks, the numbers have already surpassed total number of an average year. By March 13th, there were 517 pups admitted to marine mammal rehabilitation centers and by April 4, the number has risen to1100Wired. Authorities still don’t know what is the exact cause of the stranding. NOAA’s marine mammal stranding coordinator for the state of California, Sarah Wilkin said,
“We’re still getting strandings of animals at kind of equal rates to what they had been. We don’t know how long the event is going to go on.”
According to the National Marine Mammal Foundation it is a crisis of epic proportions (CBS8) and announced a challenge grant to help pay for sea lion’s care. Last week the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) has declared an Unusual Mortality Event (UME) for California sea lions in California from January 2013 through the present. NOAA reports live sea lion strandings are nearly three times higher than the historical average.
At island rookeries off the Southern California coast, 45 percent of the pups born in June have died, said Sharon Melin, a wildlife biologist for the National Marine Fisheries Service based in Seattle. Normally, less than one-third of the pups would die.
It’s gotten so bad in the past two weeks that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration declared an “unusual mortality event.” That will allow more scientists to join the search for the cause, Melin said.
Even the pups that are making it are markedly underweight …. Rescuers have had to leave the worst of them in an effort to save the strongest ones, she said.
Routine testing of seafood is being done by state and federal agencies and consumer safety experts are working with NOAA to find the problem.”No link has been established at this time between these sea lion strandings and any potential seafood safety issues,” NOAA said in a statement.
Given that the FDA has refused to test seafood for radiation, we’re not that confident that the government is looking that hard to see if Fukushima fallout is the cause.
From the beginning of this year through last Sunday, 948 sea lion pups came ashore in Santa Barbara, Ventura, Los Angeles, Orange and San Diego counties, according to figures from NOAA.
“There really isn’t an oceanographic explanation for what we’re seeing,” Melin said. “We’re looking at disease as a possibility and also at the food supply, and it could be some combination.”
”They’re very sick,” said Keith Matassa, who runs the Pacific Marine Mammal Center in Laguna Beach. His team is nursing 115 sea lions back to health. “A normal sea lion at this age — 8 to 9 months old — should be around 60, 70 pounds,” said Matassa.
“We’re seeing them come into our center at 20 to 25 pounds, and really they look like walking skeletons.”
Hundreds of dead fish floating belly up lined the shore near the Weightman Bridge in Chippawa. The problem isn’t only in Chippawa. People have been reporting dead or dying fish along the shoreline in Fort Erie and as far south as Pennsylvania for weeks. Thousands were seen listlessly floating or struggling to swim on their side downstream in the Niagara River Monday. According to the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resource, the fish are known as gizzard shad and the “die off” is normal for this time of year. Lake Erie is the northern-most extent of the gizzard shad’s range, said ministry spokeswoman Jolanta Kowalski. When temperatures drop they become physiologically stressed and many die. “They die in the winter due to cold stress and when the ice melts they show up on shore,” she said. She said the massive winter mortality rate is pretty common as the fish is a warm water species. Yet, it’s not uncommon to have similar instances happen throughout the summer with temperature fluctuations.
Biohazard name:
Mass. Die-off (fishes)
Biohazard level:
0/4 —
Biohazard desc.:
This does not included biological hazard category.
A beaver die-off at Urbana’s Meadowbrook Park, thought to have been caused by tularemia, has emphasized the importance of keeping pets indoors or on a leash, for their own safety and that of wildlife. It also has raised questions about the impact of drought, overpopulation and habitat destruction on wildlife. Officials say there are no reports of human illness. Mateus-Pinilla, a wildlife veterinary epidemiologist at the Illinois Natural History Survey, said it is possible that severe drought exacerbated the outbreak, with low water levels forcing beavers and other animals to live in closer quarters. Continuing destruction of wildlife habitat has a similar effect, she said. Derek Liebert, project manager at the Urbana Park District, said a wildlife biologist suggested to him that if tularemia is in fact the cause, the die-off may be a corrective measure for a population that grew too large.The Champaign-Urbana Public Health District issued an alert notifying residents of tularemia in the area. The alert cited a Meadowbrook beaver diagnosed with clinical symptoms of tularemia and an unrelated 2011 outbreak among 5 pet cats in Champaign, Urbana and Savoy. Health district planning director Awais Vaid said people should not let their pets roam and should take them to a veterinarian if they exhibit symptoms such as loss of appetite or difficulty with movement. People who see sick animals in the wild or along trails should not approach them, Vaid said, not only because of the risk of tularemia but of rabies. The park district warns Meadowbrook users to keep pets leashed and to stay on trails in the park. Mateus-Pinilla reinforced local government warnings about allowing domestic animals to roam or run unleashed. “Then you are bringing them into your house, where there is direct contact. That is more serious,” she said. According to the National Institutes of Health, tularemia is common among wild rodents and can be transmitted to other animals and humans through direct contact and by ticks, biting flies and other insects. In humans, tularemia bacteria can cause illness ranging from asymptomatic to life-threatening.Liebert said the 1st dead beaver was found in January 2012. It was taken to the University of Illinois veterinary diagnostic laboratory, where tests were conducted, with inconclusive results. Then in June and September, 2 adult beavers were found dead but were too decomposed to be necropsied, he said. The biggest spate of deaths occurred in October 2012, when 3 beavers were found, 2 of which were necropsied. In November, a 7th beaver was found. Liebert said the most recent sighting of a live beaver, a single individual, occurred 19 Dec 2012. The effort to isolate the cause of the deaths was hampered by several circumstances, Mateus-Pinilla said. One is that decomposition sets in rapidly, and sometimes there is not much a pathologist can do because of the condition of the body. The “gold standard” for a confirmed diagnosis, Mateus-Pinilla said, is the ability to grow a culture of the suspect bacteria. The Meadowbrook beavers were tested for several pathogens, including tularemia, salmonella, leptospira and canine distemper. No tests resulted positive.
However, investigators were able to rule out toxins, such as from run-off, and also found evidence pointing to tularemia, even if it did not amount to a confirmed diagnosis. Mateus-Pinilla said salmonella and leptospira were eliminated, for example, because salmonella would not have caused a die-off, and leptospira is associated with lesions not found in the necropsies. But investigators did find certain changes in the lungs typical of tularemia. In the end, Mateus-Pinilla said, what signs there were pointed to tularemia. Mateus-Pinilla said it is unlikely that the habitat provided by the park itself was to blame. Indeed, she said, the fact that beavers were thriving there “tells us it was a suitable habitat.” Unfortunately, she said, the die-off “also tells us that natural habitats are more and more disturbed, forcing the beavers to be in a more dense population.” Human attraction to nature puts people in closer contact with wildlife diseases, she added. “We want to put our house in the woods,” and as a result “we are getting closer to diseases that we wouldn’t find in the middle of New York City.”
Biohazard name:
Unidentified die-off (beaver)
Biohazard level:
2/4 Medium
Biohazard desc.:
Bacteria and viruses that cause only mild disease to humans, or are difficult to contract via aerosol in a lab setting, such as hepatitis A, B, and C, influenza A, Lyme disease, salmonella, mumps, measles, scrapie, dengue fever, and HIV. “Routine diagnostic work with clinical specimens can be done safely at Biosafety Level 2, using Biosafety Level 2 practices and procedures. Research work (including co-cultivation, virus replication studies, or manipulations involving concentrated virus) can be done in a BSL-2 (P2) facility, using BSL-3 practices and procedures. Virus production activities, including virus concentrations, require a BSL-3 (P3) facility and use of BSL-3 practices and procedures”, see Recommended Biosafety Levels for Infectious Agents.
By Agence France-Presse
Friday, March 15, 2013 11:28 EDT
Shanghai fished another 809 dead pigs out of its main waterway on Friday, bringing the total carcasses found this week to 8,300 in a scandal that has spotlighted China’s troubles with food safety.
The swine effluent discovered flowing down the Huangpu river — which supplies a fifth of the commercial hub’s drinking water — has added the country’s most popular meat to a growing list of food items rocked by scandal.
“As of 3:00 pm today, another 809 floating dead pigs have been fished out,” Shanghai authorities said on their Weibo account, a service similar to Twitter.
It gave assurances that authorities had not found any substandard pork products on the market and were closely monitoring water quality.
Shanghai has blamed farmers in neighbouring Zhejiang province for casting pigs thought to have died of disease into the river upstream, although officials from the area have admitted to only a single producer doing so.
Pork accounted for 64 percent of total meat output last year, and China’s increasingly wealthy urban residents consumed 21 kilograms (45 pounds) of the meat per person in 2011.
For the last 10 days dead dolphins and whales have been washing ashore along Ireland coastlines. This is a rare event for this area leaving people wonder why and how.
…
08.02.2013
Biological Hazard
Ireland
Multiple Areas, [Counties of Donegal, Mayo and Kerry]
A number of dolphins, whales and porpoises found washed up may have been dead for some time before they ended up on Irish beaches. More than 20 incidents have been reported on beaches in counties Donegal, Mayo and Kerry in the past 10 days where common dolphins, pilot whales and porpoises have been found dead. A fisheries expert has said prevailing winds and strong sea currents may have been responsible for the dead cetaceans turning up on Irish shores. Kevin Flannery says the deaths could also be attributed to fish shortages during the winter months. “Pilot whales in particular are also notorious for mass strandings, so I would say it’s a combination of all of these things rather than anything more sinister,” Mr Flannery said. The Irish Whale and Dolphin Group (IWDG) says it’s unusual to see this number of dead dolphins washed ashore. Volunteer with the IWDG Rosemary Hill said: “Any sightings reported we record, measure and photograph and there seems to be so much going on that it’s a bit strange,” she said.
Biohazard name:
Mass Die-off (dolphins)
Biohazard level:
0/4 —
Biohazard desc.:
This does not included biological hazard category.
Dead guillemot covered in the glue like substance, photo by Darryl Thorpe/Cornwall Wildlife Trust
ENLARGE
