An extremely rare Spade-toothed Beaked Whale Mesoplodon traversii washed ashore in Otago, providing the first chance to dissect and study such a specimen, with DNA analysis underway to confirm its species.
Viruses have now been found in mosquitoes or in animals around the state, prompting health officials to warn Maine residents to protect against mosquito bites. The Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention reported positive tests for eastern equine encephalitis, or EEE, in several emu flocks and multiple horses. Also, a horse tested positive for West Nile Virus in York County.
A juvenile fin whale stranded at Moncks Bay in Christchurch, New Zealand, has died, with recovery operations underway. Last Sunday, a pod of false killer whales and bottlenose dolphins were euthanised after becoming stranded twice on a reef near Māhia.
The Maine Emergency Management Agency and other state agencies were working with local safety officials on cleanup and recovery.
Over 230,000 customers in Maine face power outages due to a severe winter storm with high winds and heavy rain, prompting a multi-day restoration effort.
Montpelier, Vermont experiences its worst flood in nearly 100 years, with the Winooski River reaching its highest level since 1927, causing extensive damage to the city and forcing residents to evacuate.
Powerful storm surges, coinciding with the monthly astronomical high tide, are flooding low-lying streets in Portland and other coastal communities.
The virus was first reported among brown skua on Bird Island, off South Georgia. Since then, researchers and observers have reported mass deaths of elephant seals, as well as increased deaths of fur seals, kelp gulls and brown skua at several other sites. Researchers warn of one of ‘largest ecological disasters of modern times’ if the highly contagious disease reaches penguin colonies.
Rockfall buries access road but stops just in front of hamlet, which had been evacuated in anticipation.
A mobile home washed away in severe flooding after Storm Hans hit Hemsedal, Norway, on Tuesday, 8 August. The extreme weather has battered parts of Scandinavia and the Baltics for several days. Rivers have overflown, roads have been damaged and people have been injured by falling branches.
El Bosque, a Mexican fishing village with a population of 400 people, is being swallowed by rising sea levels, and experts predict that the entire village could be underwater within a year, leaving residents displaced and without adequate housing alternatives.
“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.
Northern Finland experienced unprecedented June temperatures and abnormal rainfall, deviating significantly from historical weather patterns.
The swelling Tom River in southwestern Siberia has led to a partial dam collapse in the city of Tomsk. This year’s heavy rainfall, combined with abnormally warm spring weather, has led to severe flooding in Russia’s Urals and western Siberia. So far, the floods have submerged around 15,600 homes and 28,000 land plots in 193 Russian towns and cities across 33 regions.
Intense rainfall in Russia's Far East Primorye region caused floods, power outages, and evacuations, with water levels exceeding the norm by eightfold in some areas, following previous flooding caused by tropical storm Khanun.
An observer reports unusual sightings of Sabine's gulls, including juveniles, outside their typical migration period, suggesting a potential new breeding colony near Nome.
Reports are coming in about hundreds of dead birds from Hammerfest in the west to Murmansk in the east. A zone with a radius of five kilometers is closed and guards are in place round-the-clock.
A moose that was killed in Teller last week had been infected with rabies, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game confirmed.
A severe winter storm has led to a state of emergency in Sakhalin, Russia, disrupting transportation and daily life. The storm paralyzed the public transportation system in the regional capital of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, and major roadways were made inaccessible.
Sakha is now the fourth region in the Far East where a state of emergency is currently in place due to wildfires. The other three are the Zabaykalsky and Amur regions, as well as the republic of Buryatia. Russia’s wildfire season officially began in early March. By mid-April, regions in the Far East recorded nearly twice as many fires as they had during the same period last year, with most blazes caused by human negligence.
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