“Devastating” dolphin loss in Florida red tide disaster – More than 100 tons of dead sea creatures have been shoveled up from smelly, deserted beaches

16 August 2018 (AFP) – A state of emergency has been declared in Florida as the worst red tide in a decade blackens the ocean water, killing dolphins, sea turtles and fish at a relentless pace. More than 100 tons of dead sea creatures have been shoveled up from smelly, deserted beaches in tourist areas […]

Florida Gov. Rick Scott declares state of emergency amid red tide crisis, calls it a “naturally-occurring phenomenon”

By Alexa Lardieri 14 August 2018 (U.S. News & World Report) – Florida Gov. Rick Scott declared a state of emergency for several counties suffering from the impacts of a prolonged red tide. According to the governor’s declaration , red tide is a naturally occuring algae that appears almost every year on Florida‘s Gulf Coast. […]

Red tide is devastating Florida’s sea life. Are humans to blame?

By Maya Wei-Haas 8 August 2018(National Geographic) – The first thing you notice is the smell. It’s not a scent, exactly, but a tingling in the nose that quickly spreads to the throat and burns the lungs. But then you see the carcasses. Thousands of sea creatures now litter many of southern Florida’s typically picturesque […]

Mother orca still carrying her dead calf, 16 days later – “I am absolutely shocked and heartbroken”

By Lynda V. Mapes 8 August 2018 (The Seattle Times) – Tahlequah, the mother orca also known as J35, was spotted Wednesday afternoon, still carrying her dead infant calf for the 16th straight day.“I am absolutely shocked and heartbroken,’’ said Deborah Giles, research scientist for University of Washington Center for Conservation Biology and research director […]

National Geographic: Half of the Great Barrier Reef has been killed by marine heat waves

By Lauren E. James 8 August 2018 (National Geographic) – Half of the Great Barrier Reef has been bleached to death since 2016. Mass coral bleaching, a global problem triggered by climate change, occurs when unnaturally hot ocean water destroys a reef’s colorful algae, leaving the coral to starve. The Great Barrier Reef illustrates how […]

Fraser River is now so warm it may kill migrating sockeye salmon – “They’re adapted to warmer temperatures but not the kind of temperatures they’re being exposed to now”

By Lisa Johnson 3 August 2018 (CBC News) – Sockeye salmon are on a mission up B.C.’s Fraser River right now, swimming “a marathon a day” to reach the gravel beds where they’ll lay eggs for the next generation. But the waters of the Fraser — historically one of the world’s great salmon rivers — […]

A mother orca’s dead calf and the grief felt around the world

By Lynda V. Mapes 2 August 2018 (The Seattle Times) – Is it her grief … or ours? As she carried her dead calf for the ninth straight day, Tahlequah the mother orca whale has captured the world’s attention. People have responded to her plight with poems. Paintings. Songs. Cascades of phone calls, emails and […]

Toxic algae bloom killing fish, eels, and turtles by the tens of thousands in southwest Florida – “This is the worst I’ve ever seen”

By Manuel Bojorquez 2 August 2018 MIAMI (CBS News) – Thousands of fish, eels and turtles are dying, sometimes as far as the eye can see, in parts of southwest Florida. Just this week, one of several lifeless manatees was pulled from the water. The suspected culprit is a toxic algae bloom known as “red […]

Orcas now taking turns floating dead calf in apparent mourning ritual – “What you’re seeing is the depth of importance of this calf and the grief of the mother and the family”

1 August 2018 (CBC) – Members of a pod of endangered killer whales now appear to be taking turns floating the body of a newborn calf that died more than week ago.As It Happens reported on Friday about J-35, a mother orca from B.C.’s endangered killer whale population that has been balancing her dead calf […]

Orca whale continues grieving ritual for a sixth day – “You can’t help see it as a message”

By Lynda V. Mapes 30 July 2018 SAN JUAN ISLANDS (The Seattle Times) – She carries it delicately, carefully, by the fin, or on her head, so as not to make a mark on the tiny body of her calf that lived only half an hour. J35, a mother orca in the southern-resident clan, was […]

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