Giant eyeball on FL beach

Photo: (AP) Made available by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission shows a giant eyeball from a mysterious sea creature that washed ashore and was found by a man walking the beach in Pompano Beach, Fla. on Wednesday. No one knows what species the huge blue eyeball came from. The eyeball will be sent to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Research Institute in St. Petersburg, FL.

MIAMI (AP) — It’s not that body parts never wash ashore on Florida beaches. But usually it’s not an eye the size of a softball.

State wildlife officials are trying to determine the species of a blue eyeball found by a man Wednesday at Pompano Beach, north of Fort Lauderdale. They put the eyeball on ice so it can be analyzed at the Florida Fish and Wildlife Research Institute in St. Petersburg.

Agency spokeswoman Carli Segelson says the eyeball likely came from a marine animal, since it was found on a beach. Possible candidates include a giant squid, a whale or some type of large fish.

Technorati Tags: sea creatures,ocean dwellers,Florida,whales,giant squid,fish,JOMP,Just One More Pet,unusual stories

School of deep-sea diving: Breathtaking underwater photos capture exotic marine life in remote parts of the world

The Daily Mail –  – By Emma Reynolds – h/t to Patricia Gillenwater

Daring diver in his 60s goes to remote parts of the world to take beautiful pictures by a marine life photographer in the wildest parts of the planet.

David Doubilet’s awe-inspiring images were taken in far-flung parts of the Antarctic and around exotic islands.

The vibrant photographs range from cute Australian sea lions peering inquisitively into the lens to a terrifying Great White Shark opening its jaws in South Africa.

Sea life through a lens: An Australian sea lion peers playfully into the camera off Hopkins Island South Australia

I said, no pictures! A great white shark makes a less friendly subject as it tries to bite the camera in Gansbaai, South Africa

Even a black and white scene is utterly beautiful, showing a group of southern stingrays floating above the seabed of the Cayman Islands with sun rays falling from above.

 

Another fascinating photo shows a chance encounter between a parrot fish and a school of grey grunts in Galapagos.

Intrepid Mr Doubilet is now in his mid-60s but remains unafraid to come face-to-face with predators of the deep.

He has also enlisted fellow adventurers to appear in his photos, with one showing diver Dinah Halstead surrounded by a circle of barracuda in Papua New Guinea.

Happy feet: Chinstrap penguins survey their surroundings from the top of a ‘bergy bit’, or small ice floe, off Danko Island in the Antarctic Peninsula

In the spotlight: Barracuda encircle daredevil diver Dinah Halstead as intrepid photographr David Doubilet captures the moment in the clear waters of Papua New Guinea

Shimmering surface: A Papuan fisherman stands in his wooden outrigger above schools of flashing baitfish in Raja Ampat, Indonesia

Vibrant characters: A chromodoris nudibranch raises its mantle to detect its environment in a white studio, while a spine cheeked clownfish nestles in bleached anemone in a more natural setting of Milne Bay, Papua New Guinea

All smiles: A parrotfish seems to grin in its sleep near Heron Island, Great barrier Reef

Sad face: The talented photographer picks out incredible detail in this close-up of a funny-looking shortnose batfish, or Ogcocephalus nasutus

He said: ‘People forget that there are more humans that eat sharks than sharks that eat humans and in some areas the shark population is down by 90 per cent.

‘For example in China they eat shark soup as a way of proving wealth and success.’

The New York photographer has spent hundreds of hours travelling the world to see the ever more intriguing secrets of the ocean.

He is one of the greatest underwater photographers in the world, and his work in both fresh and salt water has been elevated to new heights with the advent of the digital age.

Between sea and sky: A southern stingray glides across the waved raked sands of North Sound bay, Grand Cayman island

Light and shade: The beautiful pictures have great impact, even in black and white

Fish-eye: A Maori humphead wrasse at Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, left, and a male tomato clownfish, right, guarding his clutch of eggs – which hatch in a week

Amazing aerial view: A De Havilland Beaver Biplane delivers scuba divers to Hook and Hardy Reef on the Great Barrier Reef, Australia

Vast and blue: A red Waco biplane over Key West and the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary – the birth place of the Gulf Stream

He said: ‘That Cartier-Bresson moment that is hard to achieve on land is 10 times harder to achieve underwater, because you’re swimming around with a large housing with arms as long as 24 inches long and attached to the end of the arms are your strobes.

‘Sometimes you’re using six or seven strobes or large surface-powered HMI movie lights.’

One picture shows a male tomato clownfish guarding his clutch of developing eggs in the Philippines, while another captures a weedy sea dragon patrolling a Tasmanian kelp forest.

Mr Doubilet said: ‘There are always moments that are dangerous. I wouldn’t say I have ever been scared as such but I can’t deny I have certainly put myself in many dangerous situations.

Unearthly imagery: A weedy sea dragon, Phyllopteryx taeniolatus, patrols a kelp forest at Waterfall Bay, Tasmania, Australia

Green menace: A baby Nile crocodile hides in a veil of algae in the Ncamasere Channel of the Pan handle region of the Okavango Delta, Botswana, Africa

Nice to sea you: A parrot fish confronts a school of grey grunts in the Galapagos Islands

‘One that sticks in my head is when we were doing night dives in a river in Okavango Deta, northern Botswana.

‘The water was full of crocodiles and hippos and because they follow sound and movement we couldn’t go back to shoot in the same place twice.

‘There was a mother and baby hippo close by and they can be very defensive in that situation. Not to mention the crocodile eyes glowing all around us.

‘Being faced with something like that is much more intimidating than a shark.’

Hidden world: A stack of mating loggerhead turtles in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, Key Largo Florida

Picturesque: Australian sea lions play in a sea grass meadow off Hopkins Island, South Australia

Technorati Tags: nature photos,animal photos,ocean creatures,underwater photography,fish,Great Barrier Reef,sea dragon,turtles,sea lions,sea life,great white sharks,penguins seals

DID YOU KNOW PIRANHAS BARK? HERE’S YOUR CHANCE TO HEAR IT

Scientists find piranhas different barks have different meanings. (Photo: Sandie Millot)

Piranhas are like the rotweilers of the sea — they bark and they bite. Scientists recently recorded piranhas barking and conclude these sounds mean back off — now.

The fact that piranhas bark isn’t new news to the scientific world but you usually have to pick them up to hear it — and who’s going to do that? Scientists at University of Liège, Belgium, were interested in recording why piranhas bark without outside stimuli. What they found is that it’s a communication tool with each other, mostly meaning go away.

According to the release, scientists suspended a hydrophone and video camera into the piranhas’ tank. They then compared the soundtrack with the movie they filmed finding that the fish were generally silent — except in the face of confrontation.

Watch and hear piranhas bark in a tank:

http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/player/swf/ngplayer_syndicated.swf

Video:  Piranhas Barking

“At first we thought there was only one sound,” Parmentier said in the release, but then it became apparent that the piranhas produce two more: a short percussive drum-like sound when fighting for food and circling an opponent; and a softer ‘croaking’ sound produced by their jaws when they snap at each other.

National Geographic reports more on deciphering piranha barks:

Parmentier and study co-author Sandie Millot of the University of Algarve in Portugal, though, used their tech-heavy technique to link three distinct sounds to three aggressive piranha behaviors.

A repetitive grunt was tied to a visual face-off, as if to say, “get away from me.”

A second call resembling a low thud was associated with circling and fighting with other fish. Both of these calls, the researchers discovered, were made using a fast-twitching muscle that runs along a piranhas’ swim bladder—an air-filled organ that helps fish maintain their buoyancy.

If fellow piranhas didn’t heed these warning calls, the aggressor would begin chasing the neighboring fish and making a third type of sound by faintly gnashing teeth.

Interested in how these creatures make sound underwater? Scientists had previously known that the bark was associated with muscles attached to the fish’s swim bladder. What they found was that it wasn’t acoustic properties of the swim bladder resonating sound though, but the frequency with which the muscles attached to it vibrated.

It may be important to note, just for piranha’s reputation, that only two or three of the 25 piranha species that exist in the wild pose a threat to humans, according to Parmentier.

Source:  The Blaze

ASIAN SNAKEHEAD FISH FOUND IN MARYLAND RIVER, SCIENTISTS SAY IT’S AGGRESSIVE AND SPREADING

A mature, egg-bearing northern snakehead has been discovered by scientists in a river just south of Annapolis, MD. The toothy and aggressive fish is a native of Asia, and believed to be rapidly breeding. It was first discovered and quickly eradicated in a pond back in 2002, only to be found in Potomac River tributaries in Maryland and Virginia two years later. National Geographic on the ferocious species:

Video:  Invasion of the Snakeheads

When the 23-inch creature was found by biologists from the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center surveying the Rhode River last Thursday, immediate concerns were raised on the possibility that low salinity in the Chesapeake Bay this year may has allowed the invasive fish to escape from the Potomac River. From the Baltimore Sun:

“Scientists have long believed that the salinity of the bay would keep snakeheads bottled up in the Potomac River. But last year, watermen found them in St. Jerome Creek, past Point Lookout on the bay side.

Finding this fish, said Havard, ‘was very disconcerting, especially when we found it was an egg-bearing female. I think there’s concern across the board.’”

The snakehead is a predator that can overwhelm the habitat and push out local fish.  Scientists believe that near-record levels of runoff into the Susquehanna River and Chesapeake Bay this year may have given the fish a path to infest other bodies of water. Congress has already initiated “The Northern Snakehead Control and Management Plan,“ after members become alarmed by the ”potential impact on native fish populations,” that snakeheads found in Maryland and six different states across the country could have.

Not all locals have frowned on the new fish, as one chef experiments if the snakehead could find its way on menus next to crab cakes as a Maryland specialty.

Source:  The Blaze

San Francisco City Gov Bans Pet Fish? Hello?

First the bay city decided we American’s just shouldn’t be able to decide matters such as circumcision.

We shouldn’t have to worry about decisions like that since we have a brilliant and all knowing government to think for us.

Now San Francisco is taking things a step further by possibly relieving the American’s that live within its limits of the terrible right to purchase a pet goldfish.

San Francisco’s Animal Control and Welfare Commission is recommending that the City ban the sale of goldfish, tropical fish and guppies in its borders, according to Matier and Ross.

The recommendation to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors is part of the commission’s ongoing efforts to discourage “impulse buys” of animals.

The commission’s ban would cover pet stores and breeders in the City. It comes after more than a year of study and findings that aquarium fish are often mass bred under inhumane conditions or stripped from the wild.

It almost seems as if these idiots read Atlas Shrugs and instead of learning lessons from it, they got ideas.

I mean, San Francisco has managed to chase off most parents with children, cutting off future generations of workers, business and tax dollars. They kicked a medical industry to the curb and now Pet Smart and many other pet stores are likely to notice little value of sticking around.

Good going liberals… way to succeed as a city.

–Eric Odom

Source: Eric Dom

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And here we thought Chicago’s attempt to pass a five-dog limit was controversial!

Homeless With Pets… Choosing Pets Over Shelter

Is Your Pet a Voiceless Victim of the Tanking Economy?

Chinese City’s “One Dog” Policy Has Residents Howling

Florida’s Idea of Cat Population Control

Humane Society list of pet financial aid-related organizations

Where there is a will…

I care not for a man’s religion whose dog and cat are not the better for it." -Abraham Lincoln

Was That a ‘Sea Monster’ Living Beneath the Brooklyn Bridge?

Over the last few weeks, conspiracy theorists have been in their glory. Likewise, the blogosphere and local (NYC) news outlets have been abuzz. Why, you ask? Because an enormously large and grotesque mystery creature washed ashore near NYC’s Brooklyn Bridge last week.

The beast, affectionately referred to as the “East River Monster,” was seven feet in length and, according to witness accounts, quite ugly. Gawker dramatically described the enigma as follows:

It had the scales of a fish, body of a serpent, head of a pit bull, and was the size of a large alligator.

Quite a looker, no?

While New Yorkers were enjoying the mystery and cooking up all sorts of hilarious tales, experts were preparing to slash any and all sci-fi dreams. Within days of the discovery, marine biologists offered up a reasonable explanation, thus dispelling the rumors and calming the firestorm of excitement. According to biologists, the mystery creature was actually a gigantic decaying fish (called a sturgeon). FOX News has more:

“We could tell it was an Atlantic sturgeon right away,” Kim Durham, a rescue program director and biologist for the Riverhead Foundation for Marine Research and Preservation in Riverhead, N.Y., told Life’s Little Mysteries.

“They have bony plates all over their bodies. There’s no mistaking a sturgeon,” she said.

A not-so-mysterious looking sturgeon (above).

So, the hoopla was all for nothing. This scenario is oddly reminiscent of another NYC monster tale — the Montauk Mystery — an even creepier story that was characterized by an even more decrepit-looking animal. Luckily, there’s no legitimate mega-monster threat (for the time being, that is). Still, the speculation was fun while it lasted.

Source:  the Blaze

First dead birds, then dead fish … now crickets

PORT ALLEN, La. — A virus has killed millions of crickets raised to feed pet reptiles and those kept in zoos.

The cricket paralysis virus has disrupted supplies to pet shops across North America as a handful of operators have seen millions of their insects killed.

Some operations have gone bankrupt and others have closed indefinitely until they can rid their facilities of the virus.

Cricket farms started in the 1940s as a source of fish bait, but the bulk of sales now are to pet supply companies, reptile owners and zoos, although people also eat some.

Most U.S. farms are in the South, but suppliers from Pennsylvania to California also raise crickets.

The virus had swept through European cricket farms in 2002. It was first noticed in 2009 in the U.S. and Canada.

The virus marks the latest in a recent series of mass animal deaths.

Blackbirds fell out of the sky on New Year’s Eve in Arkansas. In the days that followed, 2 million fish died in the Chesapeake Bay, 150 tons of red tilapia in Vietnam, 40,000 crabs in Britain and other places across the world.

However, biologists say these mass die-offs happen all the time and usually are unrelated.

Federal records show they happen on average every other day somewhere in North America.

Video: Arkansas’ animal deaths: Coincidence or conspiracy? (on this page)

In the past eight months, the U.S. Geological Survey’s National Wildlife Health Center has logged 95 mass wildlife die-offs in North America and that’s probably a dramatic undercount, officials say.

The list includes:

• 900 some turkey vultures that seemed to drown and starve in the Florida Keys.
• 4,300 ducks killed by parasites in Minnesota.
• 1,500 salamanders done in by a virus in Idaho.
• 2,000 bats that died of rabies in Texas.
• And the still mysterious death of 2,750 sea birds in California.

Officials blamed the deaths of 5,000 red-winged blackbirds in Beebe, Ark., on New Year’s Eve fireworks.

Experts say the loud cracks and booms likely sent the birds into such a tizzy that they crashed into homes, cars and each other before plummeting to their deaths.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

Posted: msnbc.com news services  -  updated 1/12/2011 5:40:49 AM ET

The birds suffered from acute physical trauma leading to internal hemorrhage and death" – Arkansas Game and Fish Commission

Experts suspect military testing behind mass bird and fish deaths

Other Related articles

• Showers of blackbirds air out conspiracy theories
• What’s stranger than birds falling from the sky? Meat
• Birds in trouble? You bet … here’s why
• Technology to blame for animal die-off panic
• Thousands of dead crabs on England’s beaches
• Millions of fish wash up dead on Chesapeake Bay
• Experts: Mass bird deaths are not apocalyptic
• Plot thickens? Dead birds found in Sweden, Kentucky
• More birds fall from sky — this time in La.
• Up to 100,000 dead fish on Ark. River
• No poison found in birds that fell on town

I was listening to Dr. Waterman last evening  with whistleblower Aaron McCollumand.  Below are my notes for you to read and decide for yourself.  This is is a little more political than I usually post here, but thought is was information we should all ponder and then decide for ourselves.

From the Waterman files blog talk radio (my notes). The guest was Aaron – a whistleblower. Listen to the first hour for his background info.

Celente says there are no more tricks financially – they have spend $38 T bailing out the banks.

Strange things are happening with the environment, animals, birds, fish, etc.
The problems manifested in the first 6 months and then there is the event – the festival of enlightenment (see first hour for this info) to "save" people.

There have been several rumors about a pandemic on the Internet regarding the fish, birds, and other animals that are dying around the world.
Yesterday saw an article about seals in UK with deep corkscrew cuts from head down.

Historically this has been recorded by mariners with the same image – before submarines.

I am not ruling out HAARP – haven’t done enough research but I will be contacting Brooks Agnew who is knowledgeable.

There was a rumor about mustard gas and phosgene saying that these were dispersed through chem trail spraying and there were reports that the Chinese knew it was it phosgene gas.

There was a report about blue ink on the birds which was an  "indicator of gas poisoning".

Phosgene gas is volatile. It can be created by using refrigerant – if heated becomes phosgene gas.

Both phosgene and mustard gas are not prejudice – not one species of bird or fish. In a high concentration if it rains down and gets into stream – it will kill everything. In Arkansas – why weren’t the people affected? The people smelled nothing.

The military has been developing biological weapons – Plum Island , Dolce mountain and elsewhere.

There is a weapon which is not nuclear, but it could be labeled as a dirty bomb – biological chemical weapon.

Imagine a missile – dropped at high altitude – 50,000 to 75 k range – ignites in upper atmosphere and biological is introduced and attacks targets – certain genomes and otherwise known as  ethic bomb certain species of birds or fish Taking this to another level,  what if it were  launched over populated area  and  people of African descent or Chinese descent  were the target?

This is a theory that needs research, but this could be beta test.
Animals that have been targeted are not endangered, so there was no problem with targeting these animals.

10 yrs ago – database of frequencies for all kinds of things. Microbes & viruses have identities.

In regards to the genome project -they aren’t telling you that they have  also databased the frequency for the DNA.

It could not be controlled biologically released or microbial form – frequency weapon – targeting what he is talking about Do you know they have patents on the parts of the genome 20% of your DNA  is owned by someone else on my webpage – 3d form thewatermanfiles.com

There is another rumor other than the phosgene  that  corexit  was the cause. Corexit is  not discriminatory and would not kill only certain species. However, there has been a less publicized idea of a synthetic bacteria.
The bacteria is called synthia created by man – computer programmed.  Synthetic biology – organizations have taken it – BP and Exon Mobile funded and looked into this.

3 players – Synthetics Genomics, Inc, Synthetics Genomics Vaccines, Inc – Live Technologies and  J. Craig Vettner Institute who created a synthetic cell – nothing more than nano technology Imagine you have cancer – they take a syringe and put synthia to you taken sample of your tumor & duplicate it and synthia attacks it  – replicate it – those cells die off – now those cells – smart cells – inject to you – your cancer goes away and synthia cells take place of cancer cells sounds like a good idea, but when you  privatize institute – military drools – we are interested – it becomes a weapon.

On the website – cell can be introduced into anything biological – fruit, vegetables, humans, synthia can take over Waterman – Remember Moche – biological – VW – swat teams – shot gas in his car – Synthia- programmed to counter gas attack – get a little fresh air – two canisters in a VW – didn’t bother him at all Synthia – full name – biological self replicating biological cell
This is nothing more than a biocybernetic version of smart dust -Darpha created – smart dust.

I would not rule this out – imagine – plane -a  truck showed up disguised  as a Terminix truck and fumigate building and instead of chemicals it is a neutral agent such as smart dust to monitor all movement and frequencies – use synthia in a plane over a location – Synthia – introduced into cells – but not controlled in lab – it kills it.

Waterman:

We don’t know how these will morph. Organisms have a natural tendency to morph and adapt to environment.

Do you think this is accidental? no

Are these events around the world connected?  yes

There is no chance because of mini ice age, because of glaciation. Our gov’t has not made a public statement addressing the issue of ice age

We are not seeing nature creating an event.  It is not normal for this to be occurring.

Aaron:

From what I know and was a part of, I believe it is man made on some level.  Maybe got out of control or not precisely executed or there were side effects.

This global beta test is likely the last thing on the check off list of the elites.
Waterman – many things being researched and many things being talked about – right now – progressively worse – faster.

If you are headed toward a cliff – does it matter if you are going slow or fast?  You are still going off the cliff.

Aaron – saying that an old tiger – most dangerous when he is near death – empires rise and fall.

It is in plain sight the elite are crashing. They are  losing control of the people with riots all over the world.

The elites know their power is crumbling and  they want control of the people.

If a king going to be killed – he is going to burn his castle and take it with him.

What we are seeing is the elite throwing out everything they have – an act of desperation.

This is one phase of an operation with many fronts to it. In 6 months you will feel it is more like a nightmare.

JOMP~

San Francisco Wants to Ban Pet Sales?

If you sell a bird or a snake in San Francisco, you could wind up in jail.

The city’s Commission of Animal Control and Welfare will consider an ordinance tonight that would make it a crime to sell pets – including dogs, cats, hamsters, mice, rats — everything except for fish.

If the ordinance is passed, San Francisco could become the first city in the nation to ban the sale of all pets.

“People buy small animals all the time as an impulse buy, don’t know what they’re getting into, and the animals end up at the shelter and often are euthanized,” Chairwoman Sally Stephens told the San Francisco Chronicle. “That’s what we’d like to stop.”

Pet store owners are fighting mad.

“It’s terrible,” pet store manager John Chan told the newspaper. “A pet store that can’t sell pets? It’s ridiculous.”

The Board of Supervisors would have final say on the issue.

by Todd Starnes is a FOX News Radio reporter and author.

A Fish Story… Always Be Kinder Than Necessary!!

A Fish Story……..for all of you

A  guy who lives at Lake Conroe

(50  miles north of Houston ) saw a ball bouncing

around  kind of strange in the lake and went to

investigate.

It  turned out to be a flathead catfish

that had

apparently  tried to swallow a basketball which

became stuck in its mouth!!

The fish was totally exhausted from trying to
dive, but unable to, because the ball would
always bring him back up to the surface.
The guy tried numerous times to get the ball out,
but was unsuccessful. He finally had his wife cut
the ball in order to deflate it and release the hungry
catfish.

You probably wouldn’t have believed this,
if you hadn’t seen the following pictures:

 

Be kinder than necessary because everyone bites off more than they can chew sometime in life…

Posted: Just One More Pet

Adopt Just One More Pet and Save a Life!! – Sharing a Great Pet Adoption Pet Story!!

Sharing a Great Pet Adoption Pet Story!!

Our friends, Al and Andrea, in Corpus Christi moved there with 3 cats.  Over the past five years, one… Maggie, has passed on and gone to kitty heaven.  But during that time, they have  rescued a black pug that had some health issues, a Black Ker (maybe) out of a litter of abandoned puppies and an orphaned Chihuahua.  This was quite a feat for my friend, Andrea, who was basically afraid ‘or at least leery’ of dogs  before they adopted their first one, Buddy, at Al’s urging. Then ‘she’ adopted the next two, Beau and Princess.

Then about 10-days ago they ran across, almost over, a kitten.  The Calico kitty who looks like one of their older cats, Peaches, was running across the highway when they found her.   They did more than their due diligence to find the kitten’s owners but she is now one of the family and has been named Kit Kat… along with Peaches and Bart makes three.

3 kitties and 3 doggies… a nice family now that the kids are grown!

If you are an animal lover 4 to 6 pets, throw in a bird, fish or pocket pet, perhaps making even 7 or 8 are a fun and manageable number for a couple or a responsible family teaching their kids the values and joy of taking care of another living creature and overall responsibility (under supervision). If you aren’t, it probably seems like a nightmare… but then you probably wouldn’t be reading this blog.

Adopt Just One More Pet and Save a Life!!

Posted:  Just One More Pet