'Tiny fish that survived tsunami, ocean crossing from Japan makes debut in Seaside'

Why not keep all the fish in the aquarium, instead of killing them save for one?

Tiny fish that survived tsunami, ocean crossing from Japan makes debut in Seaside | OregonLive.com: About five striped beakfish were found on a boat from Japan that washed ashore near Long Beach, Wash., last month. The Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife euthanized most of them, perhaps because of fears that the fish would become an invasive species.

But not before someone spirited away one of the black-and-white striped fish to the Long Beach City Hall.

Employees there in turn called the Seaside Aquarium, which came to the rescue.
More
Continuing coverage of the debris washing up on the Oregon and Washington coasts from the Japanese tsunami.
"They didn't want to turn it loose," said Seaside Aquarium curator Keith Chandler. "And they didn't want to let it die."

So Chandler and the aquarium staff rescued the critter they have dubbed the "tsunami fish."

Octopus as Art: Stop Issuing One-Day Hunting Licenses!

I saw this story a few days ago but didn't want to deal with it. Sometimes the greed and arrogance, as well as cruelty of humans just does me in. In this case, Dylan Mayer of Washington state and an over-blown sense of personal entitlement, tortured an octopus.

Mayer got himself a one day license to "hunt" an octopus. He did this in a protected marine area. He tricked the octopus by making noise in order to lure it from its home, then, according to witnesses, punched the still living octopus repeatedly after he hauled it onto his truck. Mayer said he wanted the octopus not just for its meat, but "to draw it for this art project."

Even if the octopus was hunted for food, as in hunting because one needs to survive, the gratuitous nature of the act is unjustified. If you need to hunt, then kill quickly and cleanly, and with gratitude.

A very sad story. So click on the link below and sign the petition. And call out this ass clown Mayer.
Stop Issuing One-Day Hunting Licenses! - The Petition Site

Vintage Fortune Telling Emphemera; Animal Images

Enjoy these vintage images of "fortune telling" themes, with animals promoting the wares...

I remember these! And those paper flowers that "grew" from shells once you put them in water :)

From The Frog Bag: Yes, There Really is Such a Thing as a Blobfish

I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't explored several sites that tell us yes, there is such a thing: The Frog Bag: Yes, There Really is Such a Thing as a Blobfish, and here.

BBC News - "No evidence of mermaids, says US government"

This may seem to be a fluff piece but I can't help myself, I sense an undercurrent (no pun intended) of disinfo and distraction. No, I don't mean to suggest mer-people literally exist. But in this article: BBC News - No evidence of mermaids, says US government it is made clear the National Ocean Service took the time to respond to supposed public inquires about the existence of mermaids after Animal Planet aired Mermaids: The Body Found. In the BBC news article, we have this quote from NOAA's Carol Kavanagh that the NOAA article (see below) "was written from publicly available sources..." and that is  due to their lack of a  "mermaid science programme."

Here is the official article from NOAA: No evidence of aquatic humanoids has ever been found.  It's a very short piece -- three paragraphs and concludes:

But are mermaids real? No evidence of aquatic humanoids has ever been found. Why, then, do they occupy the collective unconscious of nearly all seafaring peoples? That’s a question best left to historians, philosophers, and anthropologists.

I haven't seen Animal Planet's program. According to the press release at their site, they reference the Aquatic Ape Theory:

The Aquatic Ape Theory makes it possible to believe that while we evolved into terrestrial humans, our aquatic relatives turned into something strangely similar to the fabled mermaid. As evidence that humans once evolved into aquatic creatures, the Aquatic Ape Theory cites some of the striking differences between man and other primates and the many features we share with marine mammals, including the following:

• Webbing between fingers (other primates don’t have this) Subcutaneous fat (insulating from cold water)

• Control over breath (humans can hold breath up to 20 minutes, longer than any other terrestrial animal)

• Loss of body hair (hair creates drag in water) Instinctive ability to swim (human babies are able to do this)

• A highly developed brain, which depends on nutrients provided by seafood  Here's a blog about the program from Cryptozooogy the Science of the Unknown, with link kindly provided to the full program on YouTube.  
•  (Image found at Vintage Clip Art.)

Mutated Trout Raise New Concerns Over Selenium - NYTimes.com

Two headed trout? Why that's normal. More for your buck...
Mutated Trout Raise New Concerns Over Selenium - NYTimes.com

Photographs of variously mutated brown trout were relegated to an appendix of a scientific study commissioned by the J. R. Simplot Company, whose mining operations have polluted nearby creeks in southern Idaho. The trout were the offspring of local fish caught in the wild that had been spawned in the laboratory. Some had two heads; others had facial, fin and egg deformities.

Yet the company’s report concluded that it would be safe to allow selenium — a metal byproduct of mining that is toxic to fish and birds — to remain in area creeks at higher levels than are now permitted under regulatory guidelines.

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New Zealand: Huge eels found swimming in the streets after 'weather bomb' hits | Mail Online

They are one of the least attractive of all fish species and are normally found lurking in oceans and rivers.

But when part of New Zealand was hit by a 'weather bomb' recently, a number of eels suddenly sprung up in some surprising locations.

Residents in one street in Masterton, Wellington, were left shocked to discover dozens of the slimy creatures swimming in large puddles and gutters in the road.

New Zealand: Huge eels found swimming in the streets after 'weather bomb' hits | Mail Online

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Mystery as 20 TONNES of fish wash up on Kvaenes beach in Norway | Mail Online

Mystery as 20 TONNES of fish wash up on Kvaenes beach in Norway | Mail Online

Thousands of dead herring have been discovered washed up on a north Norwegian beach - prompting Doomsday predictors to hail it as another sign the world is set to end.
More than 20 tonnes of the fish is currently carpeting the beach of Kvaenes, in Nordreisa, with experts views differing on how they have come to be there. One thing is for sure, it will provide welcome ammunition to those believing the Mayan prophecy that 2012 will bring the end of Earth.

There are theories of course:

"...Maybe the fish have been caught in a deprived oxygen environment, and then died of fresh water?'... Experts have said the school could have been trapped by tidal waters after predatory fish - such as coalfish - chased them towards the shoreline. . . the fish were washed ashore during a recent storm, or trapped in shallow waters and affected by freshwater from a river that flows into the bay... several factors could have come together at once. . . they had died of a disease.

The article ends with a mention of Beebee, Arkansas.

Giant shrimp raises big concern as it invades the Gulf - Houston Chronicle

The Gulf will never be the same; and the invasion of giant shrimp adds to the problems in the area: Giant shrimp raises big concern as it invades the Gulf - Houston Chronicle

Though no one is sure what the ecological impact will be, scientists fear a tiger prawn takeover could knock nature's balance out of whack and turn a healthy, diverse marine habitat into one dominated by a single invasive species.
"It has the potential to be real ugly," said Leslie Hartman, Matagorda Bay ecoystem leader for the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. "But we just do not know."

Bright Blue Lobster saved from dinner table

A beautiful "electric blue" lobster saved from the boiling pot and given to an aquarium.
Bright Blue Lobster saved from dinner table

Man catches 881-pound tuna, seized by feds | The Sideshow - Yahoo! News

Man catches 881-pound tuna, seized by feds | The Sideshow - Yahoo! News

Rafael and his crew were using nets to catch bottom-dwellers when they inadvertently snagged the giant tuna. However, federal fishery enforcement agents took control of the behemoth when the boat returned to port. The reason for the seizure was procedural: While Rafael had the appropriate permits, fishermen are only allowed to catch tuna with a rod and reel.

NOAA and the government take over. Proceeds go, well, somewhere, but not to the fisherman:

And while Rafael is denied the mother of all fish stories, the federal impoundment of his catch also means he's probably losing out on a giant payday. A 754-pound tuna recently sold for nearly $396,000. NOAA regulators do not share any of the proceeds from the fish's eventual sale with a fisherman found in violation of federal rules.

"They said it had to be caught with rod and reel," a frustrated Rafael said. "We didn't try to hide anything. We did everything by the book. Nobody ever told me we couldn't catch it with a net."

Rafael says he has meticulously prepared for a giant catch like this, purchasing 15 tuna permits over the past four years for his groundfish boats. He even immediately called a "bluefin tuna hot line" (yes, such things exist) to report his catch. "I wanted to sell the fish while it was fresh instead of letting it age on the boat," he said. "It was a beautiful fish."

(cross-posted at Octopus Confessional.)

Three eyed fish found in Argentinian Lake

In a frightening life imitates art moment, a three eyed fish is found in a lake near a nuclear facility where water from that facility is routinely dumped. With photo: Three-Eyed Fish Discovered Near Argentinian Nuclear Facility
 

The Loch Ness Monster of Alaska?

Started to watch this, and was sorry right from the beginning, because I didn't like the two guys much -- too gung ho yee haw for my tastes. But when they started loading up on giant hooks and nets and guns, I turned off the TV. What, they're going to kill themselves a "monster?"

No idea what happened, but let me guess. They didn't catch one.
The Loch Ness Monster of Alaska? | The Upshot - Yahoo! News

San Francisco Considers Ban on Goldfish as Pets to Prevent Their 'Inhumane Suffering' - FoxNews.com

It isn't quite as silly and Draconian as it sounds: San Francisco Considers Ban on Goldfish as Pets to Prevent Their 'Inhumane Suffering' - FoxNews.com. There's a lot of truth in what proponents of this bill say about this proposed ban:

“They [pet store owners] have a very strong interest to say it’s stupid,” he told Fox News Radio. “That’s the basic thing with human beings. We exploit everything in the world until it’s exhausted.”

Gerrie accused the “human” species of exploiting the environment – and the fish.

“Humans are overfishing for food,” he said. “There’s a huge market for aquarium fish. That creates a demand.”

As for people who would argue that it’s just a goldfish? “That’s how we are in this society,” Gerrie said. “Some people say, ‘It’s just a human’ – when it comes to some that kill. It’s a matter of degree. Where do you stop?”

I hate it when I see goldfish given away in plastic bags to kids who run around with the poor fish suffocating, until they remember they have the thing and then plop into a too small container and overfeed -- or not feed it enough -- until the golfish dies a few days later. Or when, as I argued with a staff member at a kid's event years ago, that there was too much water in the bowl. He just wouldn't get the idea of volume and surface area and ... anyway, lot of truth here.

On the other hand, there are responsible humans who enjoy having aquariums and take good care of their animals. I know I did. I really enjoyed having a variety of fancy goldfish and took caring for them seriously. (Hell, I even cried when a plain old goldfish variety died; I had him for several years!) Those fish are bred, not captured, like tropical fish.

I do hate it though when certain animals are sold as "pets" -- hedgehogs and prairie dogs and so on are not "pets" and I don't care how much you insist they are.

Maybe education rather than laws like this proposed one. I think laws like this will just make people more contrary and they'll go out of their way to be ignorant and jerks when it comes to "owning" animals.

Naked in the Artic: Exploiting Belugas

This is an incredible story, almost seems like a tabloid item or Onion piece. Beautiful photographs, and amazing story in so many ways. But it's very sad as well, for the Beluga whales are being "tamed" and kept in holding pens in the ocean until such time they're considered acclimated enough to be sent to aquairiums or "dolphinariums" around the world. A horrible thing; something that should be illegal. Such beauty and witness to how we can control our bodies to communicate with other creatures, and all for greedy and self-gratifying reasons that exploit others. Article, with photos, here:Naked female scientist tries to tame beluga whales in the arctic | Mail Online

Sacrifices and Blue Lobsters

 I found the juxtapositions on the Delish site interesting: a story about blue lobsters being saved from the cooking pot, amongst recipes for lobster.

Usually, when rare colored lobsters are found, like blue ones (yellow and multi-colored lobsters have also been found caught) the lobsters are given to aquariums and escape being dinner. I'm glad of this fact of course (I don't eat shellfish) but it is interesting that we humans do this. I think donating unusually colored lobsters is a type of rite that serves to acknowledge the sacrifices made. The sacrifice of the lobster, surely, for the lobster has no say. Living its life in its own habitat one moment, caught, trapped in a murky green tank with claws taped shut the next, until it ends up on someone's dinner plate. Sacrifice for some humans, since lobster trapping is hard work, and when things go bad, the livelihoods of fisherman are affected. Allowing a caught lobster, kidnapped from its home, to live in an aquarium is symbolic of giving gratitude. It'd be better -- certainly for the lobster -- if the blue or other wise colored lobster were released back into the ocean. (One of the lobsters mentioned in the Delish article will be returned to its home.) Instead, almost always, the lobster is given to an aquarium park of some kind. In captivity, the rare colored lobster is a symbol for others, reminding us of many things: our self- gratifications, the ways we earn our livings, gratitude, and simply wonder at things as beautiful as a blue lobster.

Of course, most of us aren't thinking of these things on a conscious level, and probably not kids who go to the aquarium to enjoy looking at cool stuff. But there is a gestalt in these offerings of blue lobsters that nonetheless operates around us while we go about our everyday lives.

The News About the Gulf and BP, Then There's The News About the Gulf and BP . . .

There's this:
A year on from BP oil disaster scientists say Gulf of Mexico is almost back to pre-spill health levels...so why are a huge number of dolphins and turtles still washing up dead? | Mail Online

At the same time, we're getting this:

BP Oil Spill: How Bad Is Damage to Gulf One Year Later?

Yet nearly a year after the spill began, it seems clear that the worst-case scenario never came true. It's not that the oil spill had no lasting effects - far from it - but the ecological doomsday many predicted clearly hasn't taken place. There is recovery where once there was only fear. "A lot of questions remain, but where we are now is ahead of where people thought we'd be," Safina says. "Most people expected it would be much worse."

Take the oil itself: scientists with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration estimated last August that much of the oil had remained in the Gulf, where it had dispersed or dissolved. Many environmentalists attacked the report for underplaying the threat of large underwater oil plumes still active in the Gulf, yet later independent scientific studies indeed found that oil had largely disappeared from the water. Turns out we can thank bacteria. Scientists from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; University of California, Santa Barbara; and Texas A&M University traveled to the site of the blown well and found that microbes had digested much of the oil and methane that remained in the water. By autumn, the levels were back to normal. "It's very surprising it happened so fast," John Kessler, an oceanographer with Texas A&M, told me earlier this year. "It looks like natural systems can handle an event like this somewhat on their own."

So much more, these are only two examples of the mainstream media's back page treatment of BP, our government's complicity with environmental issues and drilling, and the reality of the situation. And have we mentioned the stories of so many sick, very very sick, residents in the area?

Already so many have fallen asleep; believing that all is now well in the Gulf.

Fish Police

I loved this show; so sad it didn't last long. Here's the Wikipedia link for some background:

Fish Police is the name of a comic book series by cartoonist Steven Moncuse. The plot centers on law and crime in a fictional underwater metropolis with the protagonist, Inspector Gill, trying to solve various, often Mafia-related, crimes while avoiding being seduced by the extremely well-endowed Angel. The comic featured several marine species as its characters, while the plots and dialogue were reminiscent of film noir.

"Heavens above, they're desert flying fish " in Australia

As The Anomalist commented about this link: "There's nothing like a good ol' fall of fish from the skies to warm the fortean heart" and that is the truth! Heavens above desert flying fish, of a fish fall in the desert.

Animal Die-Offs and the Fortean Conspiracy Matrix on Binnall of America

My new Trickster's Realm column is now up at Binnall of America: Animal Die-Offs and the Fortean Conspiracy Matrix.

At the start of the New Year, we saw several stories of mysterious bird deaths, along with mass die-offs of fish and other marine life. Stories of large flocks of birds falling to their deaths and other large groups of animals dying were coming in literally every day, sometimes a few in one day.

As with mass UFO sightings and other Fortean phenomena, the mainstream media offered downright silly explanations for these UADs. (Unexplained Animal Deaths.) Fireworks startled birds from their sleep, causing them to drop to their deaths. It was too cold. It was too hot. No food. Disorientation due to severe climate change. Poison. Confused birds, drunk from eating fermented berries. And the most calm, rational and sane response from authority: it happens all the time, it just doesn't get reported. Humans, being pattern seeking creatures, create synchronicities or conspiracies inside of otherwise mundane events.


It's not that many of the above explanations are invalid; in some places, it was climate that caused animals to die off, and we know animals can get drunk eating fermented fruit. Fish kills are not uncommon. The government admitted setting out poison for birds in South Dakota.

But there are no coincidences, and within the context of a Fortean conspiracy matrix, these animal deaths are very strange indeed.

The rest at BoA!