40,000 crabs join slew of animal-death mysteries

[Turborama]

Source: The Star

Jenni Dunning - Staff Reporter

First, it was birds falling from the sky, then thousands of dead fish washing up on shore.

Now, more than 40,000 Velvet swimming crabs have wound up dead on England beaches. The possible reason? Hypothermia.

The Thanet shoreline is littered with the crabs, along with dead starfish, lobsters, sponges and anemones.

The crabs benefit from warm seas, but when winter hits and snow covers the beaches, they just can’t handle the freezing temperatures, Tony Child, Thanet Coast Project manager, told the Star.

“It is a horrendous crash in the population,” he said, adding similar crab deaths happened in the same place two years and five years ago.

Read more: http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/916503--40-000-crabs-join-slew-of-animal-death-mysteries

---

Daily Mail article on this with some interesting comments: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1344242/40-000-devil-crabs-washed-British-beach-freezing-conditions-hypothermia.html

[Xenotime]

1. Fireworks again?

[mmonk]

2. Ice cubes this time.

[Turborama]

8. Which is kind of what they're saying

Apart from the fact it's colder off the coast of Denmark and Norway, where they also live. Apparently.

[aquart]

3. Climate change kills.

[Lasher]

4. What next, fish raining from the sky?

Nah, that's impossible.

[Grassy Knoll]

6. Well.....

There is cat fish and dog fish.

[Lasher]

7. It's raining fish in the Northern Territory

WHILE the Top End and Central Australia have been battered by torrential rains, a Territory town has reportedly had fish falling from the sky. The freak phenomena happened not once, but twice, on Thursday and Friday afternoon about 6pm at Lajamanu, about 550km southwest of Katherine, The Northern Territory News reports.

Christine Balmer, who took the photos of the fish on the ground and in a bucket, said she had to pinch herself when she was told "hundreds and hundreds" of small white fish had fallen from the sky.

"It rained fish in Lajamanu on Thursday and Friday night," she said, "They fell from the sky everywhere. Locals were picking them up off the footy oval and on the ground everywhere. These fish were alive when they hit the ground."

Mrs Balmer, the aged care co-ordinator at the Lajamanu Aged Care Centre, said her family interstate thought she had lost the plot when she told them about the event.

"I haven't lost my marbles," she said, reassuring herself. "Thank God it didn't rain crocodiles."

http://www.news.com.au/national/its-raining-fish-in-the-northern-territory-report/story-e6frfkvr-1225835295781

Here is a Wiki article about raining animals.

[Joanne98]

11. WOW!

[Nihil]

26. I *love* the care coordinator's comment:

> "Thank God it didn't rain crocodiles."

:spray: :rofl:

[slackmaster]

31. I've seen hundreds of small fish on a street almost a mile from the ocean

I figure they must have been sucked up in a waterspout and then fell down with the rain.

[Lasher]

33. Fact is stranger than fiction

I've seen it raining tiny frogs.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=4684719&mesg_id=4684838

[tomm2thumbs]

5. Tea Baggers in Washington - kills most things with a brain larger than a grain of sand

[dipsydoodle]

9. BBC video here

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-12123649

The county of Kent is always subject to higher levels of snowfall than other southern counties. Apparently the crab issue has occured the last 3 years.

Those crabs cannot burrow into frozen sea and mud : http://thanetcoastlife.blogspot.com/2011/01/more-on-winter-crab-deaths.html

The effects of climate change will more apparent here with average temperature increase. +3 degrees and our bluebells disappear probably forever. :(

[Delphinus]

10. OK - seriously -

What the hell is going on?

I kind of maybe understand the fish die-off in Florida and the cold waters. But this is getting crazier by the day!

[dipsydoodle]

12. This one is a local event

which has happened for at least the last 3 years. I don't think anyone bothered to record it prior to that. Soon as the sand and mud harden with temperature drop that type of crab cannot burrow - wrong type of claws. The Thanet area is subject to exposed North Sea weather conditions and always has been. They get above average snow there each year.

[lonestarnot]

13. 40,000 Crabs Have Been Found Dead on England Beaches

Source: Raw Story

The Star reported Wednesday that more than 40,000 dead Velvet swimming crabs have appeared on the Thanet shoreline in England. Dead starfish, lobsters, sponges and anemones were also found.

Tony Child, Thanet Coast Project manager, told the Star that the same thing happened two and five years ago. He suspects that the cold temperatures are to blame.

Original report continues below...

The mysterious deaths of thousands of birds and fish is no longer confined to the US.



Read more: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/01/mass-bird-fish-deaths-worldwide-phenomenon/

---

More whoopsie

[tomm2thumbs]

14. hearing Close Encounters music

and picturing a couple more unexplained things in places

[lonestarnot]

15. Hope you're not losing marbles too.

:toast:

[tomm2thumbs]

19. who me?

Not really

[DeSwiss]

16. I for one, welcome our Crab Overlords!!!

- All Hail, to those who have given us the Crabs!!!

[StarsInHerHair]

17. wow more bad news what else will happen in 2011? I hope it gets better

than the first 5 days. Another unexpected change due to global warming

[defendandprotect]

18. Something deadly has been unleashed .... and it doesn't look like anyone

is very interested in finding the truth of it -- !!

[Vinca]

24. It's frightening, but you can't expect the MSM to cover both

the planet dying and Lindsey Lohan.

[defendandprotect]

28. Love ya ....

love the post!!

:)

[snooper2]

37. I think the moon ship folks are running some tests..

We thought they were there to protect the Earth, but maybe they are up to no good?

We should checked with Spooked in the dungeon and see what he knows about this!

This is very important

To get to the bottom of!

[jimlup]

20. Gulf Oil Spill?

Is it related to that? I don't think the mainstream is all that interested in finding out if it is. It will take some real scientists with serious objectivity to solve this one.

Also, are these events particularly anomalous? Especially in the winter? Does anyone know? Or is it that a kill happened in the US town and thus interest is perked.

[Joanne98]

22. Maybe. I think the gulf stream runs by the UK.

[dipsydoodle]

25. Not that side of the UK it don't.

The Thanet area is on the North Sea side of the country in the south east of England.

[Cutatious]

27. Most likely fracking gas that got caught in the contrails

And hopped a ride on the jet stream to perform this evil deed.

[Turborama]

21. Duplicate

Posted here earlier: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4684719

[lilyrl]

23. Gosh, all these mass reports of large animal deathes is very frightening

[defendandprotect]

29. Birds, fish, crabs ... all coincidentally dying at the same time?

Are we trying to have confidence in science ...

or corporate science . . . ??/

If we're actually talking about "science" there should be more than this

fumbling, inane response.

[robcon]

30. This is a classic... reminds me of 2001

There was a "mass" outbreak of shark attacks, which was the top story of the summer of 2001, then turned out to be nothing,... and then was forgotten starting on 9/11

I think it's hilarious: the justifications for 'alarm' come from everywhere.

[slackmaster]

32. The process feeds on itself

Reports of seemingly unusual clusters of events prompt people to be more alert for more such apparent clusters.

[Bragi]

39. I agree

In the era of google search , if you start looking for specifics in the news, then by god you'll find a lot of them.

And if the media start looking for and reporting similar stories, then you'll spoon be overwhelmed by them.

[defendandprotect]

34. "Hilarious" ... ?? "Big nothing"??

Most of us recognize the hyped shark attacks over a decade and more for what

they were -- even at the time, that was recognized!

What would it take in the way of deaths of thousands/millions of animal-life

to raise your concern?


:eyes:

[defendandprotect]

35. Presume the 5,000 birds in Sweden has been reported here?

Now Dead Birds Found in the Streets of Sweden

http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/7806256-now-dead-birds-found-in-the-streets-of-sweden

This was from "just before midnight on New Year's Eve" --

[DeSwiss]

36. Point of observation:

In all these reports of recent mass wildlife die-offs, it appears as though the impacted wildlife is always predominat­ely of one or maybe two species and those one or two species only.

It was Red-winged Blackbirds and Starlings that died in Arkansas -- all of whom suffered from internal injuries that formed deadly blood clots. And again, Red-winged Blackbirds and Starlings in Louisiana. Power lines and then firecracke­rs have been blamed for these deaths in Beebe AR, but not for the same species deaths in Louisiana.

Then with the fish die-off, we had just Drums in the first fish die-off, also in AR. But then is was just Spot fish in Chesapeake Bay. And then just Red Snappers in New Zealand. Almost all of these fish species deaths are being blamed on unusually cold water for this time of year. The exception seems to be Brazil with three species of fish -- 100 tons of Sardines, Croaker, and Catfish having died near Paraná, Brazil. Now its just dead Velvet Swimming crabs on the beeches in Britain.

So if the cold water is being blamed for the death of these crabs as well as in the case of the dead fish, why is it that only one species of crab is being impacted and not any others? Why are Velvet Swimming crabs dying and not any other species of crab or other sea wildlife living in these same cold, death-inducing waters?

They've also recently found http://www.tennessean.com/article/20110106/NEWS01/110106023">50+ birds dead in my area -- all Grackles. Just Grackles.

- None of this is adding up with the explanatio­ns we're being given.....­.

K&R

[Uncle Joe]

38. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, Turborama.