When Kathleen Reed descended for her usual weekly dive off the coast of Nanaimo, B.C., last Saturday she was shocked by how many dead sea cucumbers she saw. Experts and harvesters fear that sea cucumbers are being hit by an illness similar to sea star wasting disease.
"This year I walked along the same route after a rainstorm and see only one or two — sometimes none"
Extreme drought in the west means that households with private waterworks are out of water. Elvar's dried up. "The situation is very serious," he says.
About 10% of our catch during dip net fishing at mouth of Kenai River was harboring these worms.
"While on a field trip for work, we stopped at the beach and you can notice hundreds of dead clams and star fish littering the beach."
Several people have fallen ill with food poisoning after eating shellfish in B.C. in the last 10 days, and health officials are warning that warm ocean waters might be to blame.
"The first wave of dead mussels washed ashore on July 14th, possibly earlier but this was the first report we received. I took the pictures included in my LEO observation on July 16th, and the temperatures were only just then beginning to climb into the upper 70s and lower 80s."
A record-shattering heat wave June 26-28 coincided with some of the year's lowest tides on Puget Sound. The combination was lethal for millions of mussels, clams, oysters, sand dollars, barnacles, sea stars, moon snails, and other tideland creatures exposed to three afternoons of intense heat.
The Southeast Alaska Tribal Ocean Research program found that all shellfish species in Settler's Cove and Seaport Beach in Ketchikan and Starrigavan North beach in Sitka are affected by high levels of Paralytic Shellfish Toxin, posing the risk of Paralytic Shellfish Poisoning for consumers.
Increasing blanket of mucus-like substance in water threatens coral and fishing industry
Thousands of euphausiid shrimp, the species identified here in Resurrection Bay as Thysanoessa spinifera. were washed into the intertidal zone and on the beach near Whittier
Last week, Alaska became one of at least 32 states to report finding zebra mussels in a product called moss balls which were sold at local pet stores.
"I've seen some way bigger than that, like a baby lobster."
For years, researchers thought an infectious pathogen was behind sea star wasting disease. A new study found that multiple species of bacteria deplete oxygen from the water effectively suffocating sea stars. These microbes thrive when there are high levels of organic matter in warm water and create the low oxygen conditions.
A harmful algal bloom, better known as a red tide, has been building up at Elands Bay on the West Coast, about 220km north of Cape Town.
Razor clams are the newest addition to Iceland’s resident fauna, RÚV reports. Researchers believe that the bivalves, which got their name in English from their long skinny shape, sharp edges, and resemblance to old fashioned straight razors, were brought to Iceland in the bilge water of cargo ships.
The species Japanese sea purse is found by divers in Stavanger harbour. "This is a plague we have been waiting for," says researcher Vivian Husa of the Institute of Marine Research. Now she particularly warns mussel breeders about the danger the species represents.
On 2 November 2020, the Japanese invertebarate Didemnum vexillum was detected by diver and underwater photographer Erling Svensen at Engøyholmen in Stavanger harbor. The aim of a new monitoring project is to register occurrences of the presumed recently arrived D. vexillum in the delimited areas, and then to map how it spreads locally, and also what impact it has on the local fauna.
A mass die off of fish and invertebrates has been reported in the Sea of Okhotsk, west of Kamchatka. Dozens of surfers reported symptoms including including poor eyesight, fever, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, skin rashes and head and throat aches.
Khalaktyrsky Beach near Petropavlovsk is littered with hundreds of dead sea animals, from deep-sea Giant Pacific octopuses, to seals, sea urchins, stars, crabs and fish. Surfers were the first to raise alarm after problems with eyesight, fevers and throat aches.
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