Scientists have narrowed down the top likely causes of more than 1,400 seal deaths across New England.
The Division of Marine Fisheries is analyzing the clams and expects to have preliminary results in the coming days that might point to a cause.
Deaths of gray and harbor seals, in much greater numbers than usual, have been attributed to viruses related to distemper and the flu.
Biologists say plentiful food and other conditions are helping the rodents to thrive, and now the young ones are hitting the road.
The temperature at Logan International Airport rose to 97 degrees shortly after 1 p.m. Wednesday, topping a record set in 1953.
Temperatures in southern Maine topped 90 degrees Tuesday and are expected to do the same Wednesday, prompting school officials to dismiss students early and cancel sports practices, and sending people flocking to beaches.
Many of the dead seals that washed ashore in northern New England in the past few weeks tested positive for either avian influenza or phocine distemper virus, but it is still too soon to say if those viruses are the primary causes of the unusual die-off.
Marine mammal experts are testing tissue samples for a potential common cause of the surge in carcasses found on the state's beaches this year.
The smelly carcass, identified as that of an adult male minke whale, is the second large marine animal to turn up on shore in southern Maine in the past week.
The powerful winter weather storm was slamming into Massachusetts by mid-morning Thursday, bringing blizzard-like conditions in some areas, torrential rain in others, power outages and hurricane-strength winds on Cape Cod and the Islands.
The number of outages is down from a peak of 484,000 statewide after winds and rain ravaged the region Monday morning.
We put out the call for images of storm damage across the state Monday morning and our readers answered with some great shots.
The unusually warm winter has proven deadly in the northeast. More than a dozen people, including snowmobilers and ice fishermen, have died when they fell through thin lake ice.
The polar bear is a powerful symbol of the effects of climate change in the Arctic. Here in New England, our symbol may soon be the sugar maple tree.
New Hampshire Public Radio's Dan Gorenstein reports the northeastern U.S. is experiencing one of the worst droughts in decades. New, deeper wells are in demand even though they cost thousands of dollars to drill. About 40 percent of New Hampshire residents get their water from private wells. Snow might replenish some of the wells, but water doesn't permeate frozen ground.
Ice is a key player not only in the culture of the northern Northeast, but also in its unique lake ecosystems – a determinant of everything from water temperature to aquatic food chains to water quality. And according to long-term climate data, ice-out has been moving earlier and earlier.
Parts of 10 states and some major population centers — including Philadelphia, New York and Boston — were pummeled by the storm.
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