The true state of America's coastal and waterways: Thousands of tons of dead marine life is impacting the US every month and it's getting worse

Manatee, marine life fatalities add up
A dead manatee floated up in Anna Maria Sound Aug. 26 to the dock at the Sunrise Lane home of Holmes Beach Commissioner Judy Titsworth.
She said there were only a few dead fish on the waterway, but red tide is suspected in the manatee death.
She said a team from Mote Marine Laboratory was on its way to collect the manatee. Islander Courtesy Photo: Judy Titsworth

Below is just a handful of fish-die-offs in August which impacted the US, these catastrophes are mostly only covered by local news stations and never linked together nationally which keeps the "big picture" out of the eyes of the greater public who understandably have no idea of the carnage, our oceans and waterways are dying. 

Manatee County officials cleaned up almost 250 tons of dead fish due to Algae bloom.
This week, Manatee County officials asked volunteers to take the leading role in cleaning up the dead fish left by red tide’s assault on local beaches and waterways.
As of Monday, the county had already collected almost 250 tons of red tide-related debris left on Manatee County beaches, parks and waterways, cleaning up the majority of fish kills, officials announced during a news conference. Full story
Meanwhile, 150 miles further south 135 dead turtles, plus dolphins and manatees have been washing up since July in Sarasota, Florida. Full story
Another 100 miles further south and a week earlier 309 tons of dead fish were cleared from Sanibel beaches. Full story
On the same day, the latest numbers from Lee County officials revealed that well over 3 million pounds of fish have been removed from local coastlines.
The county reports that contractors removing fish from Lee County beaches have amassed more than 1,400 tons of fish as well as the 309 tons removed from Sanibel beaches. Full story
At the end of June hundreds of dead fish, manatees, sea turtles, eels and other marine life washed up in Boca Grande, Florida. Full story
On the West coast, Malibu Lagoon State Beach became the latest American coastal area to suffer a massive fish die-off as thousands of Mullet succumb to the heat Full story
On the 19th of August decades of chemical pollution was suspected for hundreds of dead or dying seals washed up this year in Maine Full story
Mystery surrounds thousands of dead fish in Verdigris River in Oklahoma Full story
On the 17th of August thousands of dead fish where found in Pamlico River, North Carolina. Full story
On the 12th August 2018 - Thousands of dead crabs washing up along the coast of Oregon, reason unknown. Full story

Earth has crossed its own tipping point and is creaking under the strain: Two-thirds of animals extinct by 2020! 

Animal die-off's

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The new Ebola outbreak could be the worst ever seen because area is surrounded by Ugandan Islamist militias and can't be reached

Photo johnib.wordpress.com
The new Ebola outbreak that has infected 111 people and killed 75 in the Democratic Republic of Congo since it began four weeks ago has the 'potential to be the worst ever seen'.
The agency that responds to humanitarian crises fears it will trump the pandemic of 2014, which killed 11,000 and decimated West Africa.
Virologists have repeatedly warned the situation is ‘hard to control’ because cases are in a conflict zone, roamed by armed Islamic militias.
And yesterday, Dr Tedros Adhanom, chief of the World Health Organization ramped up the warnings over its potential rapid spread.
The World Health Organization (WHO) reports the next seven to 10 days are critical in controlling the spread of the Ebola virus in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.
Its latest update reported 111 cases of Ebola, with 83 confirmed and 28 probable, including 75 deaths. The WHO reports it is continuing to rapidly scale-up its response to the Ebola outbreak in North Kivu and Ituri provinces, including in Oicha, a town difficult to reach because of security concerns.
More than 100 armed groups are operating in these areas, putting some places, known as Red Zones, off limits because of the dangers.
But, WHO spokesman Christian Lindmeier told VOA health workers have had access to all places they need to go with the help of MONUSCO, U.N. peacekeepers acting as escorts.
"Between Beni and Oicha there is a Red Zone," he said.
"Oicha, itself is not a Red Zone, but also getting to Oicha is possible with the help of MONUSCO, and we are very thankful for that."
Oicha is believed to be surrounded by Ugandan Islamist militias, who are blamed for a series of killings and abductions. Lindmeier said the next week is critical in efforts to prevent Ebola from spreading to areas that cannot be reached.
"The quicker we can respond and in which we can get to people, to talk to them about how to protect themselves, how to prevent infection, how to deal with infected family members and loved ones, the better it is for any future control," he said.
"So, the earlier we get to any place where this outbreak could possibly reach, the better."
The World Health Organization said 4,130 people have been vaccinated against Ebola, including 726 healthcare or frontline workers and more than 900 children.
It noted more than 7,000 additional doses of vaccine have been transported to Beni and more doses are in route to DRC from the United States.

Disease

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"Catastrophic" health crisis threatening many lives as nearly 20,000 people have been admitted to Iraq hospitals from polluted drinking water

Photo axisoflogic.com
Basra's health authorities said on Wednesday that more than 17,000 people have been admitted to hospitals over illnesses contracted from polluted drinking water.
There has been a surge in illnesses blamed on the lack of clean drinking water in the southern oil-rich province residents and politicians say it is a symptom of the breakdown in public services caused by corruption and years of neglect by the central government in Baghdad.
"Over 17,000 patients have been admitted to local hospitals - 2,600 are suffering from diarrhoea and the rest are suffering from issues related to stomach pains," Alaa Hashim, Basra's Health Ministry spokesman, told The National.
He said most people were treated and dispatched within hours.
"The quality of water in some areas is very poor, some areas in the province do not have access to clean water; no one can drink the water, not even animals," Mr Hashim said.
He said the ministry conducted water tests which found evidence of chemicals, ruling out any bacterial infections.
Waleed Kettan, the head of Basra's provincial council, is warning of a "catastrophic" health crisis, as hospitals in the province struggle to cope with the high number of patients.
"We have prepared [a] report that will explain the catastrophic health situation which is threatening many lives.
The cases of poisoning are being recorded due to the poor quality of water," Mr Kettan. If the central government did not take steps to eliminate the crisis, it would lead to a "disastrous catastrophe", he said.
For the past month-and-a-half, residents of the southern oil province have protested against the municipality's poor financial management, after it failed to provide adequate public services.
Some say this is entrenched in corruption.

Disease

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'We have taken the fish out of the ocean and replaced them with plastic.' The frightening condition of our dying oceans (Editorial)

Photo theleft.co
As endurance swimmer Lewis Pugh completed a 330-mile swim along the length of the English Channel from Land's End to Dover this week but it wasn't his wonderful accomplishment which made the news but the fact during his week-long swim along the south coast of the UK he hardly saw any marine life.
After completing his swim Mr Pugh took to Twitter to call on the government to urgently strengthen marine protected areas around the UK and its Overseas Territories.
In a seven-part tweet the environmental campaigner and UN Patron of the Oceans wrote: 'During this swim, I've seen virtually no wildlife-aside from a few birds, a few dolphins and one turtle.
'I have also seen plastic on every beach from Land's End to Dover.
'We have taken the fish out of the ocean and replaced them with plastic.'
In the same stretch of water French trawlers have been attacking English trawlers claiming the English boats are damaging the ocean floor forever in their bid to over-fish scallop's.
Across the pond what was once considered paradise is now a Red tide algae bloom from Tampa Bay area to the Florida Keys and is killing thousands of sea-creatures with a mass mortality never seen before in the US.
Further north another marine life disaster is unfolding in the US as dead harbour seals are washing up in large numbers around southern Maine
On the Pacific coast common murres, little seabirds have been washing up dead by the hundreds of thousands along the shores of Alaska all the way down to San Francisco for the last four years, the reason is thought to be a lack of fish along the west coast.
In 2017 marine mystery confounded residents of southwest Nova Scotia who watched thousands of dead fish, starfish, crabs, clams, scallops and lobster wash suddenly up on the shore.
Earlier this month, a sea surface sample was the warmest it has been since records began in 1916. Researchers measured a sea surface temperature of 78.6 °F, which was 0.2 °F greater than the previous record from an unusual warming event in July 1931.
These temperatures are on par with what is observed off the coast of Miami, Florida during winter months, which are known to be the warmest waters around the continental United States. Given that ocean waters in San Diego are often warmest in August, this record could again be broken later this month.
Pacific Ocean temperatures recently increased during a marine heatwave in 2014- known as the "blob" - and then an El Nino event in 2015.
 Cod populations have nose-dived joining the list of seabirds, seals, whales, salmon, sardines, starfish, dolphins and tuna along the north-west coast of the US.
According to Hal Bernton of The Seattle Times, the Gulf of Alaska cod populations appear to have nose-dived, a collapse fishery scientists believe is linked to warm water temperatures known as “the blob” that peaked in 2015.
The 2017 trawl net survey found the lowest numbers of cod on record, more than 70 per cent lower than the survey found two years earlier.
The cod decline likely resulted from the blob, a huge influx of warm Pacific Ocean water that stretched — during its 2015 peak — from the Gulf of Alaska to California’s offshore waters. Residents of Plympton, a small community in Digby County, had been finding dead herring on the shore of St. Mary's Bay for more than a month, but suddenly all other marine life started washing up dead no reason for the deaths was ever found.
Another indication to the decline of our oceans is the massive increase in jellyfish due to lack of fish who feed on them.
Increasing reports from around the world recently of swarms of jellyfish washing up on beaches is just another pointer to the incredible stress our oceans are suffering.
At its peak, 300 tons of radioactive water was leaking daily into the Pacific from the stricken Fukushima plant with no known technology to fix it.
In 2017 a study by the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa has revealed almost 50% of fish consumed on the islands of Hawai’i were contaminated with caesium 134 the radioactive finger-print of Fukushima.
While the report declines to claim the Fukushima radioactive plume has necessarily reached the Hawaiian Islands it did reach the established fishing grounds across major migratory paths northeast of the islands…
Our very own Bill Laughing Bear has been measuring and finding a huge spike of radiation in salmon and halibut along the coast and waterways of Alaska, research which has seen him taking a lot of heat and hostilities, especially from people who are commercial fishermen or into fishing tourism.
Japan's largest coral reef is 90% bleached becoming the latest victim as coral reefs are dying at a record rate around the world.
Warm seas around Australia's Great Barrier Reef have killed two-thirds of a 700-km (435 miles) stretch of coral in 2017, the worst die-off ever recorded on the World Heritage site.
Just how bad is the state of our oceans only Jehovah knows, have we crossed the tipping point?
Is there any chance of recovery?
I doubt it, man is too greedy to allow our oceans to recover.

Gary Walton

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A cat in Big Horn Wyoming has been confirmed to have been infected with the plague a year after it was found in prairie dogs

Map Wikipedia
A cat in Big Horn has been confirmed to have been infected with the plague, the state Department of Health announced [Wed 29 Aug 2018].
There are no known human cases in that area or in Wyoming as a whole.
There hasn't been a confirmed case since 2008, according to a department press release.
The cat "is known to wander outdoors," the release said.
The case comes a little over a year after the plague was found in prairie dogs in the Thunder Basin National Grassland, the 1st time the disease popped up there in more than 15 years.
"Plague is a serious bacterial infection that can be deadly for pets and for people if not treated as soon as possible with antibiotics," Alexia Harrist, state health officer and epidemiologist, said in a statement.
"The disease can be transmitted to humans from ill animals and by fleas coming from infected animals."
Department spokeswoman Kim Deti did not immediately return a request for comment late [Wed 29 Aug 2018] morning.
There have been just 6 cases of plague in humans here since 1978, according to the department.
The United States overall averages 7 human cases a year.
Signs in pets include swelling in the neck, face or ears; lack of energy; fever; chills; coughing; vomiting; diarrhoea; and dehydration.
Humans have similar symptoms, along with difficulty breathing, headaches and abdominal pain.
The department recommends using insect repellent on boots and pants in areas possibly having fleas; using flea repellent on pets; properly disposing of rodents brought home by pets; avoid exposure and contact to rodents dead or alive, and avoid areas with "unexplained rodent die-offs."

The Black Death, also known as the Great Plague, the Black Plague, or the Plague, was one of the most devastating pandemics in human history, resulting in the deaths of an estimated 75 to 200 million people in Eurasia and peaking in Europe from 1347 to 1351.
The bacterium Yersinia pestis, which results in several forms of plague, is believed to have been the cause.
The plague created a series of religious, social and economic upheavals, which had profound effects on the course of European history.
The Black Death is thought to have originated in the dry plains of Central Asia, where it travelled along the Silk Road, reaching Crimea by 1343.
From there, it was most likely carried by Oriental rat fleas living on the black rats that were regular passengers on merchant ships, spreading throughout the Mediterranean and Europe.
The Black Death is estimated to have killed 30–60% of Europe's total population.
In total, the plague may have reduced the world population from an estimated 450 million down to 350–375 million in the 14th century.
It took 200 years for the world population to recover to its previous level.
The plague recurred as outbreaks in Europe until the 19th century. Credit Wikipedia.

Is the plague on a resurgence?

Madagascar
In November 2017, a total of 2119 confirmed, probable and suspected cases of plague, including more than 200 deaths were reported by the Ministry of Health of Madagascar to the World Health Organization, WHO.
The island off the east coast of Africa is no stranger to the Bubonic Plague with small outbreaks every year, what was disturbing this year, however, was the fact most of the cases in this year's outbreak was the pneumonic plague, a more virulent form that spreads through coughing, sneezing, or spitting and is almost always fatal if untreated. 
For the 1st time, the disease long seen in the country's remote areas was largely concentrated in its 2 largest cities, Antananarivo and Toamasina.

Seychelles
As the outbreak of the plague in Madagascar continued to evolve at a pace an alarming development saw the disease arrive in the Seychelles. 
Health officials in Seychelles confirmed that 3 people tested positive for the Bubonic Plague in November.

Peru
In December 2017 Peru was the latest country to discover rats infected with the plague after the epidemic scare in Madagascar.

Russia
A ten-year-old boy in Siberia's Altai Republic contracted the bubonic plague, local medics told TASS in July 2017.
The boy was hospitalized with a high fever and tested positive for bubonic plague.
It is thought he later died.

United States
2 bears were found in California with the plague just last summer: Positive bear samples were found in 32 counties in California.
Navajo County Health Department was also urging the public to take precautions to reduce their risk of exposure to this serious disease, after being found in rodents in the Arizona county.
The Apache County Health Department recently notified the public about a new prairie dog die-off in Concho, Arizona, in August 2017.
In June 2017, two more cases of human plague were confirmed in New Mexico.
The New Mexico Department of Health said a 52-year-old woman and a 62-year-old woman were recently diagnosed with the plague.
According to health officials, the first confirmed case of the plague last year occurred in June when a 63-year-old man contracted the plague.

Canada
In July last year, Parks Canada closed off a Saskatchewan national park's remote prairie dog colony to the public after two rodents from the area tested positive for sylvatic plague — the same bacteria that causes the bubonic and pneumonic plagues in humans.

According to the World Health Organization, more than 13,000 people contracted bubonic plague in Asia, Africa and America between 2004 and 2013.
Roughly 900 of them died from the disease.
250 have died in Madagascar this year in just two and a half months, which is thought to be the biggest outbreak in 50 years.

Disease

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Hundreds of endangered olive ridley sea turtles have been found dead off the coast of Mexico experts say cause of death unknown

Photo mexiconewsdaily.com
Hundreds of endangered olive ridley sea turtles have been found dead off the coast of Mexico.
Local fishermen in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca have found about 300 dead sea turtles entangled in fishing nets although it's not sure if the turtles died in the nets or got tangled up later.
The find comes just days after another 102 olive ridley turtles were found dead in neighbouring Chiapas state.
The Olive Ridley turtles are a struggling species and are considered to be facing a high risk of extinction in the wild.
According to the BBC, it is not clear whether they got caught in the nets while still alive or were already dead when they became entangled.
The olive ridley turtles come to Mexico's Pacific beaches to lay their eggs
Experts say they could have been killed by harmful algae, fish hooks or could have suffocated while trapped in the nets.
Mexico banned the capture of sea turtles in 1990 and there are stiff penalties for anyone killing them.
A specialised federal attorney is investigating the case.


Earth has crossed its own tipping point and is creaking under the strain: Two-thirds of animals extinct by 2020! 

Animal die-off's

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Another update from Bill in Alaska: Radiation rise in Pacific fish this year is terrifying! RF Radiation from cellphone towers killing spruce trees

Photo ask.extension.org a dying spruce tree

Dear Gary and Readers of the Big Wobble,

Another couple of updates from Alaska:

We will start with the radiation salmon problem from the radioactive pollution from Fukushima. As I suspected, there was a large increase in radiation from last year to this year. As I have preciously written, there was an increase of 27% in radiation from 2012 to 2017. I found the random sampling I did this year to be terrifying! 

I decided to go catch my own salmon and test them directly as they came out of the water. Using a boat and a net, I made multiple trips on more than one day to get a large sampling. I did not keep the fish that I caught because I realized they were extremely toxic. I also monitored fish from a fish wheel. That gave me testing on two different rivers. 

For an interesting side note, I overheard two women, one who was a professor and biologist, talking in a public place about their salmon fishing. The one woman was saying that at least 3 of her family members were dying from cancer, some of them having been given just weeks to live. She was a set-netter and her family depended on salmon for part of their livelihood. I asked her if they eat the salmon they catch and she said since they like natural, organic food, they do. Her personal family consumes between 250 and 300 salmon a year. I asked her if she knew the fish were radiated? I then told her I had been monitoring salmon radiation levels and found a 27% increase in radiation since the Fukushima disaster. She said she was totally unaware the fish were radiated but thought that might explain why her family was being destroyed by cancer, especially since there was no history of cancer in her family. 

The biologist became very argumentative with me. She said, ‘you can’t use a radiation monitor for evaluation of ambient dosage of gamma radiation.’ The meter I use by Quarta, a Radex, model RD 1503, is made to test gamma radiation in homes, offices, food products, construction materials, soil and etc. She told me that was impossible, you would have to go inside the fish to get an accurate reading with a meter and if was true, the government would have alerted them. She informed me that these type of radioactive isotopes were short lived and the incident was so long ago that it could not be affecting salmon today. 

I politely told her that Fukushima was continually dumping radiation from their reactor, which they cannot control, into our ocean with no end in sight. She told me that was doubtful, the government would have told them. I find it interesting that she is a professor at a university situated next to the Pacific Ocean!

She looked at my shirt that has my dog kennel logo on it and immediately got on the phone to the authorities telling them who I was and what I was saying. We’ll see how this unfolds. I’ve been taking a lot of heat and hostilities, especially from people who are commercial fishermen or into fishing tourism. Oh, by the way, the Halibut I tested – which I did not catch – was warmer than this year’s salmon. Between the 2017 and 2018 fishing season, the average for the increased radiation in the salmon I personally caught and tested was 133% over last years. Might this explain why, on some rivers, the returning salmon’s spawning grounds were extremely low? Might this explain why people are dying of cancer? 

Onto another note: Last month I went north to pick up two new sled dogs for my team. On my return home, I stopped by to see another musher. When I pulled into their dog yard, with which I am very familiar, I saw that every one of their black spruce trees were dead! Asking them about this, they said it happened in a very short matter of weeks. They thought it could have been the Japanese bark beetle that had killed them. I was reminded that rarely were small black spruce trees killed by the beetle because they have so much sap in them, when the beetles bore in, they could drown. 100% of all their spruce trees were dead, including the small ones. 

One thing I learned in college is that if you have questions, you need to think outside the box. I noted a new cell tower that could be seen from their dog yard had just come online. Now I will tie this into my dog yard. Approximately 10 days ago I noticed that the bulk of my spruce trees, including even the smallest of trees, were starting to die off and it came on overnight. Daily the needles are becoming a more orangy-brown.  I have had healthy trees so I started checking even the small trees for the beetle with no sight of them found. 

The thought popped into my mind that maybe this was a cell tower problem. As I stated in a past writing, my GPS shows me that I am 4.8 miles from the nearest tower. I would like to remind readers of this article that scientists have shown pine needles prematurely age at .000027 micro-watts centimeter squared. I placed a call to a man who works for a major cell phone company and does cell tower repair. I have been having conversations with him about the coming 5-G cell towers. I asked him if anything had been done recently to the local cell towers because I had noticed my cell phone was working a little bit better. He said, ‘Oh, yes! Good to hear it’s working better. We’ve increased the output and frequency range of the tower closest to your cabin. The biggest plus is the addition of lower frequencies that should help you with your cell service.’ This, he said, was done all in the last couple of weeks. He informed me they were doing this to multiple cell towers all over Alaska. 

I have no way of proving it, but when I considered the dog yard up north with all of its dead spruce trees within eye sight of a new cell tower and my trees overnight seemingly start to die about the time this cell tower had changed its broadcast signal, I have to think that the RF Radiation from that tower is killing my trees. If they continue dying as the trees up north that I saw, in the next few weeks I will likely have to start dropping my forest to prevent them from becoming fuel for any potential forest fire. I am starting to document my report with pictures. 

I strongly encourage anyone who is noting such things in their personal environment to buy themselves a good meter. I suggest the German made meter by Gigahertz Solutions. I really like their meter HF 35 C. It is an awesome HF analyzer. It has a range from 800 MHz-2700 MHz. I also suggest that everyone watch the movie, “Full Signal, the Hidden Cost of Cell Phones” – a 2010 documentary by Talal Jabari or go to www.FullSignalMovie.com and watch the documentary, “Take Back Your Power” – a 2014 documentary by Josh Del Sol. Go to TAKEBACKYOURPOWER.NET. In short, between the oceans and the cell towers, I believe we are killing ourselves with radiation.

I am not an expert but I do have enough common sense to be able to do basic math and I know that 1 and 1 = 2. The common factors in this radiation equation appear to me to be quite obvious and it doesn’t take the brain of a professor or a government worker to figure it out.

Below is more information from Bill on the dangers of 5G technology

Greetings Gary and Readers of The Big Wobble,

I have been noseying around and asking a few people in the industry details about the new 5G that is used for wireless communication. I recently talked to a source in the industry whose name I will keep private in order to protect his job. He finds and maintains cell phone towers. According to him, 5G will not officially hit the market until 2020 in Alaska. It is expected to only be in larger populated communities due to their exorbitant cost. According to this source, 5G has greater bandwidth with some of the frequencies being very low.

This will enable them to handle heavier traffic with more data being transferred. He told me that for it to work correctly, due to the law of physics, the ping from the signal has to be able to transmit between the towers at no less than 1 millisecond per ping. This means the cell towers cannot be further that one mile apart (1.609344 Kilometers). 

With the cost of so many needed cell towers, it is likely Alaska would only have 5G in Anchorage, the Matanuska and Susitna Valley, as well as Fairbanks. For areas such as the one in which I live, it would not be cost effective to plug into 5G.

This is going to bring a massive increase in Electro Magnetic Radiation. This will not only greatly affect humans but animals, birds, and insects as well as vegetation. The electrifying truth is that the fuller the signal spectrum that is fed to us in this invisible toxic form, the greater the cost to this planet. 

The World Health Organization and many scientists around the world who study the effects of cellular technology on human beings are trying to get the word out, ‘We are in deep trouble.’  You will likely need to think about shielding your home, sleeping under Faraday shields, and wearing protective Faraday clothing, especially if you are an expectant mother.

I also would like to recommend the book by Kerry Crofton, Ph.D, titled, “Wireless Radiation Rescue 2012.” The book is pricey but well worth it. 

Let’s get the word out!

That’s it for now!

Bill Laughing-Bear

Bill's research page


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A mystery ball of light zoomed over parts of Western Australia exploding and baffling witnesse: Suspected meteor

Photo The Perth Observatory
A mystery ball of light zoomed over parts of Australia before exploding and baffling witnesses who shared their disbelief on social media.
A huge bang was reportedly heard by residents in Western Australia after a giant, mysterious ball of light beamed across the night sky.
Social media went nuts with reports from baffled Aussies who said the "flaming object" ominously lit up the sky at about 7.40pm local time last night.
Some said the object appeared to explode and "continuing off into the clouds".
Several residents reported hearing a "huge bang" which took place about the time there was a "flash in the sky".
Dashcams and security systems captured the spectacle and many took to social media to describe what they saw.
"(My) son saw a big ball of light fall overhead then a minute later there was a huge bang that shook our house," Kate Clare commented on a post on the York Community Resource Centre Facebook page.
"I jumped off the couch and my partner went running out the front to see who was throwing something at our window and all the neighbours did the same thing," Esmeralda Harmer said.
The Perth Observatory was inundated with footage from locals and put together a collection of images on Instagram late last night.
The suspected meteor is believed to have crashed to earth some 100km east of Perth.

xx
Space weather

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Earthquakes in divers places: Two more major quakes this morning makes August the 3rd highest count this century with 24

USGS

• August 2018 has now officially the highest count of major quakes since April 2014 with 24 according to USGS
• August is the 3rd highest this century behind April 2014 with 26 and March 2011 (Fukushima) with 73

Two more major quakes were recorded last night, a powerful mag 7.1 rocked southeast of the Loyalty Islands, following a mag 6.4 strike at the Anatahan region, Northern Mariana Islands.
A tsunami wave was observed following the M7.1 earthquake in 22.1 south and 169.9 east.
The earthquake hypocenter was 10 km / 6 miles depth.
The observed tsunami wave height was 27 cm (not dangerous level).
There is currently no information on damage or injuries.
Today's major quakes bring the total in August to 24, easily the most in one month this year with the annual total to 74 so far.

Quakes

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Malibu Lagoon State Beach is the latest American coastal area to suffer a massive fish die-off as thousands of Mullet succumb to the heat

Photo ABC7.com

The California State Parks Department said the massive fish die-off along the Malibu Lagoon State Beach is most likely a jump in water temperatures.
Thousands of dead mullet and smelt fish are now rotting along the shoreline causing an unbelievable bad smell causing locals and tourists alike to stay away from the beach.
According to ABC7.com,  parks employees armed with rakes and protective suits were removing the dead fish Monday morning.
The department was trucking the fish out to a local landfill.
Wildlife experts said the cause of the die-off is most likely a jump in water temperatures, which are now in the mid-80 degree range.
"What we've had is many days in a row of warm, sunny weather," said Superintendent Craig Sap, with the California State Parks Angeles District. "Here at the coast, we usually have weather that is foggier and keeps the temperature down, but that's just the working theory right now."
Sap said oxygen levels in the lagoon are right where they should be, but several of the fish have been sent to labs to check for other reasons for the die-off.
"It's a very specific test they're taking as far as the water is concerned," he said. "It may take a week or two."
In the meantime, the popular beach is not so popular anymore. Some tourists gave up on Malibu for other beaches.
"I live here but my mom is visiting and I want to show her the beach," said Laury Renault, of France. "But the smell is just (bad). We just cannot stay. It's unbearable!"

Earth has crossed its own tipping point and is creaking under the strain: Two-thirds of animals extinct by 2020! 

Animal die-off's

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Israel is the latest of a growing number of countries struggling with drought as experts claim it is the longest in more than a hundred years

ynetnews.com

Water Authority chief Giora Shaham says Israel suffering longest drought in a century and that water consumption will have to be limited if another dry year follows.
Israel has been experiencing the most consecutive drought years in more than a century, Israel Water Authority director Giora Shaham said on Sunday.
He noted that two islands have already arisen in Lake Kinneret due to the dropping water levels, and one of them is expected to merge with the surrounding land.
Shaham said that in order to cope with the ongoing drought, the authority will build a system of pipelines that will bring water to Lake Kinneret from the Eshkol Reservoir in the Lower Galilee.
The water authority will have to take further measures to limit water consumption if there is another drought year.
These could include limits on the watering of private and public gardens.
"I won't let the groundwater levels in Israel fall below the red lines as happened in Gaza," Shaham said.
Another measure being taken by the authority is increasing the amount of purified wastewater produced in the area of Tel Aviv and surrounding cities.
Shaham says that this year the authority could supply close to 10 million cubic meters of water for agricultural irrigation, primarily in the area near the Gaza border.
"According to our forecast, the amount of precipitation this coming winter will be average, but that is just a forecast," he said.
Shaham also said that the water authority is readying tenders to build two large desalination plants that would be added to the existing ones.
One would be in the Nahal Soreq area and the other likely near Mahaneh Shraga, north of Acre.
He said that at full capacity, the Mekorot desalination facility in Ashdod produces 100 million cubic meters per year, but that it is in need of repairs that will costs 200 million shekels (over $55 million). The authority aims to sell the facility to another developer who will also carry out the needed repairs, he added.
Shaham also said that the authority continues to send an influx of water to the streams in the Golan Heights in order to reduce the pollution that causes leptospirosis to spread, though he expressed some skepticism about the move's effectiveness.

Climate Change

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They keep on a-comin' Yet another major quake the 22nd of August as a powerful shallow Mag 6.2 rocks the Timor region Indonesia

USGS

• We have to go back to back to September 2015 the last time we had more than 22 major quakes in one month when 23 was registered.

A magnitude 6.2 - 99km SE of Kupang, Indonesia is the 22nd major quake of August and the 72nd of 2018 and the 5th in the Indonesia area this month.
The quake comes as Earth's magnetic field is quieting, finally, almost 48 hours after a surprisingly strong geomagnetic storm sparked auroras seen from the Arctic Circle to the continental USA.
August has seen a plethora of major quakes and volcanic activity, unprecedented in my years as a blogger and the quakes keep coming...
According to Spaceweather.com, a strong G3-class geomagnetic storm has been in progress since Aug. 26th as Earth passes through the wake of a CME that arrived with little fanfare as it was unexpected. 
Strong magnetic fields in the CME's wake have opened a crack in Earth's magnetosphere, allowing solar wind to enter and causing seismic and volcanic disturbances, (IMHO)
Once again the quakes come as our Earth is inside a stream of solar wind flowing from a massive coronal hole.

An incredible surge of major quakes has hit the planet in the last two weeks after an incredible low count this year up to the beginning of August when a flurry of major quakes have been registered around the world coming entirely out of the blue.

The surge of major quakes does, however, coincide with three enormous coronal holes which have been spewing solar wind at the Earth's magnetosphere during the same period of the quake flurry.

 Just two weeks ago 2018 was on course to register the lowest count of major quakes this century.

 A flurry of major quakes has been registered in a two week period when a massive coronal disturbance on our Sun has ejected a stream of solar wind from two giant holes on our Sun's atmosphere.
Today's major quakes bring the total in August to 22, easily the most in one month this year with the annual total to 72 so far.
Along with the quake activity August has seen an uptick in volcano activity too, the volcano on Papua New Guinea's Manam Island erupted again as well as Mount Etna the most famous and biggest volcano in Europe.
Earlier in the month, Japan's Meteorological Agency said volcanic earthquakes and sulphur emissions had increased at a peak on Kuchinoerabujima island, located roughly 1000km southwest of Tokyo.
Nearly two dozen quakes at the gigantic Katla volcano in Iceland had experts worried this month which is long overdue for an eruption and the deadly Fuego volcano in Guatemala which killed 300 causing thousands to be evacuated two months ago erupted yet again on in early August.
At the beginning of the month, the Karymsky Volcano Kamchatka in eastern Russia exploded plumes of ash spreading almost 100 km
And on the 1st of August Mexican colossus the Popocatepetl volcano spewed ash and smoke two kilometres high threatening 30 million people.

Quakes

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Burn Baby Burn-July was 403rd consecutive month with global temperatures above average and the 4th hottest on record: NOAA

Photo csgo.gamebanana.com
It may come as a surprise for many people living in the Northern Hemisphere this summer but July 2018 was only the 4th warmest on record, according to NOAA's monthly report.
Heatwaves in July were reported from Canada, U.S. UK, Ireland, Europe, Russia, Japan and the Korean peninsula as the Northern Hemisphere baked in what appeared to be endless sunshine, in my part of the world Holland we didn't have a meaningful drop of rain during July as most days climbed well above 30 deg C, well into the 90's deg F.
Heat records around the world to tumbled daily as climate change became all so real.
It started in Canada, residents in the Toronto area had to endure a humidex temp which pushed into the mid-40s deg C (113 deg F) which resulted in the deaths of almost 100 people.
Southern California witnessed a heat wave that forecasters correctly predicted would be one for the record books, with widespread triple-digit highs which resulted in the biggest wildfire in California's history.
On July the 5th some experts claimed Africa's hottest temperature was reached when the mercury hit an incredible 51.3 deg C, (124.3 deg F) Ouargla in Algeria.
As Japan mourned the death of more than 200 flood victims 65 more people died and thousands taken to hospital from their crippling heatwave.
Temperatures surged above 40 degrees Celsius (104 deg Fahrenheit).
Sweden joined the global heatwave when temperatures climbed well above 30C which experts claimed was "very unusual!"
South Korea joined the global heat wave party when their highest-ever morning low was recorded in the city of Gangneung, where the temperature was 31°C at 6.45am.
The morning low in Seoul was 29.2° C, a record for the country's capital, according to South Korea's weather agency.
The mercury hit 41 deg°C (107 deg F) in the south-eastern town of Hayang, the highest temperature in the country so far in 2018 and killed 30 people.
Parts of the UK were experiencing heatwave conditions, with temperatures heading towards 37C (90F) - and was set to rise higher and Germany braced itself for sweltering temperatures that reached 36 degrees Celsius (96.8 Fahrenheit) in some places.
Meanwhile, Spain and Portugal were expected to smash the hottest temperature ever recorded in Europe when temperatures approached 50 deg C (120 deg F) in some parts of Southern Spain and Portugal.
The current European record is 48C (118.4F) set in Athens in July 1977.

So the only the 4th warmest July on record does come as some kind of a shock, below are NOAA's report broken down into highlights.

July 2018 was 4th warmest July on record for the globe.

Polar sea ice coverage remains smaller than normal.

Scorching temperatures broke heat records around the world last month, which ranked as the fourth warmest July on record. 

Excessive warmth during the first seven months of 2018 made it the fourth warmest year to date for the planet.

Here’s a breakdown of NOAA’s latest monthly global climate analysis.

Climate by the numbers

July 2018

The average global temperature in July was 1.35 degrees F above the 20th-century average of 60.4 degrees. 

This was the fourth highest for July in the 139-year record (1880–2018). 

Last month was also the 42nd consecutive July and the 403rd consecutive month with temperatures above average.

The year to date // January through July

The year-to-date average global temperature was 1.39 degrees F above the average of 56.9 degrees. This is 0.48 of a degree lower than the record high set in 2016 for the same YTD period.

Other notable climate facts and stats

Record warmth spanned continents and oceans

The globally averaged land-surface temperature was fifth highest on record for July and the fourth highest for the YTD (January–July) period.

The globally averaged sea-surface temperature was sixth highest on record for July and the fourth highest for the year to date.

Areas around the world experienced record warmth, including Scandinavia and the surrounding Arctic Ocean, northwest Africa, parts of southern Asia and the southwest United States. 

Europe had its second-warmest July on record.

Record warm YTD temperatures prevailed across parts of the world’s oceans and Mediterranean Sea, New Zealand, as well as smaller areas of North and South America and Asia. 

Africa, Asia, Europe and Oceania had TYD temperatures that ranked in the sixth highest on record.

Polar sea ice coverage remains smaller than normal

The average Arctic sea ice coverage (extent) in July was 13.2 per cent below the 1981–2010 average, making it the ninth-smallest extent for July on record.

The Antarctic sea ice extent last month was 1.9 per cent below average, the eighth smallest on record for July. Antarctic sea ice coverage did expand at a rate faster than average during the first half of July but slowed later in the month.

More > Access NOAA's monthly climate reports and download our related maps and images.

Climate Change

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The major quakes keep on comin' a deadly mag 6.1 hits Iran and a mag 6.0 rocks Alaska as major quake and volcanic activity continues

USGS

• 21 major quakes in August is more than double the total of any month this year.
• We have to go back to April 2016 the last time we had more than 21 major quakes in one month when 22 was registered.
• August so far has seen 7 volcano eruptions or showing seismic activity

August has seen a plethora of major quakes and volcanic activity, unprecedented in my years as a blogger and the quakes keep coming...
Three earthquakes including a magnitude 6.1 major quake have struck western Iran, with state media reporting at least two people killed and 241 injured.
The U.S. Geological Survey says two other earthquakes, measuring 4.4 and 4.2 magnitude, struck early Sunday near the city of Javanrud in Iran's Kermanshah province.
State TV reported the toll, citing Reza Mahmoudian, a governorate official.
The state-run IRNA news agency says one of the two killed was a 70-year-old man who died of a heart attack during the earthquakes.
Iran is prone to earthquakes. Last November, a major 7.3 magnitude earthquake struck the same region, killing over 530 people and injuring thousands.
Meanwhile last night a magnitude 6.0 - 22km SSE of Amukta Island, Alaska is the second to hit the area since Thursday and the 4th major quake to hit Alaska this month.
According to Spaceweather.com, a strong G3-class geomagnetic storm is in progress on Aug. 26th as Earth passes through the wake of a CME that arrived with little fanfare approximately 24 hours ago. Strong magnetic fields in the CME's wake have opened a crack in Earth's magnetosphere, allowing solar wind to enter and causing seismic and volcanic disturbances, (IMHO)
Once again the quakes come as our Earth is inside a stream of solar wind flowing from a massive coronal hole.

An incredible surge of major quakes has hit the planet in the last two weeks after an incredible low count this year up to the beginning of August when a flurry of major quakes have been registered around the world coming entirely out of the blue.

The surge of major quakes does, however, coincide with three enormous coronal holes which have been spewing solar wind at the Earth's magnetosphere during the same period of the quake flurry.

 Just two weeks ago 2018 was on course to register the lowest count of major quakes this century.

 A flurry of major quakes has been registered in a two week period when a massive coronal disturbance on our Sun has ejected a stream of solar wind from two giant holes on our Sun's atmosphere.
Today's major quakes bring the total in August to 21, easily the most in one month this year with the annual total to 71 so far.
Along with the quake activity August has seen an uptick in volcano activity too, yesterday the volcano on Papua New Guinea's Manam Island erupted again as well as Mount Etna the most famous and biggest volcano in Europe.
Earlier in the month, Japan's Meteorological Agency said volcanic earthquakes and sulphur emissions had increased at a peak on Kuchinoerabujima island, located roughly 1000km southwest of Tokyo.
Nearly two dozen quakes at the gigantic Katla volcano in Iceland had experts worried this month which is long overdue for an eruption and the deadly Fuego volcano in Guatemala which killed 300 causing thousands to be evacuated two months ago erupted yet again on in early August.
At the beginning of the month, the Karymsky Volcano Kamchatka in eastern Russia exploded plumes of ash spreading almost 100 km
And on the 1st of August Mexican colossus the Popocatepetl volcano spewed ash and smoke two kilometres high threatening 30 million people.

  Quakes

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The biggest colony of king penguins on the planet has collapsed 90% of the population gone-scientists fear the decline will continue

Photo eurekalert.org
The biggest colony of king penguins on the planet has collapsed, with nearly 90 per cent of the population vanishing since the 1980s, ecologists said.
The colony was first discovered in the Sixties on Ile aux Cochons, also known as Pig Island, in the southern Indian Ocean, between Madagascar and Antarctica.
At its peak, it contained two million birds and 500,000 breeding pairs, but new satellite images have shown an empty landscape, in which 88 per cent of the colony appears to have vanished.
Although nobody has set foot on the island since 1982, photographs taken from a helicopter during a recent flyover show that there could be just 60,000 breeding pairs left, and scientists fear the decline will continue.
"It is completely unexpected, and particularly significant since this colony represented nearly one-third of the king penguins in the world," said research leader Dr Henri Weimers-kirch, an ecologist at the Centre for -Biological Studies in Chize, France.
King penguins do not make a nest, but lay one egg at a time and carry it around on their feet.
Parents take turns incubating the egg, switching every couple of weeks over two months. They are currently listed as a species "of least concern" on the Red List of Threatened Species but that now may be re-evaluated after the dramatic loss. The cause of the population collapse remains a mystery, with scientists speculating that climate fluctuations or disease could be to blame. In 1997, a particularly strong El Nino weather event pushed the fish and squid on which king penguins depend further south, beyond their foraging range. Researchers plan to mount future field studies on the island to test animals for infection and so see if disease may be wiping out the birds. The latest findings are published in the journal Antarctic Science.

Earth has crossed its own tipping point and is creaking under the strain: Two-thirds of animals extinct by 2020!

Animal die-off's

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August plethora of major quakes and volcanic activity continues as Papua New Guinea's Manam Island volcano erupts: Plans to evacuate

Photo Wikipedia
August has seen a plethora of major quakes and volcanic activity, unprecedented in my years as a blogger.
The volcano on Papua New Guinea's Manam Island has erupted again.
Manam, which lies off the coast of Madang Province, is one of PNG's most active volcanoes, last erupting in April 2017.
The eruption started in the early hours of this morning, and villagers there have reported thick ashfall and flashes of lava from the summit.
Sunlight has been blocked for much of the day.
A resident told PNG Loop that some of the island's people are planning to evacuate to the mainland. In 2004, a major eruption forced the evacuation of some 9,000 people from the island.
Many of them still reside at a camp on the outskirts of Madang.

Volcanoes

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Mount Etna the most famous and biggest volcano in Europe erupts-spewing plumes of ash and lava high into the Sicilian sky

#etna #eruzione #vulcanoetna
Mount Etna, the famous Sicilian volcano, has erupted for the first time in more than a year.
The highest volcano in Europe burst into life on Monday evening and continued to produce fountains of bright orange lava into Tuesday.
Mount Etna has roared back into spectacular volcanic action, sending up plumes of ash and spewing lava.
Italy's National Institute of Geophysics and Vulcanology (INGV) says that the volcano, which initially "re-awoke" in late July, sprang into fuller action Thursday evening by shooting up chunks of flaming lava as high as 150 metres (500 feet) almost constantly.
On Friday, INGV said the action was continuing, feeding ash plumes several hundred meters (yards) into the air above the crater.
No evacuations of towns on Etna's slopes were reported. Sicilians farm on the fertile soils of the slopes of Etna.
The volcano is also a popular destination for hikers on the Mediterranean island.

xx

Volcanoes

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BOOM! An incredible surge of major quakes continues: A massive magnitude 7.1 - rocks Peru! Pacific Rim on fire

USGS
The next major quake has arrived, a massive magnitude 7.1 - 138km WNW of Iberia, Peru has been reported by USGS.
Incredibly our planet is under an avalanche of major quakes in the last three weeks after a record low number up to August, when suddenly a plethora of major quakes hit our planet and most of them, not surprisingly hit the Pacific Rim, today's powerful quake being no exception.
According to Reuters, there were no immediate reports of damage, though social media users said tremors had been felt across the country and as far away as Arica in northern Chile.
Two strong shocks struck Pucallpa, a Peruvian town northwest of the epicentre, according to Twitter postings by several residents.
No tsunami warning was issued by the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, and Chile’s fire service said on Twitter that the quake did not have the potential to generate one off the Chilean coast.
Once again the quakes come as our Earth is inside a stream of solar wind flowing from a massive coronal hole.

An incredible surge of major quakes has hit the planet in the last two weeks after an incredible low count this year up to the beginning of August when a flurry of major quakes have been registered around the world coming entirely out of the blue.

The surge of major quakes does, however, coincide with two enormous coronal holes which have been spewing solar wind at the Earth's magnetosphere during the same period of the quake flurry.

 Just two weeks ago 2018 was on course to register the lowest count of major quakes this century.

 A flurry of major quakes has been registered in a two week period when a massive coronal disturbance on our Sun has ejected a stream of solar wind from two giant holes on our Sun's atmosphere.
Today's major quake bring the total in August to 20, easily the most in one month this year with the annual total to 71 so far.

Quakes

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European heatwave has caused rat explosion with rodents carrying the notorious rat flea and harbours up to 70 diseases in German cities

Photo wdfw.wa.gov 
Highs in the mid-30s (+/-95°F) mixed with unsanitary conditions and lack of water have made Germany's major cities the perfect breeding ground for rats.
German publication Bild reports that Berlin has a particularly bad rat problem that began long before the European heatwave.
Sylvia Kostner from the State Office for Health and Social Affairs said the Capital's rat problem started five years ago.
She explained: "That's why in 2017 we had to put more than 10,000 control measures in place for the first time."
She goes on to explain that Germany's pest problem has exterminators "overworked".
Ms Kostner also said the issue has also been brought on by people having BBQs and picnics and leaving old food behind instead of clearing up after themselves.
In Leipzig, south-west of Berlin, Katja Gläß of the local waterworks said a major drought was making the rat problem even worse.
She said: "Due to the little rain, the retreat spaces of the rats in the sewers remain dry."
She explained that in the summertime rodents hide in the sewers to cool off and feast but that during the winter, rising water levels underground can turn it into a death trap for pests that drown there. This has become such a massive issue for the nation, authorities are in talks to hook up cameras inside the sewers to find out exactly where the rats are coming from.
They hope that in doing this they can conjure up a poison to kill them all off.
But outside Germany's labyrinth sewage system rats are thriving.
Females in particular are extremely versatile and can give birth to a litter of up to 18 cubs up to eight times a year.
They are also known to survive on things other than food such as paper, beeswax and even soap. Their extraordinary good sense of smell makes them masters at sniffing out food.
With more than 1,000 tiny receptors in the nose, the critters have a far better sense of smell than dogs. The rat plague in Germany is particularly dangerous as rats carry the notorious rat flea.
These creepy crawlies can harbour up to 70 different diseases.

Environment

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