Mass Poisoning Swamps Marine Animal Rehab Centers
Los Angles Times – latimes.com
10 May 2007
KR Weiss
Area: California, USA
An outbreak of toxic algae is called the worst on record; its cause is unclear. Sea lions and seabirds take a big hit. The current outbreak of toxic algae off the Los Angeles Harbor is the most virulent on record, scientists say, so overburdening animal rehabilitation centers that some sickened sea lions are temporarily left to fend for themselves on Los Angeles County beaches.
"We just don't have the space to accommodate them all," said Lauren Palmer, staff veterinarian at the Marine Mammal Care Center in San Pedro. "We could have four or five centers and they would all be full like this one," she said, surveying the cages crammed with seals and sea lions — many of them lying listlessly in piles after suffering convulsions brought on by the algae's powerful neurotoxin.
Fish Deaths in Dunkirk Harbor Leave Officials Looking for Cause
The Buffalo News
09 May 2007
JF Bonfatti
Area: New York, USA
The state Department of Environmental Conservation isn’t sure what has left a large number of dead fish in Dunkirk Harbor. Hundreds, if not thousands, of gizzard shad — 12-inch long fish that feed on small invertebrates and phytoplankton and are in turn eaten by larger sport fish — have been found dead or dying in the harbor over the past several weeks.
Don Einhouse, senior fisheries biologist for the DEC in Dunkirk, said it’s the largest shad die-off he has seen in the harbor in 20 years. “There’s a lot more carcasses around than we see in an average winter,” he said. “It’s pretty noticeable.” Einhouse said workers have sent some of the fish to a laboratory at Cornell University to determine exactly what killed them and expect to have more information in a few weeks.
Journal of Wildlife Diseases Table of Contents - April 2007 • Volume 43, Number 2 The April 2007 issue of the Journal of Wildlife Diseases is available online. View the table of contents here.
Bait is for Fishing, not Deer Hunting [Editorial]
10 May 2007
Concord Monitor Online
Monitor Staff
Area: New Hampshire, USA
The state Senate will vote today on whether to ban the longstanding but suspect practice of using apples, corn or the special "lollipops" sold at sporting goods stores to attract deer for the purpose of shooting them. It should do so.
. . . Although so far New Hampshire has been spared the horror of chronic wasting disease, bait and feeding stations put deer at higher risk of contracting that contagion or some other disease. Deer gather in yards in winter, but at bait sites they are likely to rub noses and lick the same food. That makes it easier for disease to spread.
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