SUVA, Fiji, Nov 8 2017 (IPS) - In the Pacific, climate change is an ever-present threat, undermining human rights, livelihoods, and security. Pacific Islanders are working with courage and resolve to build the resilience of their communities and to catalyse international actions towards ending global carbon pollution. While the Pacific has contributed almost nothing to the causes of climate change, the region is determined to lead the world towards a more just and sustainable future. And while often labelled as ‘small island states’, Pacific Island countries are more accurately characterised as ‘large oceans states’ as they are custodians of vast tracts of ocean, to which their economies, culture, identities and livelihoods are inextricably tied.

The overriding theory is that it's a bloom of algae brought on by rising water temperatures.

The northward shift to get to cooler weather was expected, but several experts were surprised by the move to the west, which was larger and in a majority of the species

A dead humpback whale has washed ashore on North Carolina’s Outer Banks. The Charlotte Observer reported Thursday that the 18-foot whale was found on Pea Island about half-mile north of Rodanthe.

People in southern Labrador and along Newfoundland's Northern Peninsula are being cautioned to be on the lookout for the bears, who have already begun to move north.

A year after tens of thousands of common murres, an abundant North Pacific seabird, starved and washed ashore on beaches from California to Alaska, researchers have pinned the cause to unusually warm ocean temperatures that affected the tiny fish they eat.

Chris Flickinger says the number of animals killed by bears is way above average, causing a sizable financial loss.

Environment Canada said the weather system shattered more than 100 heat records across British Columbia, Alberta, Yukon and Northwest Territories.

American Airlines has canceled 38 flights in and out of Phoenix on Tuesday afternoon because of extreme heat.

Zeta broke the record for the previous earliest 27th Atlantic named storm that formed Nov. 29, 2005. It’s also the 11th hurricane of the season. An average season sees six hurricanes and 12 named storms.

Drought levels have been raised already for parts of the province and Dave Campbell, with the B.C. River Forecast Centre, says the current forecast points to drought conditions provincewide in the coming weeks.

The Seward facility began housing five seals found in the Cook Inlet area and another that was rescued in Juneau.

The dog’s owner waded waist-deep into Taku Lake and was bitten on his hand while pulling the husky-mix away from the river otters,.

A Texas man died after going into cardiac arrest when he was attacked by an aggressive swarm of bees outside his home, authorities said. Thomas Hicks, 70, was mowing his lawn Monday when he was repeatedly stung by the bees outside his home in Breckenridge.

The school district plans to transport fuel from a group of 10 tanks into three new tanks expected to be placed in the Napakiak school parking lot further inland.

NOAA has declared an “unusual mortality event” for gray whales on the North American west coast and launched an investigation.

Tim Sands, an Alaska Department of Fish and Game area management biologist, said he is hopeful the strong run throughout Bristol Bay will continue next year.

Satellite and webcam views indicated low-level ash emissions from Mount Veniaminof volcano. The ash plume did not rise above 10,000 feet, the Alaska Volcano Observatory said. Minor ash deposits are visible at the volcano, located 480 miles southwest of Anchorage.

Researchers say the population of gray whales off the West Coast of the United States has fallen by nearly one-quarter since 2016, resembling a similar die-off two decades ago.

Patrick Jones, wildlife biologist for the state Department of Fish and Game, said he has heard of dogs killing moose, caribou and a days-old musk ox calf, but nothing like this attack.