woody with a view
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Melting Sea Star epidemic
http://www.storyleak.com/new-underwater-footage-reveals-exte...
Following the discovery of melting Sunflower sea stars off the coast of California, Washington state and Canada, videographer and underwater explorer
Laura James uncovered well over 100 dead sea stars washed up on the beach in West Seattle’s Brace Point area earlier this month. After diving into the
water to investigate, James reveals to Storyleak just how devastating the die-off has become.
“I’d heard that the sea stars were dying en mass but this was beyond my imagination,” James said. “It was like carnage or a mass grave. Dead and dying
sea stars, body on top of body.”
James’ footage, which begins by showing unaffected sea starts in the same area a year prior, reveals that multiple sea star species have begun to
literally disintegrate, despite earlier reports of only one species being affected.
“The Sunflower sea stars were the first to die, and it happened very fast. The Ochre and Mottled sea stars are now dying and these are the bodies you
see piling up,” James said.
All stages of the melting process can be seen throughout the footage, beginning with a strange loss of coordination and inability to grasp onto
objects, before the insides and limbs begin to fall apart, adding to the numerous white piles of melted sea star remains.
“As we were swimming along we also noted torn off legs from Sunflower stars strewn about, like the starfish had just been cruising along and one leg
after another stopped working,” James said.
Controlled experiments in the late 1960s, which removed sea stars from Washington state’s Mukkaw Bay, produced a dramatic decrease in species
diversity as hypothesized. Given the sea stars’ now evident role as a keystone species linked to maintaining ecological balance, many worry the
die-off could begin the chain reaction, massively devastating the biodiversity of the entire west coast.
“The key here is citizen scientists helping to do the wide spread documentation and an involved public that can make its voice heard, push for
answers, and not let this just become yesterdays news,” James said.
Although the cause has yet to be determined, speculations now range from a simple disease or parasite to the continued dumping of hundreds of tons of
highly radioactive water into the ocean from Japan’s crippled ***ushima nuclear plant.
Unexplained sicknesses and death from species all across the west coast since the beginning of Japan’s 2011 nuclear disaster have increased the
public’s fear that the situation’s true danger is being kept under wraps.
As far back as early 2012, nuclear radiation from the ***ushima power plant was being detected in bluefin tuna off California’s coast. Months earlier,
cesium-137 was being found in almost all Japanese seafood being sold in Canada, with 100 percent of seaweed, carp, monkfish and shark showing
detectable levels. Even with Japanese scientists finding high cesium levels in plankton all across the Pacific, the FDA has continued to claim that
there is no need to test any seafood.
August of this year, Canadian biologists near Vancouver Island discovered herring bleeding out of their eyes and gill, while members of Canada’s
aboriginal community began simultaneously reporting historically low Skeena River sockeye salmon returns.
“We hope to get out and document more sites… so we can also document the changes in biodiversity that are likely to occur,” James said in closing.
As the melting sea star phenomenon continues its downward trend, James plans to continue her research in hopes that others will join.
Read more: http://www.storyleak.com/new-underwater-footage-reveals-exte...
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tecatero
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I heard about this last month.........seems Japan just keeps dumping into the ocean, oh and their whaling fleets are in full swing again, guess
killing whales is more important than destroying the ocean. Also saw the map of the "ploom" in the pacific, allegedly North Shore on Oahu made be
untouchable by 2015 due to radiation specs
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Ken Bondy
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Here's a picture of one I took last month in Morro Bay. I saw hundreds of them disintegrating like this:
[Edited on 12-20-2013 by Ken Bondy]
carpe diem!
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captkw
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IT'S GETTING WORSE !!
canary in the coal mine..............Check out " before its news" or WND and forget "snopes" crap
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Ateo
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| Quote: | Originally posted by captkw
canary in the coal mine..............Check out " before its news" or WND and forget "snipes" crap |
All due respect, SNOPES debunks a whole ton of crap that old people send me in emails. =)
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deportes
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***USHIMA fallout!
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durrelllrobert
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just plane UGLY!
Bob Durrell
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Hook
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Boy, am I glad I've got a peninsula between me and Japan.
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gnukid
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It's normal to have explosion of population and mass die-off of species especially in the ocean where food sources can rapidly increase and decrease.
Ocean observers will regularly see large populations dying off and move to other regions. Die-off in itself is not a sign of problems in fact it is
part of the balance of life. Some species have millions of eggs and and off spring with the hope of a few surviving. When more do there is a
population explosion that will eventually overfeed food source and die or move.
There are also normal changes in oceans ability to provide food source due to changes in global and solar system.
We ar currently in the lowest solar cycle of our lifetime and the sun may change it's position which will affect all life (and electronics) on earth
and beyond.
Be wary of catastrophe reports.
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wessongroup
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Don't forget the PH .... just saying
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woody with a view
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well, i don't think there has ever been something like this that turns the host to sludge. starfish have been around 100 million years and i read that
this is causing 100% mortality in these species. give it time.
if the FDA says we don't need to test the food for radiation i guess we have nothing to fear, right?
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mtgoat666
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| Quote: | Originally posted by gnukid
We ar currently in the lowest solar cycle of our lifetime and the sun may change it's position which will affect all life (and electronics) on earth
and beyond.
Be wary of catastrophe reports. |
stock up on tinfoil, before it is sold out. add an extra layer of tinfoil to your hat, and be sure to change the tinfoil in your underwear too.
watch out!
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wilderone
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Also east coast - not good.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/07/130723134250.ht...
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Whale-ista
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Remember the abalone die off?
This reminds me of the "withering foot" disease that decimated West Coast abalone in the 90s. The cause (a virus) was ultimately identified but never
controlled. The result is a universal crash of abalone all along the California coast.
There are some abalone stocks in Baja, and even boutique aqua-farms in places, but nothing like what used to be naturally abundant. I remember getting
abalone from diver friends, and also while visiting family in Ensenada in the 70s, when abalone was cheap and easy to find. Now it is an expensive
delicacy.
These sea life population crashes show the cumulative impacts of diseases, pollution, climate change and overfishing as well as variables we do not
fully understand. Individually it is bad for a species, but collectively it is an indicator of declining overall ecosystem health, productivity, and
species diversity.
Jellyfish, on the other hand, seem to be doing quite well. They are becoming the c-ckroaches of the ocean, thriving in compromised/polluted
environments that are harmful to other animals.
(Edit) just read the article on the east coast die off. It claims it has happened before and populations recovered.
The difference is, there are many additional stressors in the environment now. Natural fluctuations in fisheries (sardines and anchovies) have been
measured for thousands of years, using preserved deep water sediment and fish-scale counts. But The stress of industrial scale commercial fishing has
reduced the recoveries over the last 100 years.
Only time will tell if the starfish can recover as they have done in the past, but the odds are against it.
[Edited on 12-29-2013 by Whale-ista]
\"Probably the airplanes will bring week-enders from Los Angeles before long, and the beautiful poor bedraggled old town will bloom with a
Floridian ugliness.\" (John Steinbeck, 1940, discussing the future of La Paz, BCS, Mexico)
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desertcpl
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| Quote: | Originally posted by deportes
***USHIMA fallout! |
I think I will go with this one
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bacquito
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starfish_wasting_disease
There are a lot of articles on the web re. starfish die off and in some of the articles mention is made of a bacteria and warmer waters as suspects
[Edited on 2-2-2014 by bacquito]
bacquito
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captkw
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Sea die off
whales,,dolphens,,herrings,,starfish,,Oarfish..seal pups.. its getting UgLY !! forget the abc,nbc,,cnn,fox and any major media lies.....we have been
seeing more ocean death than ever in recorded history...FACT... !! can you say ***ED !! by japan....So Sad !!!......K&T
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