Citizen Journalist: mainland

Monday, October 10, 2022

Hundreds of pilot whales stranded on remote island off the east coast of New Zealand

Pitt Island is the second-largest island in the Chatham archipelago. This is about 500 miles east of the country's mainland. Nearly 250 pilot whales are stranded on this remote island off the east coast of New Zealand. It has happened within a few days of each other. During the weekend, most of the whales died while the remaining had to be put down since there was little chance of their survival. An official of Project Jonah revealed to a section of the media that two mass stranding within a few days was "not unheard of." However, the remoteness of the islands made things difficult to rescue them. Usually such cases involve massive community effort with hundreds of people. Unfortunately, the population of Pitt Island is only 40 people. It was totally inadequate to tend to such a number of whales. Hundreds of pilot whales stranded off remote islands in New Zealand.

Mass whale stranding is not new to the Chathams. The largest was in 1918, when an estimated 1,000 whales died. Later in 2000, more than 100 whales and dolphins died after being stranded on the islands. The reasons for such behavior are not known but experts do not rule out possibilities of links to environmental factors.in some parts of the world the water is too shallow for whales to navigate. This is because their echo-location ability is designed for deep water. Moreover, mass stranding are more common among highly social species. These include pilot whales. Their herding instinct means the group can move together even if one member is sick or compromised. At times, these result in their stranding. Incidentally, these bonds can be strong. Therefore, the sick whales have to be revived before the healthy ones are re-floated. In case that does not happen, the healthy whales could hear the sick ones calling and re-beach themselves to be together.

Thursday, September 29, 2022

Hurricane Ian flattens portions of the coast of Florida, wash away homes

The Category 4 hurricane Ian devastated Fort Myers Beach in Florida. There were abandoned vehicles in the roadway and debris of broken trees, boat trailers etcetera on the road. The fierce winds flattened large portions of the seaside tourist town. The barrier islands along the southwest Florida coast are famous for their seashells, fishing and laid-back lifestyle. These took major hits with both Sanibel and Captiva isolated and cut off from vehicular traffic. This was because of collapse of the only bridge to the mainland. There was devastation at a mobile home park in Fort Myers Beach. The owners tried to salvage whatever was possible. Hurricane Ian sweeps away homes, memories on barrier islands. A family who owned a gas station business for two years lost it but felt it could recover the loss because the business had insurance.

The storm surge had lifted a dozen large boats. These were nearly 48 feet long and the storm carried those away across the parking lot and a four-lane road and deposited them in a mangrove preserve. The surge left signs of destruction all over the place. Life in the coastal region took a severe hit. As one affected person said - “I thought that given that I have a concrete home with hurricane shutters and storm-grade windows, everything would hold. …. And for the most part it did. We just didn’t think we’d get an 18-foot storm surge.” His home is more than a block from the beach and about 6 feet above sea level. It is also elevated so the living space is about 10 feet off the ground. However, these did not help. Obviously, the behavior of nature is unpredictable and the people have to suffer. This can be taken as a warning from Nature on the miseries that climate change can bring on humanity.