As millions of dead birds are reported across wide swaths of New Mexico, Colorado, Nebraska, Arizona and Texas it is the tip of the iceberg! Millions of birds are dying because there simply is no more food for them to eat everything is dying off from fish to insects.

Photo credit Rory McLeod. Dead fish at Lake Pamamaroo in the Menindee Lakes System 

As wildfires roared from California to Colorado killing all wildlife in its path and a historic cold snap rushed through the Rocky Mountain region earlier this month, a strange thing started happening: Huge numbers of migratory birds began dropping dead. Normally, birds don't just die in plain sight. But the winged creatures are being found on bike paths and roads, hiking trails and driveways as if they plopped down from the sky. So what's going on?

Researchers are scrambling to explain why hundreds of thousands, maybe even millions, of birds, are suddenly being found dead across wide swaths of New Mexico, Colorado, Nebraska, Arizona and Texas in recent weeks - an event that could be one of the region's largest bird die-offs in recent memory. "Bird die-offs happen, but one doesn't often see this sort of scale in space and time at all," said Andrew Farnsworth, a senior research associate at the Cornell University Lab of Ornithology. "It seems unprecedented to me."

The phenomenon could be due to a confluence of factors, researchers say, including extreme heat and drought throughout the West; plunging temperatures mixed with snow early in the season; and massive wildfires that changed migration patterns or caused birds to inhale too much carbon monoxide.

Regardless of the reason, experts say the sudden deaths could impact bird species that are already seeing precipitous declines in population over the past 50 years as their habitat disappears and climate changes transform the ecosystem. It appears the birds were two-thirds the weight of what they should be, just skin and bones, which reminded me of another catastrophic bird die-off involving American birds late last year.

"What we are seeing is just the tip of the iceberg" Thousands of short-tailed shearwaters migrating from Alaska have been washing up on Sydney's iconic beaches but the death rate of Alaskan seabirds is unprecedented

Thousands of short-tailed shearwaters migrating from Alaska have been washing up on Sydney's iconic beaches late last year, with who knows how many more dying out at sea in what could be confirmation of incredible fish shortages in the Pacific Ocean. The corpses have been spotted at several shorelines including Bondi, Manly and Cronulla. The birds are migrating back to southern Australia to breed after spending the summer in Alaska. But, according to experts, a higher number than usual are dying on the way due to a lack of food. The birds need to be at full strength to make the 14,000km trip over the Pacific but the krill and other fish they feed on have apparently dwindled due to sea temperatures rising.

BirdLife Australia has rendered the problem a 'crisis'. In a statement on its website, the group says: 'For the fifth consecutive year, the sea surface temperatures off Alaska have been unusually warm, which has led to a dire shortage of the shearwaters' marine prey, resulting in thousands of dead shearwaters being washed ashore along Alaska's beaches. 'According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, they died of starvation. 'It wasn't a single event, though; instead, it was a series of catastrophic die-offs. 'Starting in late June, these die-offs continued along different sections of the Alaskan coast, occurring progressively further south, through into August. 'Numerous shearwaters also washed up on Russia's Chukotka Peninsula as well. 'Although many thousands of birds were found dead and dying on the beach, this is likely the tip of the iceberg as the majority of the birds will have died out at sea.'  

It is the tip of the iceberg!

2019 Alaska Seabird Die-off

Date: September 9, 2019

Contact: Andrea Medeiros, FWS

Contact: Peter Christian, NPS

ANCHORAGE, Alaska—In May 2019, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and the National Park Service (NPS) began receiving reports of dead and dying seabirds from the northern Bering and Chukchi seas, including near Bering Land Bridge National Preserve.

From late June to early August, thousands of Short-tailed Shearwaters were reported dead and washing up on beaches in the Bristol Bay region, or observed weak and attempting to feed on salmon gillnets in inland waters. By mid-August, the shearwater die-off had extended north, in smaller numbers but widespread locations, into the northern Bering and Chukchi seas along the coasts of Alaska and the Chukotka Peninsula of Russia. Puffins, murres, and auklets are also being reported, but at much lower numbers than shearwaters.

Additionally, live Short-tailed Shearwaters have been observed in large numbers this August in the Gulf of Alaska, along the coasts of Glacier Bay and Kenai Fjords national parks, and bays of Kodiak Island. It is unusual to see this species in high abundance in these areas, as it is typically offshore and comes from the southern hemisphere to forage in the Bering and Chukchi seas during the summer and fall.

Photo credit adn.com

Historically, seabird die-offs have occurred occasionally in Alaska; however, large die-off events have occurred each year since 2015. (TBW Quote: millions of small dead sea birds have been reported dead annually since 2015, this year it's Short-tailed Shearwaters but recent years have seen puffins, murres, and auklets dying thought to be due to starvation).  

Consistently, dead birds examined from the Bering and Chukchi seas during these recent die-offs were determined to have died due to starvation. Seabird carcasses from the 2019 die-off events were collected from multiple locations and sent to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) National Wildlife Health Center for examination and testing. Initial results indicate starvation as the cause of death for most locations. However, in southeast Alaska, exposure to saxitoxin (a biotoxin associated with paralytic shellfish poisoning) was linked in June to a localized die-off of breeding Arctic Terns.

The Big Wobble has been reporting an unprecedented seabird die-off in Alaska and Canada since 2015.

Climate change is considered by scientists as a significant contributor to seabird declines with reports of British species such as terns and kittiwakes facing an uncertain future as sea temperatures rise. Puffins, in particular, have suffered enormous losses in recent years and a report from the International Union for Conservation of Nature in April warned the iconic species was at risk of extinction.

Thousands of dead seabirds have been found washed ashore on sites from islands in the Bering Sea to villages north of the Bering Strait, signs of another large die-off in the warmed-up waters of the North Pacific Ocean. (The actual numbers will be in the millions as most will die at sea.) The dead birds are mostly northern fulmars and short-tailed shearwaters, species that migrate long distances to spend summers in waters off Alaska and other northern regions, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reported.

Also in the mix are some kittiwakes, murres and auklets, the federal agency said.
The cause is being investigated. Necropsies so far show that the birds are emaciated - with no food in their stomachs or intestines and little or no fat on their bodies.
"Right now, we know that they are starving to death and can't hold their heads above water, and they're drowning," said Ken Stenek, a teacher in Shishmaref and volunteer in a program that monitors seabirds.

The precise toll is unclear.

The new die-off follows a massive loss of common murres in 2015 and 2016, 2017 and 2018, the biggest murre die-off on record in Alaska, and a precursor to near-total reproductive failures for murres in the Gulf of Alaska and Bering.
It also follows the deaths of thousands of puffins found last fall on St. Paul Island in the Pribilofs and, prior to that, mass deaths of murres and auklets along the U.S. West Coast.

In each death wave, starving birds have left emaciated carcasses, and each wave has been associated with unusually warm marine waters. The University Of Aberdeen has issued the latest depressing news of a catastrophic die-off, this time the unfortunate species is the world's seabirds.

Due to overfishing, habitat destruction and pollution, populations have dropped by an incredible 70% since the 1970s, (can you imagine if the worlds human population fell by 70% in just 50 years?) Scientists compared two time periods – 1970 to 1989 and 1990 to 2010 – to assess the degree of competition seabirds faced for prey species such as anchovy, mackerel and squid.

According to the Independent, the team then estimated the annual consumption of those prey species for nearly 300 varieties of seabird, based on population counts and models. This was then compared to annual catches by fishing boats as contained in the Sea Around Us world database. The scientists found that the total annual seabird consumption decreased from 70 to 57 millions of tonnes over the study period, while annual fishery catches increased from 59 to 65 millions tonnes over the same period.

"Our research shows, that despite the decline of the world seabird community between 1970-1989 and 1990-2010, competition with fisheries remained sustained," said the study's lead author Dr Aurore Ponchon from the University of Aberdeen."This competition was even enhanced in almost half the oceans."This enhanced competition, in addition to other factors such as pollution, predation by invasive species on chicks, the destruction and changes in their habitat by human activities and environmental changes caused by climate change, puts seabirds at risk, making them the most threatened bird group.” She added: "This study calls for improved management of the world's fisheries to alleviate competition pressure on seabird populations."

In many places, there are simply no fish left!

Salmon-fishing. Scotland was the best place in the world for salmon fishing but some beats on famous rivers like the Spey and the Nith recorded not a single salmon caught during the entire season of 2019.

Record warm summers in the Pacific Northwest are adding to the threats facing salmon. According to the Weather Channel, the salmon was said not to have stood a chance and became "cooked" in rivers and streams during the summer of 2019. The salmon population is already in drastic decline due to overfishing, habitat loss and pollution.

Now higher temperatures in rivers and streams are killing adult salmon before they can even reproduce. Dwindling winter snowpack is also shrinking rivers and streams.
Fish Hatchery workers report seeing more perish in the stream beds before they can spawn.

The federal government has issued a disaster declaration for Alaska's pink salmon fishery and several other salmon and crab fisheries along the West Coast. Gov.
Bill Walker requested the declaration after the 2017 pink salmon harvests in Kodiak, Prince William Sound, Chignik and lower Cook Inlet came in far below forecast, the Alaska Journal of Commerce reported. The disaster declaration granted by U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker gave Kodiak and the other Alaska fisheries the ability to seek disaster relief assistance from Congress because of the unexpected large decreases in salmon returns. Full story

Oyster fishermen are saying 100 per cent of what they dredge up is coming up dead, which is not only a serious hit to their livelihoods but could have lasting impacts for years to come. Fishermen will tell you part of the draw of the job is just being out on the water, but the waters near the Biloxi marsh are a little too quiet.

"North, east, west, there's usually someone harvesting someone trawling you don't see nothing, there's not one person out here," said oyster fisherman, Gregory Perez.
Gregory Perez says he's worked for years building and tending to these acres of water, or his private oyster leases. Full story

Last summer, thousands of dead mussels, their shells gaping and scorched and their meats thoroughly cooked along a 150 mile stretch of northern Californian coastline.
According to the Guardian, a record-breaking June heatwave apparently caused the largest die-off of mussels in at least 15 years at Bodega Head, a small headland on the northern California bay, with a similar mass mussel deaths at various beaches across roughly 150 miles of coastline.

While the people who flocked to the Pacific to enjoy a rare 80F beach day soaked up the sun, so did the mussel beds – where the rock-bound molluscs experienced temperatures above 100F at low tide, literally roasting in their shells.

In 2011 reports from scientists revealed starfish were melting, and shellfish populations were breaking down from Alaska all the way down to Mexico.
The die-off affects the rest of the seashore ecosystem. “Mussels are known as a foundation species. The equivalent is the trees in a forest – they provide shelter and habitat for a lot of animals, so when you impact that core habitat it ripples throughout the rest of the system. Full story

The enormity of the problem is hard to get one's head around: Untold millions of tons of wildlife died in 2019 from natural disasters, extreme weather events, disease, famine: Radiation officially reported.

• Untold millions of deaths, all are official reports
• Record numbers of dolphins, whales, shark and turtles
• The sad demise of Alaska's sea birds
• Hundreds of millions of pigs dead, a quarter of the world's population due to disease
• A study showed an increase in levels of Fukushima-related contamination off the shores of Alaska
• A study by the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa revealed almost 50% of fish consumed on the islands of Hawai’i were contaminated with caesium 134 the radioactive finger-print of Fukushima. 
• The report also showed that migrating organisms can transport the Fukushima-signature (caesium 134) over significant distances as they showed detectable 134Cs (6.3±1.5 Bq/kg) in Pacific bluefin tuna caught off the California coast only a year after the incident. 
• Another study found caesium 134 in longfin tuna (Albacore) along the western coast of the US just one year after the Fukushima disaster.
• High levels of radiation had been monitored in giant clams close to the Central Pacific site where the United States entombed waste from nuclear testing almost four decades ago
• Red tide killed 267 tons of marine life off the Southwest coast of Florida.
• Scotland's worst salmon season ever. Some beats on famous rivers like the Spey and the Nith recorded not a single salmon caught during the entire season.
• December, extremely low cod numbers lead feds to close the Gulf of Alaska fishery for the first time ever. 
• Chinook mortality has lead to a North Coast fall salmon angling closure.

We have already been warned a couple of years ago that by 2020, there will be a 70% decline in all wildlife since 1980. What happened in 2019 was astonishing, the deaths of wildlife were extraordinary, to say the least. Untold millions of tons of species killed from natural disasters, extreme weather events, disease, famine and for the first time official reports on links to radiation poisoning, in the Pacific.  

My report begins in January 2019, and not for the first time we start with an Australian tragedy just days into the new year. Millions of fish died in western NSW as drought conditions continued to grip the state during the beginning of January 2019. The fish-kill was blamed on a sharp cool change which hit the region following a period of very hot weather. Worse was to come, thousands of birds died at one of Western Australia's most important inland wetlands, the cause of deaths remains a mystery, however, the dead birds appeared in poor conditions with low body weights”.

Just a week later, Record high temperatures devastated bat colonies across South Australia's state capital, Adelaide. Thousands of flying foxes were dropping from trees dead. Extreme heat which had hit the southern state in January, with the mercury at a decade-high of 46.6 degrees centigrade in the capital was the reason the flying foxes had died.

Deaths of wild horses were discovered near Santa Teresa were blamed on the extreme heat. The mass die-off occurred at a dry waterhole in central Australia another 50 had to be culled because of poor health. At the same time, hundreds of thousands of dead fish were found floating in the Murray-Darling Basin. Port Augusta was the hottest place in South Australia when the temperature hit 49.5C, (122 deg F) which was thought to be the reason the fish died.

The disaster was not over, in the first week of February, authorities began to realise the extent of the record-breaking floods in Queensland after more than a year's rain fell in just seven days. According to Reuters, authorities planned to drop fodder to stranded cattle in Australia’s flooded far north were vast parts of the outback was under-water, livestock losses were estimated to be in the hundreds of thousands. 

“We’ve had a year and a half of rainfall in about seven days,” cattle grazier Michael Bulley told Reuters by phone from Bindooran Station west of Julia Creek in Queensland’s outback. Bulley said he flew over his three properties by helicopter and saw water stretching for miles in each direction. He estimated up to 60 per cent of the cattle he had fed through the drought had been killed by the flooding. “It’s devastated the country...there’s stock dead everywhere,” he said. “Not just cattle, it’s sheep, kangaroos, wild pigs, they’ve all died and suffered from it.”

Of course, it is well known that 3 billion animals were killed or injured during the unprecedented fires of the 2019/20 season along with almost 25% of Australia's temperate forests torched.

Another report in January 2019, claimed the Florida red tide outbreak which began in 2017 had killed more sea turtles than any previous single red tide event on record, and manatee deaths were not far behind. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, (FWC) attributed 589 sea turtles and 213 manatee deaths to this episode of red tide, which began in late 2017. The red tide outbreak had also killed 127 bottlenose dolphins as of the beginning of 2019, leading the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to declare an unusual mortality event.

Combined manatee deaths from red tide, human actions, cold stress and other causes was at 824, according to the preliminary FWC report. Apart from the manatee, sea turtles and bottlenose dolphins deaths, it is thought billions of fish and countless birdlife had also died. Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission came up with an official number of deaths during that period, they claimed the red tide had killed 267 tons of marine life, however, I covered the entirety of the red tide outbreak and believe me, 267 tons is a very conservative estimate.

In the first week of February, scientists were trying to find out why some 20,000 guillemots had died suddenly along the Dutch coast where I live. The birds were all emaciated from lack of food. Mardik Leopold, a seabird expert from Wageningen University in Holland, said the figure of 20,000 dead guillemots was based on educated guesswork and many thousands more would have died out at sea. Mr Leopold blamed the deaths on starvation, a theme which arises many many times with sea birds recently.

Record warm summers in the Pacific Northwest were adding to the threats facing salmon. The Weather Channel reported: The salmon population is already in drastic decline due to overfishing, habitat loss and pollution. Now higher temperatures in rivers and streams are killing adult salmon before they can reproduce. Dwindling winter snowpack is also shrinking rivers and streams.

Fish Hatchery workers report seeing more perish in the stream beds before they can spawn. The federal government has issued a disaster declaration for Alaska's pink salmon fishery and several other salmon and crab fisheries along the West Coast. Gov. Bill Walker requested the declaration after the 2017 pink salmon harvests in Kodiak, Prince William Sound, Chignik and lower Cook Inlet came in far below forecast, the Alaska Journal of Commerce reported.

The disaster declaration granted by U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker gave Kodiak and the other Alaska fisheries the ability to seek disaster relief assistance from Congress because of the unexpected large decreases in salmon returns.

February 2019, when thousands of cuttlefish mysteriously washed ashore in Chile's Bahia Inglesa, a coastal area that is one of the country's main tourist hotspots. Locals said such an incident has not happened before, and environmental authorities are investigating and have warned locals not to eat the fish amidst pollution fears. There were huge concerns that the dead fish could damage the region's fishing industry, a major driver of the local economy. The deaths remain, as ever, a mystery.

In France the first 62 days of 2019, 600 dolphins had washed up dead, but many more dolphins were dead at the bottom of the ocean or washed out to sea rather than ending up on the beaches. While dead dolphins wash up on beaches in France each year scientists say the situation is alarming with the figure being much higher than any previous year at the same period.

In March 2019, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission claimed an unknown virus may be to blame for hundreds of turtles dying in the St. Johns River. According to a spokesperson for the commission, scientists at the University of Florida have identified a novel virus in 18 dead turtles discovered along the river. They said the virus seems to be a common link in the samples. Since last March, FWC claimed more about 300 fresh-water softshell and cooter turtles have been reported dead or sick in the massive river. Experts agreed it didn’t appear to be the toxic algae is contributing to the deaths, nor do any other types of animals seem to be affected.

Into April, the Aegean Sea witnessed a "very unusual" spike in dolphin deaths over a two week period, claimed a Greek marine conservation group. The Archipelagos Institute said while it's still unclear what caused the deaths, the spike followed Turkey's largest-ever navy drills in the region, on Feb. 27-March 8, the "Blue Homeland" exercises which made constant use of sonar and practised with live ammunition. The deafening noise of sonar, used by warships to detect enemy submarines, can injure dolphins and whales, driving them to surface too fast or to beach themselves - with sometimes fatal consequences - as they try to escape the underwater din.

In May 2019 another disaster was unfolding, Vietnam had culled more than 1.2 million farmed pigs infected with African swine fever. the government claimed as the virus continued to spread rapidly in the Southeast Asian country. Pork accounts for three-quarters of total meat consumption in Vietnam, a country of 95 million people where most of its 30 million farm-raised pigs are consumed domestically. The disease, which is harmless to humans but incurable in pigs, has also spread quickly across neighbouring China.

In May, Florida’s worst nightmare had returned, the unprecedented horror of 2018 for Florida's beaches when toxic algae killed thousands of tons of marine life and had returned. Red tide was back in Manatee County shores. Red tide hit Manatee County hard last year. Starting in early August 2018, it dumped hundreds of tons of dead fish and other marine animals on local beaches and in canals and other waterways. It clouded the Gulf of Mexico and polluted the air, and hurt hotels and other tourist-related businesses.

Back across the pond and shocking footage showed hundreds of dead sharks washed up on a beach in Wales leaving locals baffled. Many of the sharks were found to have their fins missing - sparking fears they may have been cut off before the fish were tossed back into the sea. A spokesman for the Marine Conservation Society said the fish appeared to be smooth-hounds, also known as dogfish, a type of shark common in British waters."It was mostly smooth-hounds down Burry Port, but heavily pregnant ones with pups hanging out of them. I'm sure what we saw was a small percentage of what was thrown back.

More salmon problems, a sudden surge in algae killed at least eight million salmon in one week in May 2019, across Norwegian fish farms, the state-owned Norwegian Seafood Council has said. An enormous algal bloom, due to recent warm weather, had spread rapidly around Norway's northern coast, sticking to fishes' gills and suffocating them. 

What comes out the ocean reflects its bio-health, May 2019, was a disaster for the West Coast of North America. A shark die-off in San Francisco Bay was being blamed on a parasite in the water. Hundreds of leopard sharks had washed up onto beaches around the area, not just in Alameda. Many more will have died out at sea. Up to May, 93 dead dolphins had washed up along the Gulf of Mexico coast with many more thought to have died out at sea. 

A fifth grey whale was found dead on British Columbia's coast in what one research biologist says could be a trend towards of record-setting deaths. John Calambokidis of the Cascadia Research Collective based in Olympia, Wash., said that 23 grey whales have been found dead this year in his state, and the dead greys are all found along the same migratory route. Those deaths brought the total number of carcasses found along the migration route from California to Alaska up to 70, according to figures from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA.

Hundreds of Common Murres, an ocean-going bird native to the Pacific Coast from the Channel Islands to the tip of the Aleutians in Alaska, have been reported washed up dead or dying on beaches along a 10-mile stretch of coastline in Mendocino County between Noyo Bay and Seaside Beach. Many more were dying out at sea.

San Fransisco, at least 53 dead or dying gray whales washed up on West Coast beaches in the spring of 2019, a death rate that’s only been seen once before. The great mammals are starving to death and scientists have theories as to why but so far no full explanation The number of deaths is likely to be much higher because it’s estimated that only 10% of dead whales end up on shore, said John Calambokidis, a research biologist with the non-profit Cascadia Research in Olympia, Washington, who studies whale populations on the West Coast. That could mean as many as 530 whales have died, which is a large number for a population that is estimated to be just over 20,000.

Thousands of dead jellyfish washed up on a Hilton Head beach. Hilton Head Islanders are used to seeing a few dead jellyfish cluttering the shoreline, but the scene on South Beach in May appeared to be a jellyfish catastrophe when thousands of small cannonball jellyfish washed up on the shore stretching more than a mile. Looking in both directions from Tower Beach in Sea Pines, dead jellyfish littered the tide line.

Into the Gulf of Mexico, Galveston, the number of sea turtle strandings along the Texas coastline reached the highest number ever recorded in one month during April and May, the height of sea turtle nesting season. A total of 159 stranded sea turtles were recorded in April—the highest number of strandings in one month since monitoring began in 1980. Strandings are continuing at a rapid pace, and the latest data shows 186 turtles stranded in Texas through May 2019.

In June Bill Laughing-Bear a researcher who often shares his work on my blog came across a dead gray whale, Bill was alarmed by the number of gray whales dying off the coast of Alaska, Bill wrote: “On the second of June, I had to make a road trip which took me along Turnagain Arm and rounding a bend on the Seward Highway, just right before a bridge on one of the tributaries, I noticed on my right, a gray whale lying dead on top of the silt.” “ I had heard that many whales had recently died and people had asked if radiation was a possible cause?”

“ The authorities had said, absolutely NOT!” “I decided to test the dead whale for radiation with my Quarta, Radex, model RD 1503, made to test gamma radiation in homes, offices, food products, construction materials, soil, etc.” “Regrettably, I could only, without getting my boots wet, take a scan of the whales tail.” “As I had suspected, the whale read positive for radiation.” “The radiation levels were higher than many of the salmon and halibut levels I had tested which had spiked 27% since my testing began in 2012, a year after the Fukushima disaster.”

“I pondered since I am not a marine biologist, “would the readings be higher up toward the stomach area of the whale?” “ Unfortunately I could not go into the water that far to test it.” “However, I can positively state that this gray whale was radioactive and although I do not know if that was the cause of its death, I am highly suspicious it was a factor.

A study showed an increase in levels of Fukushima-related contamination off the shores of Alaska, regular readers of The Big Wobble will know Bill Laughing-Bear has been keeping an eye on fish in Alaskan waters and has warned us all of rising radioactive contamination for years now. Recently other warnings have been published as the slow drip-drip-drop of information is slowly increasing.

A study by the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa revealed almost 50% of fish consumed on the islands of Hawai’i were contaminated with caesium 134 the radioactive finger-print of Fukushima. The report also showed that migrating organisms can transport the Fukushima-signature (caesium 134) over significant distances as they showed detectable 134Cs (6.3±1.5 Bq/kg) in Pacific bluefin tuna caught off the California coast only a year after the incident. Another study found caesium 134 in longfin tuna (Albacore) along the western coast of the US just one year after the Fukushima disaster.

Also in June 2019, high levels of radiation in giant clams led one expert to ask “in what way was Runit [Dome] a cleanup?” (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times). High levels of radiation had been monitored in giant clams close to the Central Pacific site where the United States entombed waste from nuclear testing almost four decades ago, raising concerns the contamination is spreading from the dump site’s tainted groundwater into the ocean and the food chain.

The findings from the Marshall Islands suggest that radiation is either leaking from the waste site — which U.S. officials reject — or that authorities did not adequately clean up radiation left behind from past weapons testing, as some in the Marshall Islands claims. According to a photograph taken of Hamilton’s presentation slides, the 377-foot-wide crater in Enewetak Atoll contains groundwater samples with radiation levels 1,000 to 6,000 times higher than those found in the open ocean.

Alarmed by the high number of gray whales that have been washing up dead on West Coast beaches in spring 2019, the federal government declared the troubling trend a wildlife emergency. So far this year, (up to June) at least 70 gray whales have been found dead and stranded along the coasts of California, Oregon, Washington and Alaska according to NOAA, however, the numbers that wash up represent a fraction of the total and a vast majority go unreported. No official agency has ever blamed the number of die-offs along the West Coast of North America on radiation as far as I am aware.

More than 260 dolphins were found stranded along the northern Gulf of Mexico since February 1st, up to June 2019. According to The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, (NOAA), that's three times the usual amount. The increase had prompted NOAA Fisheries to declare yet another Unusual Mortality Event.

Into July 2019, dozens of dead beached whales were spotted by sightseers during a helicopter flight over western Iceland. The dead pilot whales were photographed during the trip over a beach at Longufjorur. It's unclear how the mammals became beached. The region where they were spotted is secluded, inaccessible by car and has very few visitors. The helicopter pilot told the BBC, “We landed and counted about 60 but there must have been more because fins were sticking out of the sand.”

In August, a disturbing report from Stephanie Quinn Davidson, the Director of the Yukon Inter-Tribal Fish Commission, claimed, from the Koyukuk River to the Kuskokwim, to Norton Sound, to Bristol Bay's Igushik River, unusually warm temperatures across Alaska this summer, (2019) had led to die-offs of unspawned chum, sockeye, and pink salmon.

Warm waters also that summer had acted as a "thermal block" - essentially a wall of heat, salmon can’t swim past, delaying upriver migration. The total run was more than 1.4 million chum, she said, with some arriving before the warm weather event. Juneau-based research scientist for the University of Montana Chris Sergeant co-wrote a paper on warm, crowded, low waters' effect on salmon.

In essence, warm, low water plus large populations of salmon can lead salmon to suffocate. When it was sunny out, it just heats that river faster." Though Sands doesn't have estimates of the actual number of fish that died, based on the set netter catch rate he said between 200,000 and 300,000 were in the river during the warm water event that killed the salmon there. A small amount of fish - he estimates between 500 and 700 - made it up to the spawning grounds during the thermal block, but most of the escapement goal was met from fish that swam upriver afterwards. The die-offs "are happening around the state and seems to have coincided with that week of really warm, warm temperatures," Quinn-Davidson said.

In September, Alaska was in the news again, 2019 was Alaska’s hottest summer on record. In May 2019, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and the National Park Service (NPS) began receiving reports of dead and dying seabirds from the northern Bering and Chukchi seas, including near Bering Land Bridge National Preserve. From late June to early August, thousands of Short-tailed Shearwaters were reported dead and washing up on beaches in the Bristol Bay region, or observed weak and attempting to feed on salmon gillnets in inland waters. By mid-August, the shearwater die-off had extended north, in smaller numbers but widespread locations, into the northern Bering and Chukchi seas along the coasts of Alaska and the Chukotka Peninsula of Russia. Puffins, murres, and auklets are also being reported. Many more thousands of birds had probably died out at sea.

A crippling drought which is said to have brought millions of people in Zimbabwe facing the risk of starvation has reduced crop levels. The drought is affecting wildlife too, at least 55 elephants have starved to death in Zimbabwe's Hwange National Park over the past two months amid a severe drought. "The situation is dire," Zimparks spokesman Tinashe Farawo said. "The elephants are dying from starvation and this is a big problem." The drought has massively reduced crop levels in Zimbabwe.

October brought Australia back into the spotlight, another mass fish kill event had been spotted in western NSW, nine months after millions of fish had died on the nearby banks of the Darling River. New aerial footage appeared to show hundreds of thousands of dead fish at Lake Pamamaroo in the Menindee Lakes System, near Broken Hill. Darry Clifton, from the Darling River Action Group, said he was not surprised by another apparent fish kill. "There are thousands upon thousands from what I can see around the edge of that water area," he told the ABC. states manage extreme fish death events, maintaining a database to register fish kills and providing water to mitigate the emergency. 

Authorities were still working to find out why millions of dead and dying mussels were found washed ashore at Cheynes Beach, near Albany on Western Australia's south coast in October. Millions of small green mussels had washed up on a WA south-coast beach with authorities warning people to be careful of harmful bacteria from the die-off. There were also several other species on the shore, including starfish.

November 2019 revealed there is not enough pork in the world’ to deal with China’s demand for meat. Hundreds of millions of pigs, 40% of the world total have died or have been culled from swine fever, and the prices are soaring. A report by the Guardian claimed, since August 2018, when China notified the World Organisation for Animal Health that ASF (swine fever) was in the country, the disease has spread with extraordinary speed.

In November, Australia was suddenly linked to the Alaskan sea bird die-off when thousands of short-tailed shearwaters migrating from Alaska had been washing up on Sydney's iconic beaches, with who knows how many more dying out at sea in what could be confirmation of incredible fish shortages in the Pacific Ocean. The corpses had been spotted at several shorelines including Bondi, Manly and Cronulla. The birds were migrating back to southern Australia to breed after spending the summer in Alaska. But, according to experts, a higher number than usual are dying on the way due to a lack of food. According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the birds had died of starvation. Numerous shearwaters also washed up on Russia's Chukotka Peninsula as well.

At the beginning of December 2020, extremely low cod numbers lead feds to close the Gulf of Alaska fishery for the first time. In an unprecedented response to historically low numbers of Pacific cod, the federal cod fishery in the Gulf of Alaska was closing for the 2020 season. It’s a decision that came as little surprise, but it’s the first time the fishery was closed due to concerns of low stock. A stock assessment this fall put Gulf cod populations at a historic low, with “next to no” new eggs, according to NOAA

Research biologist Steve Barbeaux, who authored the report. Up until the emergence of a marine heatwave known as “the blob” in 2014, Gulf cod was doing well. But the heatwave caused ocean temperatures to rise 4-5 degrees. Young cod started dying off, scientists said. “A lot of the impact on the population was due to that first heatwave that we haven’t recovered from,” Barbeaux said during an interview last month. Following the first heatwave, cod numbers crashed by more than half, from 113,830 metric tons in 2014 to 46,080 (a loss of almost 68,000) metric tons in 2017. The decline was steady from there. 

In January 2020, The Big Wobble reported more misery for Alaskan pink salmon fisheries. Prince William Sound Science Center field season was marked by a low flow and high pre-spawn mortality. This year, virtually no rain led to extremely low flows and field crews observed unprecedented pre-spawning die-offs and unusually late migration into the streams.

According to the Prince William Sound Science Center, the fish finally started, what was for many, an ill-fated journey into the streams after some rain in early September. The rain stopped and the rivers dried up again. Soon thousands of fish were restricted to tide pools without enough water to return to the bays. They all suffocated. “During the first 10 days of September, our dead fish count in one of our streams rose from virtually none to nearly 30,000 dead pink salmon, all dying before spawning”. “Our field crews estimated 10,000 died over a single night. We have never documented anything like that in the past.”

Earlier this year, After the loss of more than a billion animals during the unprecedented bushfires in January with tens of thousands of vulnerable numbered koalas among then. Australia then shocked many people by euthanising 10,000 camels to save water in drought infested areas. Full story

Just 40 days into 2020 and the world was in the grip of a global coronavirus threat which could out-kill the Spanish Flu epidemic which started back in 1918 and killed between 50 to 100 million people. Them numbers are minuscule to the billions of animals which have died in the first 40 days of 2020.

Below is a "small" list, showing deaths of animals killed by disease, pollution or man in the first month and a half of 2020 and let me tell you, I have hardly scratched the surface,  many millions more don't get reported. As for marine life, most of the dead sink to the bottom of the sea, or the birds, die out at sea, so you see, below is just a tiny per cent of the real carnage

Have you seen any of these disasters on the media? (Apart from the billion deaths of animals reported in the Aussie bushfires). No, it never gets mentioned. If you get down to the bottom before being sickened, good luck. Full story

Hundreds of dead seals washed up on shores in Cape Breton and near Halifax this year, prompting an investigation by the Marine Animal Response Society. Andrew Reid, the society's response coordinator, said it has received a number of reports over the last week about juvenile seal carcasses washing ashore in Cape Breton and Sambro, N.S., just outside Halifax Canada. Reid said there are believed to be several hundred dead seals in total, (The true count is probably much more as most of the dead would have sunk, comment added by Gary Walton), including roughly 70 in the Sambro area. Eleven washed up on Geoffrey Howard's family property in West Pennant, just outside of Sambro. He said he went out to look after hearing his neighbour counted 27 along the shoreline on his property. Full story

In April, Thousands of blue tits have been found sick or dead in Germany, prompting an investigation by conservation groups and scientists. The tiny blue tit is a common bird found across Europe and the UK. The blue tit is found across Europe and is one of the most common visitors to UK gardens. According to NABU, (Nature and Biodiversity Conservation Union) symptoms of the diseased birds include breathing problems, (pneumonia) no longer taking food and making no attempt to escape when approached by people. Full story

The Coronavirus outbreak has thrown a wrench into the world economy bringing the world's richest countries to their knees and dragging down global growth with it which means thousands of farms are going bust. Around the world, millions upon millions of farm animals are being culled as the worlds food supply chain chokes. Before the coronavirus arrived, the abuse and killing of cattle, pigs, sheep and birds were happening each second of every minute of every day of every year. As the coronavirus continues to tighten its grip around the world the mass culling of animals is beginning to explode in the cruellest, cheapest of ways which include mass slow suffocation, buried alive, grinding or gassing and burning alive.

According to an article in the Guardian, Covid-related slaughterhouse shutdowns in the US are leading to fears of meat shortages and price rises, while farmers are being forced to consider “depopulating” their animals. More than 20 slaughterhouses have been forced to close, although some have subsequently reopened. At least two million animals have already reportedly been culled on farms around the countries but that number is expected to rise considerably as the virus intensifies Full story

An unprecedented number of dead elephant deaths have been seen in Botswana in recent months. More than 350 elephant carcasses have been found in the Okavango Delta since the start of May and no one knows why the animals are dying, with lab results on samples still weeks away, according to the government. Full story

Back in 2015, 200,000 wild saiga antelopes collapsed and died suddenly in Kazakhstan from a bacterial infection, more than two-thirds of the entire global population, NB, Covid-19, African Swine Fever and Avian Flu are viruses, not bacterial. Scientists found that there were unusually warm temperatures and high humidity in the days leading up to the wildlife deaths. The same was found for two previous mass die-offs of antelopes in 1981 and 1988, when 400,000 died in central Asia, according to Prof Richard Kock of the Royal Veterinary College London. Saying, "The whole thing was really extraordinary," he said. "It's very very likely to happen again."

And it has, during May and early June 2020, researchers have discovered more than half of the country's herd, around 130,000 have died. The extent and speed are really unheard of according to veterinarian Steffen Zuther who believes bacteria is to blame for the death of the saigas. Full story

351 sea turtles have washed up dead on the same coastline as mass sea lion beaching  The main reason behind the deaths is thought to be the use of nets and line fishing around this area of the coast.

351 loggerhead sea turtles have been found dead on the same stretch of coastline where 137 sea lions were found deceased earlier this month. TBW  The loggerhead sea turtles and sea lions were found on the Baja California coast, in northwestern Mexico. The Mexican Centre for Environmental Law and the Centre for Biological Diversity have both said the death of the sea turtles highlights the need for net and line fishing to be banned in this area of the Pacific coast. Sky News

Searches following reports of beached sea lions on 4 September found the animals' carcasses scattered along an 80-mile stretch of coast in Comondu, Baja California. Tissue samples from the animals have been collected to establish a cause of death after authorities said the sea lions showed no sign of injuries from fishing nets or lines. In Mexico, California sea lions are a protected species but aren't considered to be at danger of extinction. However, loggerhead sea turtles are considered endangered in the country. Activists have argued that the use of nets is the main reason behind the death of sea turtles. In 2019, 331 loggerhead turtles were found dead in the area, and in 2018 the figure stood at 459. Full story

This week, the whale stranding on the Tasmanian coast is now the largest recorded in the state's history, authorities say as another 200 whales were discovered on Wednesday leaving almost 500 pilot whales stranded. I must say in my 12 years of reporting mass whale strandings I have never reported any total anywhere near this number, it is an absolute astonishing stranding! Most of the whales have died. Full story

A quotation attributed to Albert Einstein claims: “If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe then man would only have four years of life left.”We have known about dying bees and butterflies for years now but you would be shocked to know these two species are just the very tip of the iceberg! “Moths, hoverflies, wasps, beetles and many other groups are now sparse where once they were abundant.”

According to Buglife wiping squished bugs off your windscreen used to be an annoying summertime task for every motorist. But experts say the decline of insects in the UK has reached such a critical level that drivers have noticed their front window is now fly, gnat, wasp and moth-free. It's not just the UK, here in Holland, every summer the Dutch head off south to France, Spain and Portugal for their annual break, reaching the destination with the front of the car covered in insect road-kill with the difficult task of cleaning the front of the vehicle but not anymore, my neighbour couldn't wait to tell me a month ago how his camper was bug-free arriving in France after a thousand-kilometre journey from Holland.

So where have all the bugs gone? “This is part of the wholesale loss of small animals in recent decades. Nature lovers say the increasing use of pesticides and intensive agriculture over the past 50 years could be to blame.

Beekeepers have lost a third of their colonies every year since 2006 due to these practices, while research into the State of Britain’s Larger Moths, published in collaboration with the charity Butterfly Conservation, showed a fall of insects by 40 per cent in the South of England over the past four decades. 

The RSPB’s State of Nature study suggests there has been a 60 per cent decline in insects in the UK since 1970. Full story

All photos and links to official reports related to my post above can be found here and here and here

Compiled, researched and written by Gary Walton.