Flamingo flock moves into Zeeland

DutchNews, December 21, 2015

A colony of about 50 flamingos has moved into the Grevelingenmeer in Zeeland for the winter rather than moving on to warmer climes in Africa.

The group of distinctive pink birds is known to breed just over the border in Germany and appears to have moved north to the Netherlands because the lake contains just enough salt to stop it freezing.

‘The Grevelingenmeer is very suitable for them because they can find sufficient crabs and shrimp,’ William van der Hulle, of the Dutch forestry commission, told BNR radio. 

Flamingos are regular visitors to the lake but never in such large numbers, he said. 

Bijzonder! Gewoon in Nederland, flamingo's op het Grevelingenmeer. #flamingos #grevelingenmeer pic.twitter.com/shakNXx3Ko”

— ineke zonneveld (@inekezonneveld) March 14, 2015

King Crabs Invade Antarctica

ScienceDaily (Apr. 26, 2011)

It's like a scene out of a sci-fi movie -- thousands, possibly millions, of king crabs are marching through icy, deep-sea waters and up the Antarctic slope.

It's like a scene out of a sci-fi movie -- thousands,
possibly millions, of king crabs are marching through
icy, deep-sea waters and up the Antarctic slope.
(Credit: Image courtesy of University of
Alabama at Birmingham)

"They are coming from the deep, somewhere between 6,000 to 9,000 feet down," said James McClintock, Ph.D., University of Alabama at Birmingham Endowed Professor of Polar and Marine Biology.

Shell-crushing crabs haven't been in Antarctica, Earth's southernmost continent, for hundreds or thousands, if not millions, of years, McClintock said. "They have trouble regulating magnesium ions in their body fluids and get kind of drunk at low temperatures."

But something has changed, and these crustaceans are poised to move by the droves up the slope and onto the shelf that surrounds Antarctica. McClintock and other marine researchers interested in the continent are sounding alarms because the vulnerable ecosystem could be wiped out, he said.

Antarctic clams, snails and brittle stars, because of adaptation to their environment, have soft shells and have never had to fight shell-crushing predators. "You can take an Antarctic clam and crush it with your hands," McClintock said. They could be the main prey for these crabs, he said.

Loss of unique mollusks could jeopardize organisms with disease-fighting compounds, McClintock said. Sea squirts, for example, produce an agent that fights skin cancer. If the crabs eat them, it could bring McClintock's research with that organism to a halt.

McClintock's chemical ecology program has published more than 100 papers on species researchers have discovered, including the compound that combats skin cancer and one to treat flu, that are being explored by drug companies.

"I am very concerned that species could disappear, and we could lose a cure to a disease," he said.

McClintock's colleague Sven Thatje, Ph.D., an evolutionary biologist at the University of Southampton in England, saw the first signs of the king crab invasion in 2007. He spotted a lone crab climbing up the slope. McClintock and Rich Aronson, Ph.D., a paleoecologist at Florida Institute of Technology, put together a proposal to launch the first systematic search for king crabs in Antarctica. With Sven as chief expedition scientist, the team headed back with two ships and a submarine earlier this year.

"We ran transects up the slope and discovered hundreds and hundreds of king crabs, which could translate into millions across broad expanses of coastal Antarctica," he said. "They are adults, males and females. They appear healthy and have all the ingredients needed to produce a healthy population."

The king crabs' large numbers on the slope suggest that they are increasing in number at a rate faster than anticipated, McClintock said. "Before long, they could be in shallow water and on the shelf," he said. "This is a very visual, visceral way of thinking of an impact of climate change."

McClintock and his fellow researchers are exploring causes for the invasion, which they believe is linked to human-induced climate warming. Around 40,000 tourists visit the area each year.

"Antarctica has become a popular destination for tourists," McClintock said. Cruise ship companies have seen it as an opportunity to take visitors to "one of the most stunningly beautiful areas on our planet."

After cruising along the waters, tourists can then take a rubber boat called a zodiac to a beach covered with penguins as far as the eye can see. "The penguins will come right up to you," McClintock said.

And, now that the king crabs are on the Antarctic slope, some fishermen are anxious to head to Antarctica as well. McClintock has already gotten an email from a fisherman asking when he can come.

But the icy waters and dangerous logistics make fishing difficult, McClintock said. "There is a TV show called the 'The Deadliest Catch,'" he said. "Well this is the deadliest, deadliest catch."

For now, McClintock and his team are reviewing the thousands of images they captured during their submarine exploration. His team is analyzing the data and plans to have its findings published in a major journal within a year.

"The whole ecosystem could change," McClintock said. "And this is just one example of a species expanding its range into a new territory. There will certainly be more as the climate warms up."

Related Articles:

'Super' salmon resist climate change better: study

Endangered whales gathering off Cape Cod in record numbers

Massive fish kill blankets Arkansas River

CNN News, By the CNN Wire Staff, January 2, 2011

Dead drum fish lline the banks of a 20-mile stretch of the Arkansas River near Ozark.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• An estimated 100,000 drum fish have died, officials say
• The fish kill is not believed to be related to bird deaths in another town

(CNN) -- Arkansas officials are investigating the death of an estimated 100,000 fish in the state's northwest, but suspect disease was to blame, a state spokesman said Sunday.

Dead drum fish floated in the water and lined the banks of a 20-mile stretch of the Arkansas River near Ozark, about 125 miles northwest of Little Rock, said Keith Stephens of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission. A tugboat operator discovered the fish kill Friday night, and fisheries officials collected some of the dying animals to conduct tests.

Stephens said fish kills occur every year, but the size of the latest one is unusual, and suggested some sort of disease was to blame.

"The fish kill only affected one species of fish," he said. "If it was from a pollutant, it would have affected all of the fish, not just drum fish."

Ozark is about 125 west of the town of Beebe, where game wardens are trying to find out why up to 5,000 blackbirds fell from the sky just before midnight New Year's Eve. Biologists believe the bird deaths were stress-related from either fireworks or weather and are unrelated to the fish kill near Ozark, Stephens said.

Related Articles:

2 million fish found dead in Maryland

Cold snaps blamed for dead fish found floating in Spruce Creek, Florida

Thousands Of Dead Fish Wash Onto Bay Shores

Fish have died in the Chesapeake Bay (Photo from Dorothy Hopson)

Mysterious killing of fish in coastal (Brazil)

Fishermen have found at least 100 tonnes, mainly sardines.

Hundreds of snapper dead on beaches, New Zealand

Haiti & Dominican Republic investigates dead fish mystery

Hundreds of dead fish 'a natural occurrence', St Clair River, Ontario, Canada

40,000 'devils' crabs wash up on Britisch beach after freezing conditions give them hypothermia

More than 1,000 dead birds fall from sky in Ark

A dead bird lies on Skylark Street in Beebe, Ark. on Saturday, Jan. 1,

2011. The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission said Saturday more

than 1,000 dead black birds fell from the sky in Beebe. The agency

said its enforcement officers began receiving reports about the dead

birds about 11:30 p.m. Friday. (AP Photo/The Daily Citizen, Warren

Watkins)

Dead Blackbirds in Arkansas Update, Dead Birds Discovered in Louisiana, Kentucky

Hundreds of dead blackbirds found near New Roads in Louisiana

“2011 and Beyond” - What you are seeing, and why - Jan 16, 2010 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) - New

Crab-shelling housewives feel global pinch

Fadli, The Jakarta Post, Batam | Mon, 12/22/2008 11:06 AM 

 

For six years a dozen housewives have been gathering 'round a table on Bulang Kebam Island of the Riau Islands, but they're not there to gossip and play mah-jongg.

 

No, the table is this fishy smelling room is full of boiled crabs which they are patiently and diligently shelling.

 

The meat will be sent to an exporter before heading on to the United States, its final destination. The current financial crisis has also had an impact on these ladies' income, as crabmeat no longer fetches a good price.

 

The owner of the Batam municipality facility, Ita Karim, 40, told The Jakarta Post recently that before the crisis, the export price of a kilogram of crabmeat could reach Rp 160,000 (about US$14.50), but now it had dropped to Rp 100,000 per kg.

 

"The price has gradually dropped over the past month. Even though orders are still coming in, we don't know if we can survive. If it's no longer possible, I'll just have to close the shop," Ita said.

 

Ita and her husband have been buying seafood products, such as fish, crabs and shrimp, from the island's fishermen for dozens of years.

 

They began supplying crabmeat in 2002, when one of the Lampung-based exporters placed an order.

 

The exporter then opened a branch in Batam where he continued to purchase crabmeat but sent it to Lampung where it is packaged and sent on to the U.S.

 

"Crabs are boiled to a certain temperature, not too cooked nor too raw, so they're easy to peel," Ita said.

 

Local housewives are employed on a regular basis who are paid according to the amount of meat they shell. The fee for each kilogram of shelled meat was Rp 30,000 before, but has dropped to Rp 20,000 now due to its falling price.

 

The women then divide the total earnings equally among themselves, each earning at least Rp 100,000 daily.

 

According to Ita, from about 100 kg of crabs, only 40 kg of meat can be obtained.

 

A number of tools are needed to remove the meat, such as hammers and pliers. The shells are later gathered to make into fertilizer.

 

The workers are not allowed to use cosmetics because they can contaminate the meat. They are also asked to wear head covers during work.

 

"This business will close down if the global economic recession continues due to the lack of a domestic market for crabmeat," Ita said.

 

Ita is the only crab collector on Bulang Kebam Island. She said many similar businesses can be found all over Batam, but she is unclear of the exact number.

 

A mother of two who works at the facility, Warti, 35, voiced her concern over the drop in crabmeat prices overseas.

 

"My husband doesn't have a steady income, so we always rely on my earnings. If the orders stop and the business closes, I must find another job," Warti said.

 

Bulang Kebam Island, situated about 15 minutes from Batam Island, still lacks access to clean water, power and telephone connections.

 

It relies on a generator that operates from 6 p.m. until 11.00 p.m., and artesian wells as a clean water source.

Crab exports to US drop drastically

Cirebon (ANTARA News) - Crab exports from Cirebon, West Java, to the US have been declining drastically since September due to low demand following current financial crisis in that country. 

"The drop is very drastic up to 50 percent. We used to export two containers weighing 15 to 16 tons a month to the US but now the two containers are from two companies," the operations head of crab-canning company PT PAN Samudra, Mujahid, said here on Saturday. 

He said his company had a production capacity of more than two tons a day but now it produced only two days maximally a day. 

He said his company`s crab exports had so far only gone to the US and the company had never tried other export markets. 

"We are now only surviving. Several canning companies in Cirebon and Pemalang have shut down," he said. 

He said the drop in crab exports to the US had made the price of crabs at a fisherman level also declined. 

"Before the fuel price hike and current financial crisis we bought crabs from fishermen at Rp180,000 per kilogram but now as demand is dropping we could buy them at Rp100,000 to Rp110,000 per kilogram," Mujahid said. 

The company`s operations supervisor, Agustinus, meanwhile said the company needed one to two tons of crabs a day. "We usually collect crabs from fishermen in Cirebon, Pemalang, Merak, Lampung and Batam," he said. 

He admitted that the company`s workers had been worried over the situation considering that several similar companies in Cirebon had stopped production.

Kwan Sing Bio: Tuban's crab shrine

ID Nugroho, The Jakarta Post, Tuban, East Java

Some two centuries ago, a boat owned by a Chinese explorer became stranded near Tuban on the north coast of Java, which was then a marshy area teeming with crabs.

In the face of this misfortune, so the story goes, the traveler pulled out his jiamsi sticks bearing verses that could foretell one's fortune.

He pleaded for the God of Wisdom, Kwan Sing Tie Koen, to give him guidance and strength to face his predicament.

"Would you like me to remain here?" he asked before shaking the sticks.

After asking the same question three times, an answer came forth: Yes.
|
"Finally, the adventurer decided to stay there and live on Tuban's coast and build a temple called Kwan Sing Bio, or the Shrine of the God of Wisdom," Hendra Susanto, Kwan Sing Bio's spiritual leader, told The Jakarta Post.

Tuban, located 90 kilometers west of the East Java capital of Surabaya, has long been an important city due to its strategic location and role as a main port since the pre-Islamic period of the Majapahit Kingdom.

As the Islamic era was ushered in, Tuban became a vital place in history after Sunan Bonang, or Maulana Makdum Ibrahim -- one of the nine Islamic propagators in Java, known as the Wali Songo -- was buried behind Jami' Mosque in the town square.

The legendary temple itself is located west of Tuban. It is a place of worship for Tri Dharma followers -- Confucianists, Taoists and Buddhists.

Hendra said the temple, also known as the crab shrine, was not easy to construct due to the swampy land it was built on.

After clearing and leveling the area, the shrine was erected with the crab as its signature feature.

"Tri Dharma teachings believe crabs are chosen by gods to protect people living in Tuban," Hendra said.

On the five-hectare plot, the temple is divided into several areas, with the front and oldest section serving as the place of worship and prayer.

A room for Mandarin language lessons, jiamsi fortune telling and a secretariat office is located at the side, while a hall has been set up in the center, adjacent to a garden that has adopted Chinese architecture, complete with a small lake and bridge.

The rear area, which is currently under construction, will serve as a multipurpose area and will include lodgings.

Reverence for sea creatures, like crabs, is evident in the fact that Tri Dharma followers avoid using crabs as offerings.

Hendra said another unique sign of the crab could also be seen in the geography of Tuban area itself, which resembles a crab with two pincers.

"The first pincer is situated in Tjoe Ling Kiong or the Sea Goddess Shrine in the town square and the second pincer in Kwan Sing Bio shrine."