TV: “This is really kind of scary… a grim reality” for West Coast — Alarm as baby whales keep dying; Since 2011 none have survived over a year — Biologist: We see them pregnant for weeks, then no longer pregnant — NOAA: “Not what we’re used to… Incredibly poor condition… Skeleton with skin” (VIDEO)

TV: “This is really kind of scary… a grim reality” for West Coast — Alarm as baby whales keep dying; Since 2011 none have survived over a year — Biologist: We see them pregnant for weeks, then no longer pregnant — NOAA: “Not what we’re used to… Incredibly poor condition… Skeleton with skin” (VIDEO) (ENENews, Nov 5, 2014):

King 5 News (Seattle), Oct. 21, 2014: Baby orca death triggers alarm; The recent loss… is sounding off alarms since its been years since a baby orca has survived — “Researchers say there is no hope for a missing baby orca… The baby — which was born just last month — is nowhere in sight… The loss of yet another baby orca… A grim reality is taking shape… This is really kind of scary, because it’s been years since one of these little guys has survived… Babies are not surviving, and [biologist Ken Balcomb] says some whales appear pregnant for weeks, only to be seen later no longer pregnant… Some scientists believe the orcas… could be poisoning their own babies with toxic mother’s milk.”

  • King 5: No orca births were recorded last year and it’s been 3 years since a baby… survived more than a year
  • The Journal: [The mother’s] 2nd offspring [also] died in early 2012
  • Post Intelligencer: The loss of her 2nd baby must be especially traumatic
  • Reuters: The number of orcas in ocean waters off the Pacific NW [are at] some of their lowest levels in history
  • The Journal: [Orca] numbers continue to plummet… Chinook [salmon], the primary source of prey of the resident whales, [are at] historic lows. The population… is at a 30-year low… 30 years ago, there were anywhere between 3 to 9 babies each year
  • AP: Two other whales are presumed dead after disappearing earlier this year

Interview with John Durban, NOAA biologist, Oct 7, 2014: The very skinny one, that is not what we’re used to seeing killer whales look like… You can see the skull… It’s in incredibly poor condition… While we were [taking photos] he disappeared and stopped swimming with his brother, and has almost certainly passed away… It’s a skeleton with skin… Another very skinny whale… she’s very slender… a depression behind the head… You can see the shape of her skeleton.

Ken Buesseler, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Jun 5, 2014 (53:00 in): I’m not sampling or analyzing [whales or other marine mammals for Fukushima radionuclides]… Agencies are doing this in a very, I’d say [laughs] ‘limited’ way… We should be making these measurements, we owe it to everyone… If something is happening, can we attribute it to one source of contaminants or another? Without measurements we’ll never know, so the concern will always be there… We should be monitoring… whales and seals… I haven’t seen any data that suggests it’s of concern, again that’s partly because I’ve not seen a lot of data… We need measurements.

Watch the King 5 News broadcast here

1 thought on “TV: “This is really kind of scary… a grim reality” for West Coast — Alarm as baby whales keep dying; Since 2011 none have survived over a year — Biologist: We see them pregnant for weeks, then no longer pregnant — NOAA: “Not what we’re used to… Incredibly poor condition… Skeleton with skin” (VIDEO)”

  1. Amazing they covered this story at all. It is only one of many. The fish are all dead, salmon run was 1% of normal. Kind of scary? Really? It is one more signal the world we had is gone. Regardless of the fool coverage of the bigger fools heading up the US and the EU, the world is changed…….and not for the better.

    We are facing our own extinction.
    http://enenews.com/mayor-fukushima-nuclear-power-destroy-history-destroyed-life-professor-very-hard-imagine-future-beyond-fukushima-filmmakers-meltdowns-opened-fissure-time-space-horror-radiation-menaces-future-pr

    Yet, the fools go on as if nothing has changed, and nothing will alter the status quo.
    Here in CA, big sea animals are trapped in our bays starving for food and oxygen. They have no other place to go, and when they run out of both, they will beach and die.
    We have no services to pick up these poisoned animals, the vulture animals so kindly provided by nature to clean up dead animals won’t touch them, they can smell the difference. So, they set on our beaches and rot. Our once beautiful beaches are now littered with barnacles and dead sea animals, no sea shells left. Abalone shells, once so beautiful and plentiful, are now no more…..

    Our pets newly born, have the diseases of old ones by the time they are two or three, and the often diagnosed cancer forces us to put them down. The same with the stray kittens we used to rescue…….they are plagued with disease within a few short years. It is just dreadful. Older pets, interestingly enough, do better probably because they were formed and born before the disaster. I am no scientist, and this is just a theory. When people ask me about adopting cats and dogs because I have rescued and placed more cats and kittens than I can remember, I tell them to adopt those born before March of 2011. This actually helps the older ones, often overlooked by those who think they only want kittens……….

    The same with human infants. Many are born with strange defects and even if repaired, the defects return. Our air, water, soil, crops and foods have all been polluted with radioactive poisons, our species is first being born mutated with a short life expectancy. We are becoming extinct.

    18 days after the Fukushima disaster, Norway, Canada and the US dealt with the disaster: All three shut down their radiation monitors, I saw it happen live on this site……the only one to cover it. Do the fools believe that ignoring it will make it not happen? How mindless have we become? Not covering it will make it go away? Such “magical” thinking supposedly belongs to children under the age of 6.

    What has happened to western civilization? What happened to the great thinkers and players of our eras? Where did the Churchill, John Foster Dulles, FDR, and all the great thinkers who actually cared more about their nations than their pocket books? Why have they all vanished? Where have the leaders of such worth gone?
    Puts me in mind of a old folk song:
    “Where have all the flowers gone?
    long time passing?
    Where have all the flowers gone long time ago?
    Where have all the flowers gone, young girls picked them, every one.
    Where have all the young girls gone?
    long time passing
    Where have all the young girls gone?
    Long time ago
    Where have all the young girls gone?
    Gone for husbands every one.
    Where have all the husbands gone?
    Long time passing
    Where have all the husbands gone?
    Long time ago
    Where have all the husbands gone?
    Gone for soldiers every one
    When will we ever learn?
    When will we ever learn?
    Where have all the soldiers gone?
    long time ago
    Where have all the soldiers gone?
    long time ago
    Where have all the soldiers gone?
    Gone to graveyards every one.
    When will we ever learn?
    When will we ever learn?
    Where have all the graveyards gone?
    long time passing
    Where have all the graveyards gone?
    Long time ago
    Where have all the graveyard gone?
    Gone for flowers every one
    When will we ever learn?
    Oh, when will we ever learn?
    Where have all the flowers gone?
    long time passing
    Where have all the flowers gone?
    Long time ago?
    Where have all the flowers gone?
    Young girls picked them every one
    When will we ever learn
    When will we ever learn?

    Reply

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