Salon.com > marine life

Weird news: 60-foot beached whale dies on shores of New York City

Thu, 27 Dec 2012 20:50:00 +0000

The "sickly" and "emaciated" 60-foot finback whale beached on the shoreline at Breezy Point in Queens, New York, yesterday, is now dead. The whale was originally given a grim prognosis, as biologists noticed that at 60 tons, the whale was extremely underweight. Mendy Garron, a marine-mammal rescue coordinator with the National Marine Fisheries Service, told the New York Times, "When large whales strand, it’s very difficult,” adding, "The minute they get on the beach they’re being compromised because their internal organs are being crushed by their weight.”

Now biologists are working on a necropsy plan and will determine how to dispose of the whale's large body; the finback whale is the second-longest animal on Earth, behind the blue whale.

Video of the beached whale via the New York Post, below:

Google Maps releases Google sea view

Wed, 26 Sep 2012 19:41:00 +0000

Google has partnered with the Catlin Seaview Survey to bring underwater panoramas to the Internet company's street view feature. The images include sea turtles, coral reefs and other marine life in the Great Barrier Reef, and islands in Hawaii and the Philippines.

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Weird news: Southern California engulfed by rotten-egg smell

Tue, 11 Sep 2012 21:53:00 +0000

SANTA ANA, Calif. — Regional air quality officials in Southern California on Tuesday were awaiting an analysis of air samples as they tried to determine the source of a pungent, rotten-egg aroma that seeped across the region the day before.

The foul aroma that prompted hundreds of complaints and prompted at least one school to cancel recess had largely dissipated Tuesday, but its source remained a mystery.

One possible cause: A massive thunderstorm may have churned up bacteria from a recent fish die-off in the Salton Sea, a saltwater lake 150 miles southeast of Los Angeles, and released the stench into the air where it was trapped by low-hanging clouds.

But even as officials said several factors indicate the Salton Sea as the source of the sulfurous smell, air quality investigators stopped short of declaring with certainty that the 376-square-mile lake was the cause.

Barry Wallerstein, executive officer of the South Coast Air Quality Management District, said in a statement late Monday that "there is not yet any definitive evidence to pinpoint the Salton Sea or any other source yet."

One reason for doubt, the statement said, is that "it is highly unusual for odors to remain strong up to 150 miles from their source."