Washed Ashore Research Articles

Determining the most appropriate feeding regime for the South African abalone Haliotis midae Linnaeus grown on kelp

Beach-cast kelp (the most widely used feed for commercially grown South African abalone) is plentiful during winter months when periodic storms cause kelp to wash ashore. During summer, however, this resource is not always readily available and farmed abalone are often starved for short periods. The aim of this research was to assess how periodic kelp starvation influences growth of the commercially grown abalone, Haliotis midae Linnaeus. Growth of grow-out abalone was monitored on a commercial abalone farm over a period of six months and consisted of 3 treatments with 2 replicates (n = ±250 abalone per replicate). The treatments were: Control (abalone always given more kelp than what they typically needed); Treatment 1 (abalone fed their weekly ration only once a week); Treatment 2 (abalone fed half their weekly ration every 3 and then 4 days respectively). While the data at first suggest that the control animals outperform the treatment animals, after undergoing an initial adjustment period to the new feeding regime, the treatment animals perform better. Weight gain and feed conversion efficiencies show that the treatment animals perform better overall. The control animals generally required much more feed to produce comparable increases in both length and weight compared to the treatment animals. This study has shown that periodic bouts of starvation is beneficial to Haliotis midae, allowing variable growth spurts when returned to full feed rations.

Apoplexia and Lethargus

Death casts a shadow over words like stupor and coma. They do not inspire optimism either in literature or in everyday experience. Coma, transcribed directly from the Greek κϖμα, was associated with death in the writings of Hippocrates. Johann Wepfer (1620–93), credited with the first demonstration of the association between apoplexy and cerebral haemorrhage, gave a vivid and oft-quoted account of the coma preceding the death of the first case in his Historiae Apoplecticorum (1658): ‘… the Abbot … found him prostrate upon the ground, insensible to shouts, to shaking and pinching of the body, the same in the trunk, senseless’. In his novel Clayhanger , Arnold Bennett describes the prolonged illness and slow death of Darius, his Cheyne-Stokes respiration and his withdrawal ‘into some fastness more recondite than sleep’. Stupor, with the same Latin root as stupidity, but usually less persistent, was referred to by Macaulay in recording the death of James II: ‘… James sank into a stupor which indicated the near approach of death’. All is not gloom. In Shakespeare's play, the wife of Pericles dies giving birth to a daughter, aptly named Marina, during a storm at sea. Her body, in a ‘chest … caulked and bitumed’, is cast overboard in an effort to still the waves and the superstition of the sailors. Washed ashore, it is opened in the presence of the lord of Ephesus who muses that ‘Death may usurp on nature many hours, and yet the fire of life kindle again the o’erpressed spirits’. Sure enough, ‘she ’gins to blow into life's flower again’ and makes a full recovery. The child of the Shunammite woman also awoke unexpectedly. In the harvest field with his father, he collapsed with the cry ‘my head, my head’ (a favourite quotation of those teaching on subarachnoid haemorrhage). …

The Struggle between States and the Federal Government on the Siting of LNG Import Terminals: Has a Red Tide Washed Ashore in the Blue States?

The Energy Policy Act of 2005 transfers, in some circumstances, implementation of the public trust doctrine from the state to the federal government. Implicit in the public trust doctrine is the issue of public safety and environmental concerns. Proponents of such facilities are challenged with weighing such factors to make a successful proposal to federal and state agencies.

Experimental Support for a New Drift Block Design to Assess Seabird Mortality from Oil Pollution

Abstract Seabird mortality from large oil spills and chronic oil pollution is often significant. Total mortality estimates are derived from counts of dead birds that wash ashore and are corrected for numbers lost at sea. Past attempts to estimate proportion of birds that die at sea and wash ashore have included several experiments using carcasses and different types of wooden drift blocks. Results varied greatly depending on environmental conditions and distance from shore where blocks or carcasses were released. Wind seemed to be the predominant factor determining movement over large distances, whereas tidal currents influenced deposition on specific beaches. Determining timing and location of arrival of dead birds on beaches are crucial for accurate mortality estimates. Drift experiments using beached birds that have already drifted at sea for an undetermined length of time are inaccurate due to natural buoyancy loss and decomposition. To determine accuracy of drift block designs used in the past, we compared drift characteristics and patterns between four drift block designs and fresh murre (Uria spp.) carcasses. Our experiments showed that drift blocks used in the past have none of the drift characteristics of dead seabirds, because they have much larger areas exposed to wind and hence drift much faster and farther than murre carcasses. Past mortality estimates using those blocks are therefore doubtful. The drift block design that most accurately mimicked murre carcass drift during our experiments was a 9 × 9 × 14.5 cm wooden block with a 450 gram steel weight that adjusts buoyancy and area exposed to the wind. We propose that in areas where murres are predominant victims of oil spills, that block design be used for all future estimates of oiled seabird mortality.

Experimental Support for a New Drift Block Design to Assess Seabird Mortality from Oil Pollution

Seabird mortality from large oil spills and chronic oil pollution is often significant. Total mortality estimates are derived from counts of dead birds that wash ashore and are corrected for numbers lost at sea. Past attempts to estimate proportion of birds that die at sea and wash ashore have included several experiments using carcasses and different types of wooden drift blocks. Results varied greatly depending on environmental conditions and distance from shore where blocks or carcasses were released. Wind seemed to be the predominant factor determining movement over large distances, whereas tidal currents influenced deposition on specific beaches. Determining timing and location of arrival of dead birds on beaches are crucial for accurate mortality estimates. Drift experiments using beached birds that have already drifted at sea for an undetermined length of time are inaccurate due to natural buoyancy loss and decomposition. To determine accuracy of drift block designs used in the past, we compared drift characteristics and patterns between four drift block designs and fresh murre (Uria spp.) carcasses. Our experiments showed that drift blocks used in the past have none of the drift characteristics of dead seabirds, because they have much larger areas exposed to wind and hence drift much faster and farther than murre carcasses. Past mortality estimates using those blocks are therefore doubtful. The drift block design that most accurately mimicked murre carcass drift during our experiments was a 9 × 9 × 14.5 cm wooden block with a 450 gram steel weight that adjusts buoyancy and area exposed to the wind. We propose that in areas where murres are predominant victims of oil spills, that block design be used for all future estimates of oiled seabird mortality.

Experimental Support for a New Drift Block Design to Assess Seabird Mortality from Oil Pollution

Abstract Seabird mortality from large oil spills and chronic oil pollution is often significant. Total mortality estimates are derived from counts of dead birds that wash ashore and are corrected for numbers lost at sea. Past attempts to estimate proportion of birds that die at sea and wash ashore have included several experiments using carcasses and different types of wooden drift blocks. Results varied greatly depending on environmental conditions and distance from shore where blocks or carcasses were released. Wind seemed to be the predominant factor determining movement over large distances, whereas tidal currents influenced deposition on specific beaches. Determining timing and location of arrival of dead birds on beaches are crucial for accurate mortality estimates. Drift experiments using beached birds that have already drifted at sea for an undetermined length of time are inaccurate due to natural buoyancy loss and decomposition. To determine accuracy of drift block designs used in the past, we co...

Nutritional Autopsy of a Short-tailed Albatross (Diomedea albatrus) Weakened by Fishhook, Washed Ashore in Central Honshu, Japan.

Nutritional Autopsy of a Short-tailed Albatross (Diomedea albatrus) Weakened by Fishhook, Washed Ashore in Central Honshu, Japan.

Whale Washed Ashore at Ancona

Whale Washed Ashore at Ancona

Natural oil seepage at coal oil point, Santa Barbara, California

Aerial, surface, and underwater investigations reveal that natural seeps off Coal Oil Point, California, introduce about 50 to 70 barrels (approximately 8,000 to 11,000 liters) of oil per day into the Santa Barbara Channel. The resulting slicks are several hundred meters wide and are of the order of 10-5 centimeters thick; tarry masses within these slicks frequently wash ashore.

Natural Oil Seepage at Coal Oil Point, Santa Barbara, California

Aerial, surface, and underwater investigations reveal that natural seeps off Coal Oil Point, California, introduce about 50 to 70 barrels (approximately 8,000 to 11,000 liters) of oil per day into the Santa Barbara Channel. The resulting slicks are several hundred meters wide and are of the order of 10(-5) centimeters thick; tarry masses within these slicks frequently wash ashore.

On the offshore circulation and a convergence mechanism in the Red Tide region off the west coast of Florida

The offshore water is shown to move as a single column. The sloping bottom and the equation of continuity are then applied to show the existence of a horizontal convergence mechanism which, over a period of several weeks, may effect a several‐fold increase in concentration of floating particles. The southbound current in the ‘loop’ is thought of as a Rossby jet which drives the cyclonic eddy offshore. Consideration of the abbreviated vorticity equation, together with the fact of sloping bottom, show that the southeastern quadrant of the cyclonic eddy possesses increasing negative vorticity and hence the organisms previously concentrated will tend to wash ashore. Some consideration of the effects of wind are also included.

Twin to Dinosaur-Age Fish Washed Ashore and Lost

Twin to Dinosaur-Age Fish Washed Ashore and Lost