The expansion and impact of world fishing fleets in a) 1950 and b) 2006. The maps show the geographical expansion of world fishing fleets from 1950 to 2006 (the latest available data). Since 1950, the area fished by global fishing fleets has increased ten-fold. By 2006 100 million km2, around 1/3 of the ocean surface, […]
By Emily Sohn, Discovery Channel 14 May 2012 As the climate changes over the next century, the ranges of nearly 90 percent of mammal species will shrink — in many cases because animals won’t be able to get to areas where the climate is going to become suitable for them, says new research. Across the […]
By DAVID JOLLY and ANDREA ZARATE7 May 2012 Late last year, fishermen began finding dead dolphins, hundreds of them, washed up on Peru’s northern coast. Now, seabirds have begun dying, too, and the government has yet to conclusively pinpoint a cause. Officials insist that the two die-offs are unrelated. The dolphins are succumbing to a […]
By Julia Whitty7 May 2012 Something awful is happening in the waters off Peru’s northern coast, where some 3,000 dolphins have died and washed ashore since January. This rates as one of the worst, if not the worst, Unusual Mortality Event (UME) ever recorded. (I’ve been writing about the UME with marine mammals in the […]
By Peter Brannen30 April 2012 Provincetown, Mass. – Normally for a few days in spring, beachgoers on this hook of land stretching into Cape Cod Bay witness one of the rarest scenes in the animal kingdom: dozens of surface-skimming North Atlantic right whales, lumbering just a few hundred yards from shore. But that rite of […]
By Marilia Brocchetto, CNN30 April 2012 (CNN) – Authorities in Peru are investigating the death of over 538 pelicans, along with other birds, on the northern coast of the country, the Peruvian ministry of production said Sunday. The new environmental investigation comes on the heels of an incident earlier in April when 877 dolphins washed […]
By Tim Wall9 April 2012 Several mass deaths of dolphins have occurred over the past few years and while experts are worried about the die-off they say we are not witnessing a global population crash. But what is behind the recent mass strandings and deaths is complicated and, inevitably, involves humans. For example, the bottlenose […]
Contact Information:Paul Laustsen, USGS, 650-329-4046Bruce Woods, US F&WS, 907-786-36956 April 2012 ANCHORAGE – In the past two weeks, 9 polar bears in the southern Beaufort Sea region near Barrow were observed with alopecia, or loss of fur, and other skin lesions. The animals were otherwise healthy in appearance and behavior. The cause and significance of […]
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy [As always, apologies for the advertising.] By Miguel Llanos, msnbc.com6 April 2012 Conservationists counted 615 dead dolphins along a 90-mile stretch of beaches in Peru, a wildlife group said Wednesday, and the leading suspect is acoustic testing offshore by oil companies. “If you […]
By Ben Raines, Press-Register5 April 2012 The stench of death was heavy along the rocks of Dauphin Island’s Katrina Cut last week. Midway across the mile-wide rock wall, wedged between two boulders at the water’s edge, a dolphin carcass washed back and forth in the gentle waves. Most of its backbone protruded from skin bleached […]
