“Last year we got several reports from tourists and scientists that they saw around six walruses dead here on the west side of Svalbard. Unfortunately, we couldn’t sample them as the dead walruses drifted away by the time we got to the place. But it’s not normal to get so many reported dead walruses in such a small area," said Christian Lydersen, senior scientist at the Norwegian Polar Institute. Now samples (collected by a Station Manager in July 2023) have tested positive for highly pathogenic avian influenza.
Norway reports a record high of 175 Lyme disease cases from January to June 2024, with uncertain causes attributed to weather conditions and increased tick awareness.
Two harbor seal pups, one from Naknek and another from Wrangell, were recently rescued and are receiving care at the Alaska SeaLife Center due to malnourishment and other health issues.
The crow was on the beach hiding near a driftwood stump and was unable to fly and struggled to walk. These are signs associated with highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) also commonly referred to as "bird flu". See video.
These eggs from a trout caught in the Fish River, had unusual milky translucent capsules in it.
A second seal pup has been rescued on Kenai Beach, marking the fourth such case for the Alaska SeaLife Center's Wildlife Response Program.
The parasite Kudoa is causing trouble for the fishing industry in the southern hemisphere. By chance, researchers found the scary parasite in coastal cod from the Helgeland coast.
A crab was caught on the ice just offshore in Nome. It had a small invertebrate in the gills of the crab.
An immunocompromised man from Kenai Peninsula is the first known fatality from the Alaskapox virus, a rare zoonotic disease primarily transmitted through animal contact.
A Lyme disease-carrying tick was found on a dog in Fort Simpson, N.W.T., with uncertainty about whether the tick originated locally or from a southern province.
A dog at the Kodiak Animal Shelter was euthanized after testing positive for canine distemper, leading to a quarantine and a halt on adoptions.
Alaska wildlife officials collaborated with whale experts to successfully rescue a humpback whale that was entangled in crabbing gear off the coast of Gustavus, Alaska, preventing it from dying.
An unprecedented outbreak of sea lice in Tálknafjörður has led to the loss, or the need to dispose of, at least one million salmon. “Nobody has seen anything like this before. There is a Norwegian veterinarian who has been working in Iceland because of this and he has never seen anything like this in his 30-year career,” Karl Steinar observed.
There have been similar, even larger outbreaks of avian flue in seabird colonies in north Norway. In some cases, the losses were dramatic and major fractions of the colonies were wiped out. In Spitsbergen, avian flu was found for the first time in 2002, but the recent outbreak on Hopen is the largest one so far.
In Dillingham, Alaska, 19 cases of avian flu have been identified in common murres, with the virus still present in wild birds and genetic testing being conducted to determine if it is a new strain or a strain circulating in North America.
Samples taken from a white-tailed eagle found dead on a skerry near Barðaströnd in the Westfjords in mid-September tested positive for a severe bird flu virus of the strain HPAI H4N5. An eider duck that was found dead in Ólafsfjörður, West Iceland recently was infected with the same strain of bird flu virus. The strain has not been detected in Iceland before and is not common.
African swine fever is harmless to humans but deadly to pigs and wild boars. An outbreak in Serbia, Bosnia and Croatia this summer has led farmers there to cull thousands of animals.
A dead humpback whale calf named Tango was found washed up near Juneau, Alaska, and an investigation is underway to determine if it was struck by a vessel.
"This season we have observed many salmonberry bushes that appear to be defoliated. It seems something is eating the leaves. We have also noticed the berries look sickly."
The hind of the moose was also covered with flies.
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