tagged w/ cape cod
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More than 100 dolphins have beached themselves along Cape Cod in the past month in what researchers are calling a "disturbing" event due to warmer waters off the Massachusetts coast. At least 81 dolphins have died or "died shortly after being discovered"...
http://veracitystew.com/2012/02/02/81-dead-dolphins-on-cape-cod-video/More than 100 dolphins have beached themselves along Cape Cod in the past month in... more
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CNN...
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At least 20 dolphins found dead in Cape Cod area
By Dominique Debucquoy-Dodley, CNN
updated 1:26 AM EST, Tue January 17, 2012
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Between 40 and 50 dolphins have been found stranded close to shore near Cape Cod since Thursday.
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STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Experts are not sure why the dolphins are washing up
19 stranded dolphins have been saved
Dolphins have been found stranded close to shore since Thursday
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(CNN) -- At least 20 dolphins have died after washing up near several Cape Cod towns, an International Fund for Animal Welfare spokeswoman said Monday.
Between 40 and 50 common and Atlantic white-sided dolphins have been found stranded close to the shore since Thursday, and the number will likely rise, said IFAW spokeswoman Kerry Branon. Some animals were released Monday near Provincetown, bringing the total number of animals saved to 19.
"It may not sound like a high success rate, but when you consider that 27 were alive when they washed up, I think we're doing pretty well." The remaining eight that were stranded alive died.
Stranded living animals are given full health assessments, including ultrasounds and hearing tests; dead animals are given CT scans and necropsies, Branon said. Five released dolphins have been equipped with satellite tags on their dorsal fins to track their location and to see if they're surviving.
Despite January-April being "high season" for dolphin stranding near Cape Cod, IFAW experts aren't exactly sure why so many dolphins are appearing now.
One theory is that the animals get caught in currents when they come close to land to feed. Another theory is that, as social animals, if one dolphin is sick or injured, the whole group will stay with that animal. Finally, the topography of Cape Cod may create areas where the dolphins can get stuck.
Katie Moore, a Cape Cod dolphin rescue veteran of 15 years, says that this is only the second time she has seen this many dolphins washing ashore.
"Sometimes they come up one at a time, other times we see them 10 at a time," said Moore, manager of IFAW's rescue team.
The six-member rescue team is on-call 24/7 and will continue searching this week.
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At least 20 dolphins found dead in Cape Cod area
By Dominique... more
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Nathalie Miebach may not yet be a household name, but the Boston Massachusetts-based artist and 2011 TED Global Fellow, has already staked out a reputation as one of America’s most original-thinking and innovative sculptors.The daughter of an engineer who spent a quarter century working on the Hubble space telescope, Miebach’s art focuses on the intersection of creativity and science and the visual articulation of scientific observations.Nathalie Miebach may not yet be a household name, but the Boston Massachusetts-based... more
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The big game is fast approaching, and so is that great Superbowl Party. So what are you going to serve? NFL Star Sean Landeta has the inside scoop on everyone's favorite snack, the potato chip. Americans will eat over 11 million pounds of the salty treats this year, but Sean's challenging you to make your bowl of chips healthier WITHOUT losing the taste you love. See if you can go the distance and make your healthier Superbowl party a touchdown!The big game is fast approaching, and so is that great Superbowl Party. So what are... more
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The big game is fast approaching, and so is that great Superbowl Party. So what are you going to serve? NFL Star Sean Landeta has the inside scoop on everyone's favorite snack, the potato chip. Americans will eat over 11 million pounds of the salty treats this year, but Sean's challenging you to make your bowl of chips healthier WITHOUT losing the taste you love. See if you can go the distance and make your healthier Superbowl party a touchdown!The big game is fast approaching, and so is that great Superbowl Party. So what are... more
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Massive Horseshoe Crab Die Off in Cape Cod: Corexit poisoning?
Posted on 09/17/2010 by "Gulf Leak Watch" editors
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From YouTube: August 20th I met my friend down at the beach on the Cape near our family home in Chatham. Harding’s Beach has always been a great clean beach.
I sat for a few seconds and saw it right off. OK the seaweed but then I took a walk further & right off noticed the immense horseshoe crab die off.
Ive been there my whole life & Ive never seen this. Yes storms bring in many things but one species & not others & only the young of the species. Something was wrong to me and I had to show it.
I’ll get right to it. Yes I suspect it has a relation to the Corexit 9500 & that the currents have carried that deadly poison to our shores. Our own Fishing industry & livelihood is not only in jeopardy but more important our lives our health is. This will last our life time and then on.
This is significant & critical as to the scope of this environmental disaster & how it will or is affecting anywhere the waters flow around the globe.
Our government has signed off to the industry and military to allow the use of this dispersant Corexit 9500 & it is deadly. Don’t let them tell you other wise & those who dropped it I’m sure they know in their own hearts it was wrong.
It’s like they dropped the A bomb and I’m serious about this people. We have been poisoned and it is not isolated to the Gulf and I do not believe it was an accident.
I am very upset over the oil spill and what they used to disperse or cover up the magnitude of the spill. We know we are being messed with and it’s our lives and our children’s lives. They do not care.
Our sea is dying and it is too late. This event in the Gulf has really done us in. Millions of gallons PLUS this Corexit 9500 has been injected into the well under the sea and also sprayed from up above by our own air force.
What did they think would be the result of such an action? Who signed off on such a thing? Who? You know who!
This is no longer a threat to our shores but to others as well outside our own country. This is a Global event & my little film here is nothing but a small fragment of what is to come.
“The Canary in the Mine” for sure.
BP was & is in control of our beaches telling our own people who wanted to report on the issue they had no jurisdiction and were not allowed to photograph or walk the most contaminated areas. I do not buy the “it was for their own safety” We have no idea of the scope of this yet but I can only estimate. Not imagine I’m thinking the reality is very scary at this point.
Forget the most contaminated areas. They are all contaminated.
This is so devastating it is Global. Wake up people were really in a Global Crisis were all in this together and I am not sure we can get out of this one.
I took samples of the Horseshoe crabs to an environmental testing lad today. The manager was called in & a marine biologist & we talked and we all agreed what can we do? nothing at this point but spread what we have found.
They didn’t even have to test. They knew. That’s what is scary. They knew. The manager was a diver & he knew it was possible & it was here. So he was in agreement but the reality is what can we do now that the damage is done.
I told him this was not about money this was about an environmental disaster we have no control over and all we can do now is report on it. No fund will recover our marine life. we don’t have to pay law firms to tell us what we already know.
Our fishing industry is going to die but that’s the least of our worries. We may go along with it.
There is nothing at this point to do but to yell all about it. He agreed yes the contamination had reached our shores. That’s all I needed to hear. He was a diver and knew this was not good and not surprised.
I told him the dispersant was light enough to make its way up the coast in the currents to Massachusetts. He agreed.
He agreed but what can we do about it? What can we do!!!!!! It’s happened how can we correct it? We can’t.
Really this is horrible & I’m just showing you what I alone have seen and I’ll write more later. This is my own evidence.
It has made it to our shores who is next. Oh and yes this is no surprise and how long has this been going on? It isnt the first time I can say that with a clear mind
No the oceans are not warm because of the climate change they are warming because they have been poisoned with a chemical so lethal it has created a thermal chemical reaction..
The thermo change is from the chemical reaction in the water due to contamination which effects the marine life more and the crustaceans are the first to go so here we are.
If we notice the birds die off then we know for sure. They have ingested the guts of the crabs so it’s moving up the food chain.
Do not trust your country to have your back they have allowed this and I am more than upset.Massive Horseshoe Crab Die Off in Cape Cod: Corexit poisoning?
Posted on 09/17/2010... more
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Added On August 2, 2010
Cape Cod officials are proceeding with caution after great white sharks were spotted just off shore.Added On August 2, 2010
Cape Cod officials are proceeding with caution after great... more
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by Sarah Laskow, Media Consortium blogger
Two disasters flared up this week, one environmental, the other political. Off the coast of Louisiana, oil from a sunken rig is leaking as much as five times faster than scientists originally judged, and the spill reportedly reached land last night. And in Washington, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) jumped from his partnership with Sens. John Kerry (D-MA) and Joe Lieberman (I-CT) just before the scheduled release of the draft of a new Senate climate bill.
The trio had worked for months on bipartisan legislation on climate change. After Graham’s defection, his partners promised to press on, but the bill’s chances of survival are dimmer.
The next Exxon Valdez?
As Grist puts it, the spill off the Louisiana coast is “worse than expected, and getting worser.” The oil rig sank on April 20, and since then, oil has been pouring out of the well and into the Gulf of Mexico.
British Petroleum (BP), which operates the rig, along with the Coast Guard and now the Department of Defense, has pushed to contain and clean up the spill. The problem is deep under water and difficult to measure, but by mid-week, experts estimated that it was gushing 5,000 barrels a day from three different leaks.
Interior department officials said the spill could continue for 90 days. Mother Jones’ Kevin Drum looks at a couple of estimates for how much oil could end up in the Gulf and concludes, “An Exxon Valdez size spill might only be a few days away.”
The federal government has rallied to respond. Administration officials have traveled to Louisiana, and both the executive branch and the legislative branch have announced investigations into the spill. But, as Care2 writes, the White House is saying that the explosion should not derail plans for future drilling.
“In all honesty I doubt this is the first accident that has happened and I doubt it will be the last,” press secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters, according to Care2.
New drilling, no regulations
Just a few weeks ago, President Barack Obama announced that the government would open up areas off the East Coast for offshore oil and gas drilling. The proposal already had some opponents, and the spill makes the politics of new drilling that much trickier. Mother Jones’ Kate Sheppard reports that White House energy and climate adviser Carol Browner acknowledged the issue, along with energy experts around Washington.
“This reopens the issue: Is the risk worth the reward?” Lincoln Pratson, a professor of energy and environment at Duke’s Nicholas School of the Environment, told Sheppard.
And even though BP is relying on the Coast Guard and the Department of Defense for help managing this spill, the company is pushing back on efforts to minimize those risks, Lindsay Beyerstein reports for Working In These Times.
The company “continues to oppose a proposed rule by the Minerals Management Service (the agency that oversees oil leases on federal lands) that would require lessees and operators to develop and audit their own Safety and Emergency Management Plans (SEMP),” Beyerstein writes. “BP and other oil companies insist that voluntary compliance will suffice to keep workers and the environment safe.”
Climate bill catastrophe
The country might also have to rely on companies’ “voluntary compliance” with measures to combat global warming: Congress doesn’t seem likely to pass a bill regulating carbon any time soon. Sen. Kerry and friends were supposed to release their version of climate legislation Monday, but over the weekend, Sen. Graham backed out. His reason? Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid had floated the idea of prioritizing immigration reform, which Graham argued would undermine work on energy legislation.
“It seems like the senator…has a bit of an attitude problem,” wrote The American Prospect’s Gabriel Arana. “He storms out of climate talks because Democrats have dared consider working on two things at once? The degree to which movement in the Senate hinges on this single, mercurial senator, seemingly the only one whose agenda includes something more than stymieing Democrats, is remarkable.”
Call the clean up crew
After Graham’s announcement (Arana called it a “hissy fit”), congressional democrats scrambled to prove that the climate bill was not knocked entirely off course. On Monday, Sen. Kerry and Sen. Lieberman met with their wayward colleague; by Wednesday, Sen. Reid had promised that he would “move forward on energy first;” and by Thursday, Kerry and Lieberman had asked the EPA to start evaluating the bill’s environmental and economic impacts.
Although a draft of the bill was supposed to come out on Monday, no one has seen it. At Mother Jones, Kate Sheppard reports that even the EPA, which is supposed to analyze the bill, hasn’t received the full draft.
“According to the EPA, the senators submitted a “description of their draft bill” for economic modeling,” she writes. “The agency confirmed in a statement to Mother Jones the senators “have not sent EPA any actual legislative text.” The agency is determining whether it has enough information about the bill to produce an analysis of its economic and environmental impacts.”
Despite assurances from the Senate leadership, it’s not clear if climate legislation will come to the floor this year or, if it does, that it will pass.
Not a disaster
There was one bright spot of news for environmentalists this week: the United States will build its first off-shore wind farm off the coast of Cape Cod. The project, called Cape Wind, has a host of opponents, but Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar decided to approve it. The scale will be smaller than originally planned—130 rather than 170 turbines, the Washington Independent reports—which could mollify critics who worried about its visual impact.
Cape Wind is a prime example of how clean energy projects can still cause harm or anger the people who live in their shadow. The Texas Observer recaps opposition to clean energy projects: A working-class neighborhood fought against efforts to build a biomass plant in their town, and won.
“Despite some activists touting these projects as solutions to global warming, and politicians promoting them as the key to economic prosperity, renewable energy projects tend to have their own sets of problems for local residents,” reports Rusty Middleton.
Biomass is one thing: burning materials like waste wood might produce fewer greenhouse gasses, but a biomass plant still dirties the air around it. But if the choice is between an off-shore wind farm that could mar a pleasant vista or an off-shore drilling operation that could spill gallons of oil onto your coast, it seems clear which is the better option.
This post features links to the best independent, progressive reporting about the environment by members of The Media Consortium. It is free to reprint. Visit the Mulch for a complete list of articles on environmental issues, or follow us on Twitter. And for the best progressive reporting on critical economy, health care and immigration issues, check out The Audit, The Pulse, and The Diaspora. This is a project of The Media Consortium, a network of leading independent media outlets.by Sarah Laskow, Media Consortium blogger
Two disasters flared up this week, one... more
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What did the recession do to the island's economy? What happens when the tourists are gone? What happens year-round? This multimedia piece attempts to answers these questions. Eight year-round residents explore what it takes to live 30 miles out to sea. Some came for work, others for leisure, but they all share one thing in common, enduring the effects of living on an island in New England.What did the recession do to the island's economy? What happens when the tourists... more
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The weather might feel right for a taking a dip, but for those on the coast of Chatham, Mass., now's not a good time for one last summer swim.
Recent sightings of four great white sharks have prompted a swimming ban for the rest of the Labor Day weekend at some of the area's oceanside beaches, including North Beach, Lighthouse Beach, South Beach and Hardings Beach and Nauset Beach.The weather might feel right for a taking a dip, but for those on the coast of... more
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An extraordinary figure in American politics, the Liberal Lion of the Senate, has passed away. Edward (Ted) Kennedy is dead at 77. Kennedy was the senior United States Senator from Massachusetts and a member of the Democratic Party. Kennedy's death marks the end of an era in American politics.An extraordinary figure in American politics, the Liberal Lion of the Senate, has... more
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There are only about 325 North Atlantic right whales left in the world, and approximately 80 of them have assembled in the waters near Cape Cod.
They have come together to feed on an unusually huge population of zooplankton. The whales normally follow zooplankton from Canada as they are moved with ocean currents down to the Massachusetts coast. This year the extra numbers of zooplankton are attracting a record congregation of North Atlantic rights, which are one of the most endangered species in the world.There are only about 325 North Atlantic right whales left in the world, and... more
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Conservation collides with clean energy in a calamatous climate kerfoffel on Cape Cod.
Cape Wind has become Cape Fear for some Massachusetts coastal residents, including some at the posh Kennedy compound, but for wind energy advocates, this is one US project that’s creating more fanfare than fright.
Slated to be the first offshore wind farm in the continental US, Cape Wind will provide 130 mammoth turbines in the middle of the Nantucket Sound. These energy generating windmills will deliver 420 megawatts of clean power, enough to to supply 75% of the region’s energy needs.
While this excites islanders looking to clean up their energy consumption, this project does have it’s critics. An organization called Save Our Sound claims there are significant wildlife and safety hazards like interference with the 400,000 flights that traverse that air space.
Cape Wind plans to address those concerns and suggests a radar upgrade could eliminate the hazard. This maneuver and stimulus billions available to support the project may get the wind farm’s propellers going after all.
For the latest on the Cape Wind controversy, visit some of the following links:
Cape Wind proposal clears big obstacle (Boston Globe)
A day at the beach remains unspoiled (Springfield Republican)
Cape Wind will proceed in face of political hot air (Worcester Telegram)
Cape Wind foes spent $2 million on lobbying (National Journal - Under the Influence)
Photo by rich_awn.Conservation collides with clean energy in a calamatous climate kerfoffel on Cape Cod.... more
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Like a chocoholic with keys to a Godiva shop, a young harbor seal found herself in sea mammal heaven yesterday — the Sandwich Hatchery.
And before she was captured and released on a salt water beach, the little seal managed to munch on untold numbers of four-pound trout.
No one is quite sure exactly how the seal ended up at the state fish hatchery.
She had to travel about two miles from the area of the Sandwich Boardwalk on Cape Cod Bay, follow a creek that passes under a mini-golf course and Route 6A and runs through a wooded area skirting the fish hatchery, before somehow making her way to the hatchery lagoons.
With several fish-filled lagoons to choose from, the little seal ended up in the one with the largest trout, most weighing four pounds or so.
"It's either a very smart little seal or a very lucky little seal," said Katie Touhey, a spokeswoman for the Cape Cod Stranding Network, a program of the International Fund for Animal Welfare. "It looks healthy enough, pretty full in fact," said Touhey, peering into the lagoon where the seal swam back and forth, alternately barking at curious onlookers who ventured too close.
Like a chocoholic with keys to a Godiva shop, a young harbor seal found herself in sea... more
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Learn about a small Cape Cod town, Chatham and its struggle with maintaining its local year round culture, but also accommodating affluent summer homeowners coming in from New England's cities. Learn about a small Cape Cod town, Chatham and its struggle with maintaining its local... more
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