Are the 2 odd ecological disasters in NW Arkansas related?

[usregimechange]

Massive fish kill blankets Arkansas River

"Dead drum fish lline the banks of a 20-mile stretch of the Arkansas River near Ozark."


Arkansas game officials probe mystery of falling birds

"Arkansas game officials hope testing scheduled to begin Monday will solve the mystery of why up to 5,000 birds fell from the sky..."

Are the two incidents related?

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. Somebody released something they should not into the environment

that is the most likely answer.

Of course it could also signal the end of the world (due to where it happened. I am almost betting the Argamgedon Clock just moved)

[Duer 157099]

2. My working hypothesis would be

that there was something dumped into the river near where the fish were that caused their immediate death. The birds then drank downstream from there and thus got a more dilute form of the substance and thus took a day (and 120 miles) more before they died. But my first quess would certainly be to connect the incidences.

[Politicalboi]

18. Makes sense, but

Why only those birds? Why not others, and also other animals too.

[Duer 157099]

21. If they were flocking together, they'd drink together

and given they all have similar body mass, they'd be affected at roughly the same time.

If this hypothesis is true, there are likely many other affected animals scattered around.

[Ian David]

3. Obviously, the fish were really, really drunk and were shooting off fireworks...

... that frightened the birds, before the fish died of alcohol poisoning.

It was, after all, New Year's Eve.

[RKP5637]

6. Moral of the story is don't go swimming nude and drunk celebrating New Year's Eve! n/t

[Mark Maker]

4. This kind of crap never happened under Bushco!

:sarcasm:

[Sonoman]

5. I blame Ozzy Osbourne for everything.

Everything.

But these two incidences, more than 100 miles apart, would be a stretch. Even for the Great OZ.

I do not think that red-wing blackbirds feed on fish.

Ozzy would chow down on both, even if it was heads-only.

Sonoman

[obxhead]

11. Maybe not.

All birds drink water though. The two incidents could be related.

[Sonoman]

13. There are no conicidences.

But we will never know.

Sonoman

[proud2BlibKansan]

20. This drunk guy beat you to it

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x98370

[gratuitous]

7. My working hypothesis

God is pissed at Arkansas. Fish deaths, bird deaths, and the big tornado that flattened Cincinnati. None of this happened while Arkansas had a Democratic Senator. Ball's in your court, Mr. Robertson.

[antigone382]

15. But Cincinnati is in Ohio...

Did the tornadoes start in Arkansas...or is there a city in Arkansas also called Cincinnati, like the Las Vegas in New Mexico?

[PinkTiger]

22. Cincinatti Arkansas.

Small town.

[antigone382]

29. Thanks!

I thought it might be something like that. I wasn't trying to make the other poster look dumb or anything, I was just confused. Guess I haven't been following the news closely enough lately.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

8. virus?

[Skink]

9. They just haven't found all the dead tree frogs yet.

:bounce:

[petronius]

10. What has the weather been like? One of the articles on the birds mentioned the possibility

that they were near a lightning discharge, or strayed into a hail storm. That made sense to me, and at the same time if it's been raining heavily it's possible that the runoff breached a pond containing something toxic or broke a sewer - leading to the fish kill...

[Hestia]

25. The weather was 72 that day, which is when the tornado hit in Cincinnati, Ark.

The weather was extremely muggy and warm, not unlike in April which is when tornado season starts. I could see where the birds did get hit by hail that day. Now the fish (those don't look like drum) are a different story.

The Arkansas River is no where close to Beebe (that is the White River). The river follows into LR down to Pine Bluff. Beebe is in the NE Central portion of the state, not NW. Ozark is more like in the west central area. Beautiful country there. NW is Fayetteville, Bentonville, etc.

[littledog]

28. no reports of hail

You'd think people would have noticed hail falling along with 5,000 birds, even if it was dark. OTOH, there are reports of fireworks; it's unclear whether this is just local yahoos shooting off Roman Candles out of a $50.00 family pack from the local fireworks stand, or the City Of Beebe putting on a professional display. If a flock of 5,000 birds was already alarmed and flying around and a large enough firework of the giant percussion "BOOM" variety went off it could have stunned the birds and they fell out of the sky, smacking the ground and dying. Maybe.

As for the fish, it doesn't take much in the way of industrial or agricultural run off to suffocate an animal that is getting it's oxygen from the water.

[madfloridian]

12. Must be something wrong with me. I don't think it's a joking matter.

I read all the joking remarks and think this is where we are now? Laughing at disasters?

[nadinbrzezinski]

14. Actually that is a normal response to stressful situations

:-)

Stay away from medics, especially after a burn call... we are not nice.

That said, I am betting on an illegal release of SOMETHING quite toxic.

[BlueJazz]

16. Yep...I understand. I hate to see innocent creatures die for no good reason.

[Odin2005]

19. Gallows humor.

Natural human reaction.

[Raschel]

I agree. When forums were new,comments were insightful and a person could learn something.

These days most comments are snarky, or who can come up with the best punch line.

[Lisa D]

17. What's interesting is that only the drum fish died

The dead fish they are finding are all drum fish. There are several species of fish in that river. That makes it seem like a virus or something disease-related since only this type of fish was susceptible to it.

[rollin74]

24. +1

a pollutant would likely have killed more than one species of fish

[ladjf]

26. Drum fish seem to be the first to die when there is an oxygen deficiency. nt

If that caused their deaths, what caused the oxygen deficiency?

[Romulox]

23. Industry moves south for cheap, pliable labor and little or no environmental regulation.

:shrug:

[bemildred]

27. They had tornadoes, tornadoes could be a good way to spread stuff around ... nt