Seven Puget Sound orcas presumed dead

[zonkers]

Source: Los Angeles Times

Reporting from Seattle -- Seven killer whales from the endangered population in Washington's Puget Sound are missing and presumed dead in the most significant die-off of one of the icons of the Pacific Northwest in nearly a decade. Scientists tracking the black-and-white orcas off the coasts of California, Oregon, Washington and British Columbia said there were signs the whales may have starved to death, though whether that was because of insufficient food or disease that made them unable to eat is unknown.

Read more: http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-na-orcas28-2008oct28,0,5797232.story

---

I want an environmental president.

[GCP]

1. There are things going on in the animal world which nobody is talking about

There's going to be big die-offs as a result of that non-existent global warming :grr: :banghead: :grr: :banghead: :grr: :banghead: :grr: :banghead: :grr: :banghead: :grr: :banghead:

[StarryNite]

2. Oh, no!

:cry: :cry: :cry:

Are they sure sarah palin didn't have anything to do with it? You know how she loves to kill things.

[Frisbee]

3. I keep hoping...

She'll spot McPOW in the distance wearing a Bullwinkle hat while armed.

[kestrel91316]

4. Isn't Puget Sound one GIANT Dead Zone these days?

Orcas have to eat SOMETHING. If everything else is dead, they'll die, too.

When will we learn? When we are the only higher life left on earth?

[Barrett808]

6. Not yet, but we're on the way there.

Hood Canal is chronically hypoxic, and recently, ominous algae and bacterial mats have started forming on the floor.

The biggest threat is waterfront development, which isn't likely to be more tightly regulated in the foreseeable future. :(

[Cronopio]

7. Yes, it is.

"When will we learn? When we are the only higher life left on earth?"

When all of the profits have been taken.

:grr:

[maxsolomon]

5. they're starving from lack of salmon

overfishing & climate change. drill baby drill just worsens the GHG situation.

[Barrett808]

8. To terrify yourself with the accelerating destruction of the oceans, watch this:

Brave New Ocean
Presentation by Jeremy Jackson, Scripps Professor of Oceanography
http://progressive.atl.playstream.com/nakfi/progressive/Sackler/sackler_12_07_07/jeremy_jackson/jeremy_jackson.html

Oceans on the Precipice: Scripps Scientist Warns of Mass Extinctions and 'Rise of Slime'
Threats to marine ecosystems from overfishing, pollution and climate change must be addressed to halt downward trends
Scripps Institution of Oceanography/UC San Diego
For Immediate Release
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
http://scrippsnews.ucsd.edu/Releases/?releaseID=920

Human activities are cumulatively driving the health of the world's oceans down a rapid spiral, and only prompt and wholesale changes will slow or perhaps ultimately reverse the catastrophic problems they are facing.

Such is the prognosis of Jeremy Jackson, a professor of oceanography at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego, in a bold new assessment of the oceans and their ecological health. Publishing his study in the online early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), Jackson believes that human impacts are laying the groundwork for mass extinctions in the oceans on par with vast ecological upheavals of the past.

He cites the synergistic effects of habitat destruction, overfishing, ocean warming, increased acidification and massive nutrient runoff as culprits in a grand transformation of once complex ocean ecosystems. Areas that had featured intricate marine food webs with large animals are being converted into simplistic ecosystems dominated by microbes, toxic algal blooms, jellyfish and disease.

Jackson, director of the Scripps Center for Marine Biodiversity and Conservation, has tagged the ongoing transformation as "the rise of slime." The new paper, "Ecological extinction and evolution in the brave new ocean," is a result of Jackson's presentation last December at a biodiversity and extinction colloquium convened by the National Academy of Sciences.

"The purpose of the talk and the paper is to make clear just how dire the situation is and how rapidly things are getting worse," said Jackson. "It's a lot like the issue of climate change that we had ignored for so long. If anything, the situation in the oceans could be worse because we are so close to the precipice in many ways."

(more)

http://scrippsnews.ucsd.edu/Releases/?releaseID=920

[Mrs. Overall]

9. Very, very sad.