It's not yet clear what led to the humpback’s death or where it died, and biologists are warning people to stay away from the carcass.
On June 19, some kids spotted an unrecognized creature the size of a large whale offshore near the Alaska village of Iliamna. Other accounts followed.
The beluga had a ruptured intestine probably related to parasites, which were found in the whale’s abdomen, lungs and kidneys, Burek said. The parasites likely led to an entanglement within a section of the intestines, leading it to rupture. “Very unusual,” Burek said. “I’ve never seen anything like that before.”
Alaskans from St. Lawrence Island were hospitalized with the food-borne parasite trichinella, which used to more typically infect pork. The CDC and state public health officials issued warnings.
Climate change has allowed spotted seals to find new hunting grounds, but the marine mammals ultimately depend on sea ice to survive.
Looking over a longer time span, bears in the southern Beaufort Sea are now using land to an extent they haven’t used it historically,” a researcher said.
Biologists believe the 18- to 20-foot whale may be sick or injured. It’s unclear if it will be able to swim out during high tide.
The whale is located in an inaccessible place where scientists are unable to take a necropsy.
Sea ice in the Chukchi Sea disappeared far earlier than normal this spring as a result of exceptionally warm ocean temperatures.
Three of the walruses had low to moderate levels of saxitoxin, while the fourth one had high levels.
State officials are now blaming toxoplasmosis, a parasite carried in cat feces, for the deaths of three critically endangered Hawaiian monk seals on Oahu.
An Alaska scientist challenges the so-called unexplained lesions and deaths observed among Arctic sea life in 2011 and 2012.
Kachemak Bay has witnessed massive die-offs of sea stars, murres and razor clams. Whats going on?
The notoriously difficult-to-study Pacific walrus population decreased by about half between 1981 and 1999, likely due to hunting and changes to sea-ice habitat, according to a new USGS study that is considered the most up-to-date and comprehensive so far. The Pacific walrus is being considered for Endangered Species Act protections.
Warm water threatens marine habitats off the coast of BC
Biologists are trying to determine what's ailing ringed seals that live off Alaska's Arctic coast. Scores of seals stranded on beaches this summer appeared to have skin lesions, and dozens have died.
Pacific walruses are beaching on Northwest Alaska shores, peppered with bleeding skin legions that have been observed on dying ringed seals in Arctic Alaska, according to federal biologists.
Not a single humpback whale was seen in the Salish Sea for nearly a hundred years
They say the animal is currently near a lock at Vernon, about 70km (43 miles) north-west of Paris.Experts are puzzled as to why the animal has strayed so far south from its natural habitat.
Nunavut is not prepared to deal with the impacts of climate change and doesn't have a plan to deal with them, according to the latest report by Canada's auditor general.
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