Tag: Alaska

California to Alaska — Animals starving as food chains continue to collapse

by nootkabear, posted in americium, California, Censorship, cesium, contaminated, contamination, death dead, Judicial Corruption

https://s25.postimg.org/6t7cy377z/Screenshot_2016_01_18_at_8_08_59_AM.png
Massive die-off of sea creatures from California to Alaska — Animals starving as food chains continue to collapse — Mass starvation events plague West Coast — Scientist: “Felt like I was doing nothing but counting dead animals” — TV: Deaths really quite troubling (VIDEO)
By ENENews, on January 12th, 2017

Published: January 12th, 2017 at 1:49 pm ET
By ENENews

http://enenews.com/massive-die-off-of-sea-creatures-from-california-to-alaska-animals-starving-as-food-chains-continue-to-collapse-mass-starvation-events-plague-west-coast-scientist-felt-like-i-was-doing-not


The Press Democrat, Dec 25, 2016 (emphasis added): Ocean changes upend North Coast fisheries… once reliable ocean rhythms have been seriously unsettled of late, confounding those who depend on predictable, seasonal cycles… a symptom of widespread marine anomalies that have prevailed for the past three years, threatening everything from seabirds and sea lions to treasured catches such as salmon and abalone. “The ocean is changing,” one glum crabber aboard the vessel New Horizon said… Irregularity “is starting to look like the new normal,” he said… Evidence of starvation in abalone populations prompted authorities to impose new restrictions in the sport abalone fishery next year to limit the catch. The commercial red urchin fishery is suffering, as well… Meanwhile, the commercial salmon harvest, California’s most valuable ocean fishery, continues to suffer, with spawning populations reduced significantly… Mass-starvation events have hit a spectrum of other West Coast marine wildlife, mostly due to the collapse of food chains… Large dieoffs of Cassin’s auklets, a tiny seabird, were first noticed when dead birds began washing ashore in fall of 2014. A year later, it was malnourished and dead common murres that were found adrift. Juvenile California sea lions, Guadalupe fur seals and other marine mammals have suffered for several years, as well, both from starvation and, to a lesser extent, from domoic acid poisoning.

Pete Thomas Outdoors (Former columnist for the LA Times), Dec 22, 2016: Young orca found dead near Vancouver; are iconic mammals starving to death?… J34 becomes the fifth member of J Pod to have died this year, reducing the pod’s number to 25. The cause of J34’s death is not known, but he was reported to have appeared noticeably thin during recent sightings. Also, the necropsy revealed signs of physical injury. The cause of death for the four other J Pod members was not determined because bodies were not recovered – the animals simply vanished. But it appears as through Southern Residents as a whole are suffering from a slow starvation…

KOMO, Dec 22, 2016: [The orcas] go through periodic bouts of nutritional deficiency,” said [Howard Garrett, who runs the Orca Network]. “There’s just not enough of the chinook salmon and the coho chum salmon which are basically all they will eat.”

CTV, Dec 23, 2016: After the October 2016 deaths of a 23-year-old female, J28, and likely her 10-month-old calf, experts from the Center for Whale Research said dwindling food sources were a main factor in the population’s decline.

CTV transcript excerpt, Dec 23, 2016: Dr Anna Hall zoologist: “It died virtually in the prime of its life… It’s very, very concerning that a second animal just died.”…

CTV transcript excerpts, Dec 21, 2016: The numbers keep declining, mothers and babies dying — some experts say because of a lack of food…. so the death is really quite troubling.

Alaska Dispatch News: Nov 11, 2016: Kachemak Bay has seen massive die-offs of sea stars and other species. What’s going on? — I came to the beach to count sea star corpses.. About 10 species once were common in the intertidal zone here…hundreds of which had been dismembered and scattered over the beach, as if a monster had stalked through before us, tearing their bodies apart… We’re left with an absence, another mystery… A few months earlier… tens of thousands of murres starved to death and washed up along beaches all over Southcentral and Southwest Alaska. Biologists counted more dead seabirds than they ever had before, but there were more than anyone could count, leading to the second consecutive summer of empty nesting colonies… It was also the second summer in a row with no clams or clammers on Ninilchik beaches, and no young clams to promise a recovery. Otters washed up dead on the shores of Kachemak Bay. Dead whales rotted on the surface… How weird is all this? And does it all fit together?… Soon there were no more sunflower stars to be found. Other species followed… and then almost no sea stars at all… [Katie Aspen Gavenus, a naturalist with the Center for Alaskan Coastal Studies] reported dead sea stars to researchers in California, as she’d reported dead seabirds to researchers in Washington state. “Sometimes this summer, it felt like I was doing nothing but counting dead animals.”… “It’s probably a pathogen plus environmental factors,” said Melissa Miner, a researcher with University of California, Santa Cruz who’s been tracking the outbreak for years… We don’t know what will happen with the sea stars. We don’t even know what is happening with the sea stars. The scientists I spoke to didn’t know why the Kachemak Bay sea stars died this summer — they didn’t even know it had happened… Last winter, tens of thousands of murres starved to death. This summer, the remaining murres abandoned their nesting colonies and failed to raise chicks.

Watch the CTV broadcast here

CBS: Bulk of radiation has yet to make it’s way across Pacific (January 10, 2017)

by nootkabear, posted in Alaska, California, cesium, contaminated, food chain, Judicial Corruption, Nuclear, Pacific Ocean


Fukushima radiation contaminates West Coast fish — “Fears the country’s food chain is polluted… a terrifying discovery” — Scientist: “It appears plume has spread throughout vast area from Alaska to California” — CBS: Bulk of radiation has yet to make it’s way across Pacific (VIDEO)
By ENENews, on January 10th, 2017

Published: January 10th, 2017 at 11:45 am ET
By ENENews

http://enenews.com/

The Tribune, Jan 5, 2017 and updated Jan 9, 2017 (emphasis added): UCUT study finds trace amounts of radiation in migratory salmon Columbia River – In early December, a number of news agencies reported seaborne radiation from Japan’s Fukushima Nuclear plant was detected in the Pacific Ocean along on the West Coast. The plant… is feared to still be contaminating the ocean. The impact of the radiation in the Columbia River—and on migratory salmon that spend their developmental years in the Pacific—is still relatively unknown, but recent studies point to causes for concern. Last year, the Okanagan Nation Alliance found Cesium-134, the so-called fingerprint of Fukushima, in sockeye that had migrated up the Okanogan River to British Columbia. Now, a study by Upper Columbia United Tribes has found trace amounts of radiation in Columbia River sockeye as well as Chinook salmon, UCUT biologist Marc Gauthier said Tuesday to the Colville Business Council’s Natural Resource Committee… In the Columbia River salmon, UCUT found… trace amounts of strontium-90, which is another Fukushima radionuclide, according to Gauthier. “There’s some unknowns, some questions that this information raises,” said Gauthier.

Castanet (BC, Canada), Dec 23, 2016: A sockeye salmon containing trace amounts of a radioactive isotope from the 2011 Fukushima nuclear plant disaster in Japan was found in Okanagan Lake. The discovery was made in the summer of 2015 by the Integrated Fukushima Ocean Radionuclide Monitoring network [InFORM]… The organization has found eight fish with detectable levels of “artificial isotopes from human activities”… In one of those eight fish, the one found in Okanagan Lake, researchers were able to detect the element Cesium-134… UPDATE: While [InFORM] reported the Cesium-134 containing sockeye was found in Okanagan Lake, the government data the report references shows that the sockeye samples were actually taken from the Okanagan River…

Statesman Journal, Dec 7, 2016: Fukushima radiation has reached U.S. shores — For the first time, seaborne radiation from Japan’s Fukushima nuclear disaster has been detected on the West Coast… in seawater samples taken from Tillamook Bay and Gold Beach in Oregon, researchers from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution are reporting. Because of its short half-life, cesium-134 can only have come from Fukushima. Also for the first time, cesium-134 has been detected in a Canadian salmon, the Fukushima InFORM project, led by University of Victoria chemical oceanographer Jay Cullen, is reporting… The Oregon samples, marking the first time cesium-134 has been detected on U.S. shores, were taken in January and February of 2016… [InFORM] reported that a single sockeye salmon, sampled from Okanagan Lake in the summer of 2015, had tested positive for cesium-134… [There] is no significant risk to consumers, Cullen said… A recent InFORM analysis of [Woods Hole chemical oceanographer Ken] Buesseler’s data concluded that concentrations of cesium-137 have increased considerably in the central northeast Pacific, although they still are at levels that pose no concern. “It appears that the plume has spread throughout this vast area from Alaska to California,” the scientists wrote… Radiation levels have not yet peaked. “As the contamination plume progresses towards our coast we expect levels closer to shore to increase over the coming year,” Cullen said…

KBET, Dec 9, 2016: RADIOACTIVE ‘FUKUSHIMA FISH’ WEST COAST USA… RADIOACTIVE fish found off the United States has raised fears the country’s food chain is polluted – and the Fukushima nuclear disaster is being blamed. Highly toxic Cesium-134 – the “fingerprint” of Fukushima – was found in Tillamook Bay and Gold Beach, Oregon. The terrifying discovery was reported by researchers at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution… [R]adiation levels have not yet peaked as a toxic plume makes its way towards the United States.

CBS News (transcript excerpt), Dec 9, 2017: Officials are continuing to monitor the situation, saying the bulk of radiation from the Fukushima plant has not yet made its way across the Pacific.

Watch the CBS broadcast here

Published: January 10th, 2017 at 11:45 am ET

ENENews: Scientists: Mass die-offs of mammals, birds, fish… “No one’s sure what happened” — Gov’t wants Unusual Mortality Event declared — Samples “being tested for radionuclides from Fukushima”

by nootkabear, posted in Alaska, deaths, mass die offs, Mortality Event


AP: Unprecedented deaths along U.S. Pacific coast — Scientists: Mass die-offs of mammals, birds, fish… “No one’s sure what happened” — Gov’t wants Unusual Mortality Event declared — Samples “being tested for radionuclides from Fukushima” (PHOTOS & AUDIO)
Published: July 28th, 2015 at 10:23 am ET
By ENENews
http://enenews.com/ap-unprecedented-deaths-along-pacific-coast-scientists-reporting-mass-die-offs-mammals-birds-fish-govt-declared-unusual-mortality-event-being-tested-radionuclides-fukushima-one-sure-whats


AP, Jul 27, 2015 (emphasis added): Scientist says unexplained mass whale deaths off Alaska island may remain a mystery — Researchers may never solve the recent deaths of 18 endangered whales… 10 fin whales [and] eight humpback whales… scientists speculate the animals might have eaten something toxic… One test came back negative for one toxin that would be present in harmful algal blooms [Kate Wynne, a marine mammal specialist for the University of Alaska Sea Grant Program] said. “That’s my leading hypothesis,” Wynne said of an environmental toxin as a cause… “we never will find out what killed those whales, in my mind.” Other test results also are pending, however. A muscle-tissue sample is being tested for the possibility of radionuclides from the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster… The deaths are an unusual occurrence, Wynne said. She said she’s never heard of anything similar occurring among large baleen whales in the U.S. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration also is looking into the deaths of a slightly larger number of whales over a larger area. NOAA is requesting the deaths to be designated nationally as an unusual mortality event… NOAA spokeswoman Julie Speegle said. Along with the dead whales, dead birds including murres and shearwaters were reported… Tests showed the shearwaters had a high parasite count and were starving, Wynne said.
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/scientist-whale-deaths-off-alaska-island-remains-mystery-32718241

KUCB, Jul 27, 2015: Dead Fish, Wildlife In Aleutians… Scientists have been receiving reports of dead and dying mammals, birds and small fish in the Aleutian Islands. They think the killer might be toxic algae… “They’re a suspected cause for some of the mass deaths we’ve been seeing–the 10 fin whales that were spotted dead off of Kodiak Island; I know Adak has seen a lot of dead birds, King Cove, I believe (birds in) False Pass have been washing up. We don’t know the cause of that yet either,” [Melissa Good with University of Alaska Fairbanks] said… “No one that I know of is sure what happened.” This week, Good has been taking water samples around Unalaska and shipping them off to labs for full analysis… She’s also sampled the stomach and flesh of a Steller’s sea lion that washed up dead… Good said people in the Aleutians should be wary of eating clams or mussels… “We just don’t know if they’re going to be toxic or not,” she said.

Dead Fish, Wildlife In Aleutians May Be Victims Of Toxic Algae Outbreak

Univ. of Alaska Fairbanks, July 2015: Pursuing Cause of Death in Gulf of Alaska Whales… Over the next six weeks more large whale mortalities were reported by mariners and pilots. Kate Wynne and Bree Witteveen began gathering NOAA Stranding Network data… a total of 10 fin whale and 8 humpback mortalities have been documented… Both whale species feed in groups on small fish and invertebrates, filtering them with their baleen… Wynne, Witteveen, and other biologists have pursued many possible human-influenced and natural causes, but as of mid-July the cause of death remains unknown… Biotoxins caused by warm water–induced harmful algal blooms are a possibility, although tissue from the sampled fin whale tested for domoic acid came back negative… Scientists have followed up on other possible causes… even radionuclides from the Fukushima reactor…. To pursue the radionuclide possibility Wynne submitted a muscle tissue sample from a dead fin whale for Cesium 137 analysis, with results pending… Wynne and Witteveen complimented the professional network of bird, fish, and mammal biologists in the Gulf of Alaska and the Bristol Bay–Bering Sea area, who have reported unusual events since the mortalities.
http://seagrant.uaf.edu/news/fishlines/2015/july.php