What the Hell is Happening in Arkansas?

[sjr09 155]

E. coli?

In 1999, several thousand grackles fell from the sky and staggered about before dying in north Louisiana. It took five months to get the diagnosis: an E. coli infection of the air sacs in their skulls.

　

http://www.msnbc.msn...ment/?gt1=43001

[misterbigtoe 45]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vnp4kj5lLOU&feature=player_embedded#!

[LaL 418]

Hundreds of dead snapper washed up on New Zealand beach

Hundreds of dead snapper have washed up on Coromandel beaches on the North Island of New Zealand, leaving holidaymakers perplexed.

The mysterious incident came as the southern United States was hit with a second unexplained mass bird death within a week.

People at Little Bay and Waikawau Bay, on the north-east of the peninsula, were stunned when children came out of the sea with armfuls of the fish and within minutes the shore was littered with them.

Charlotte Pearsall, whose family have lived at Little Bay for the last 30 years, said she had never seen anything like it.

"It was so surreal," she said. "It's such an incredible waste - it could've fed the whole northern tip of the Coromandel."

People with binoculars said the snapper stretched as far as they could see and boaties reported "a carpet of floating fish further out to sea all along the coast".

"We initially thought 'woohoo a free feed' but they had really cloudy eyes and you could see the birds had been at them. Some of them had no eyes," Pearsall said.

Her parents called the Department of Conservation and were told it was most likely the fish had starved due to weather conditions, but Pearsall did not think that was the case as many of the fish looked big and healthy.

The Fisheries Ministry are currently investigating the situation and said they could not yet say what the cause was.

"Any commercial operators must record and report their catch," said ministry field operations officer for Waikato, Bay of Plenty and the Coromandel Brendon Mikkelsen.

"They're equally as concerned as we are . . . it's not in anybody's interests for fish to be abandoned at sea."

Mikkelsen said it had happened before but given the quantity of fish it was very concerning.

People saw floating snapper in the water as early as 5am yesterday but the ministry only received reports 12 hours later.

http://www.smh.com.a...0105-19fdr.html

Edited January 5, 2011 by LaL

[^_^ 5,021]

yum, they should do a beach side fish fry!

[Ban Hammer 14,073]

Hundreds of dead snapper washed up on New Zealand beach

[Darnell 8,479]

The Fish are Winning in the Bird-Fish War.

Yay Fish !!! Go Fish !

GoGoGadget SonicExperimentationitus

[LaL 418]

Dying In Italy: Thousands Of Turtle Doves Fall Dead From Sky

On Wednesday, GeaPress reported hundreds -- possibly thousands -- of dead and dying birds in Italy. Countless turtle doves were found scattered in the streets, in flower beds and hanging tragically from trees "like Christmas balls" in the town of Faenza. Many of the birds that fell dead from the sky were discovered with a mysterious blue stain in their beaks. In the past week, similar incidents of mass animal deaths have been reported across the world. Thousands of dead birds fell from the sky in Arkansas on New Year's Eve, and similar incidents were reported on different days in Louisiana, Kentucky and Sweden. Two million fish were discovered dead in Maryland, with other fish kills also reported in Brazil, New Zealand and Arkansas -- approximately 100 miles from the bird incident. 40,000 crabs washed up on England beaches in the past few days, as well.

While the events are likely unrelated, most still remain a mystery. Officials suggest fireworks are likely responsible for many of the bird deaths and that unusually cold weather could be to blame for the strange mass deaths of fish and crabs.

GeaPress suggests that the blue stains found in mouths of the dead and dying birds in Italy could be the result of poisoning or possibly signs of hypoxia. Both the local forest service and the WWF in Faenza have sent some of the dead birds for testing, though the results likely won't be available for at least a week.

Visit GeaPress.org to see the shocking photos of the dead turtle doves.

http://www.huffingto...l?ref=fb&src=sp

Edited January 7, 2011 by LaL

[Nina~ 431]

40,000 Dead Crabs Wash Ashore in U.K.

Birds fell from the sky to their deaths in the Ark., La. and Sweden, dead fish are floating around in Md. and Brazil, and most recently, over 40,000 dead devil crabs have washed up along the Kent coast in the U.K. The latest in the string of animal mass mortality incidents across the globe has caused many to wonder if an animal apocalypse is on the brink.

The media started paying to attention to mass mortalities after a flock of blackbirds fell from the sky in Ark., crashing into homes, cars and each other before dying. Doug Inkley, senior scientist at the National Wildlife Federation, told CBS News that blackbirds don't have very good night vision and that they were simply frightened.

As for the fish and the crabs, the cause of the fish die-off in Brazil is yet to be determined, but officials in Md. told the Baltimore Sun the sensitive spot fish were most likely killed by cold water. According to the Daily Mail, environmental experts believe lower than average temperatures are to blame for the crab deaths.

[luckytxn 2,265]

If it is cold in Maryland then wouldn't it be warm in Brazil?

[sjr09 155]

You think birds falling from the sky is weird?

"Kentucky Meat Shower" of 1876　

http://query.nytimes...788D85F428784F9

http://fieldnotes.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/01/07/5784265-you-think-birds-falling-from-the-sky-is-weird

[TBoneTX 47,091]

You think birds falling from the sky is weird?

Others of my (cough, hack) generation can probably remember that episode of "WKRP in Cincinnati" in which the station decided to drop live turkeys from a helicopter as a Thanksgiving promotion. The station manager (played by the late Gordon Jump) said, with a perfect combination of glumness, contrition, and horror, "I thought turkeys could fly."

[Ban Hammer 14,073]

If it is cold in Maryland then wouldn't it be warm in Brazil?

yes