The Vancouver Aquarium Marine Mammal Rescue Society, which sent rescuers to the ecological preserve off Metchosin on Oct. 22, described the situation as “gut wrenching.”

Darron Kloster, video by Alanna Kelly2 days ago2 days ago

• https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/letters/2024/10/31/letters-dave-hall-bobcat-trapping-harris-vs-trump-iu-student-media/75944233007/

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An adult male sea lion with gill netting so deeply embedded around its mouth and neck that it was starving was rescued on Race Rocks this month.

The Vancouver Aquarium Marine Mammal Rescue Society, which sent rescuers to the ecological preserve off Metchosin on Oct. 22, described the situation as “gut wrenching.”

“Even for seasoned rescuers, seeing the extent of this animal’s suffering was distressing,” said Lindsaye Akhurst, senior manager of the society.

She said the net was tight and embedded deep into the sea lion’s neck, and his mouth was completely wrapped shut.

“The sea lion hadn’t been able to eat for what could have been weeks or even months,” Akhurst said. “We knew we had to act fast. … This was one of the most heartbreaking but rewarding rescues I’ve been a part of.”

The distressed sea lion had been reported two days earlier by the ecoguardian at Race Rocks Ecological Preserve. Rescuers co-ordinated a response with Fisheries and Oceans Canada, B.C. Parks, and Pearson College, which posts the guardians at the Race Rocks lighthouse.

Dr. Martin Haulena, head veterinarian of Vancouver Aquarium Marine Mammal Rescue, sedated the sea lion with a dart, and the animal plunged into the ocean. A drone operated by federal fisheries personnel tracked the sea lion’s movements, helping the team approach safely once the animal was fully sedated.

It took 75 minutes for the the team to carefully remove the netting from around the animal’s neck, face and mouth. The netting was embedded so deeply that surgical scissors were required to cut away the entanglement.

After it was removed, the sea lion was given antibiotics, pain management and the sedative was reversed. The animal was observed swimming away and later hauled out onto a nearby rock, showing signs of recovery.

Haulena stressed the importance of preventing similar incidents.

“Rescues like this highlight the ongoing problem of marine debris,” he said. “While we’re grateful this sea lion is recovering, we need to focus on stopping these entanglements from happening in the first place.”

Race Rocks Ecological Preserve, located about 1.5 kilometres from shore and 14 km from Victoria, has been managed by Pearson College in Metchosin since 1997. The school maintains classrooms and residences there for ecoguardians who keep watch over several buildings and the Canadian Coast Guard’s automated lighthouse.

The group of small islands is sometimes called the Galapagos of the North because of its unique high tidal current that attracts marine mammals, sea birds, fish, algae and sea grass.

It’s a major haul out area for California and northern sea lions and a birthing rookery for harbour seals — and the most northerly birthing colony on the Pacific coast of North America for the northern elephant seal.

In its daily census, last updated on Sunday, a guardian counted 282 Steller sea lions, 425 California sea lions, 36 harbour seals and seven orcas, along with “too many” humpback whales to count.

Steve Pastis

Visalia Times-Delta

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A second commercial broiler poultry farm west of Springville in Tulare County was confirmed to have an outbreak of bird flu on Oct. 24.

This outbreak affects an estimated 6,000 birds. On Oct. 16, a neighboring poultry farm with a flock of 786,600 birds, was also confirmed to have the disease.

H5N1 avian influenza, better known as bird flu, has been confirmed in 145 dairies in California in the past 30 days, according to the USDA Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service on Oct. 29. That number does not include the dairies affected by the disease in the first four weeks of the outbreak.

As a comparison, the rest of the U.S. has a total of two confirmed bird flu cases in livestock herds, both in Idaho.

There are now 16 human cases of bird flu in California, according to the Oct. 28 update from the California Department of Public Health.

The Tulare County Health & Human Services Agency reported that 11 of those cases were in Tulare County. Cases have also been reported in Kings and Kern counties.

By Stephen Smith

Updated on: October 31, 2024 / 2:50 PM EDT / CBS News

• https://www.cbsnews.com/news/deer-hunter-killed-bear-alaska/

An overdue hunter was found dead after he was mauled by a bear in Alaska, authorities said.

Tad Fujioka, 50, of Sitka, Alaska, was reported overdue from a deer hunting trip on Tuesday evening, the Alaska State Troopers said in a dispatch Wednesday. State wildlife troopers and the U.S. Coast Guard launched multiple search teams to look for Fujioka on Wednesday morning in a remote wooded area.

At about 11:30 am, Fujioka’s remains were found and an “investigation revealed he was the likely victim of a fatal bear mauling,” troopers said.

Brown bears had apparently mauled Fujioka and consumed a deer he had killed, the Associated Press reported. A Coast Guard helicopter spotted three bears near the dead deer and alerted search crews, troopers spokesperson Tim DeSpain said in an email to The AP.

Officials said that Fujioka’s body was recovered and his next of kin have been notified.

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Alaska is home to black bears and polar bears but brown bears — which include grizzlies — are the most common in the state.

According to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, brown bears and grizzly bears are both common names for the same species, Ursus arctos, but the main difference is their geographic location. Brown bears typically live along the southern coast of the state while grizzlies can be found in the northern and interior parts of the state. 

Sitka is located on Baranof Island in southeastern Alaska, about 90 miles southwest of Juneau.

In August, authorities said a hunter was seriously injured in Alaska after being mauled by a brown bear and shot during an effort to fend it off.

Published Oct 29, 2024 at 1:39 PM EDTUpdated Oct 30, 2024 at 4:26 AM EDT

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Less than a month after reporting its first human case of bird flu, California has confirmed that 16 people have now been infected with the disease, and a Newsweek map shows how the numbers compare with the rest of the U.S.

Nationwide, the total number of people infected with the avian influenza H5N1 in 2024 now stands at 36.

“To date, [the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)] has confirmed infection of 16 farmworkers with H5N1 bird flu in California,” the CDC said in an update on Tuesday. “Genetic sequencing of nine of these cases confirms that all are H5N1 viruses from clade 2.3.4.4b and that all are closely related genetically to the virus causing infections in domestic dairy cattle.”

All of the cases in California have arisen in dairy farmworkers, the CDC said, as is the case with the majority of infections across the country. Elsewhere, 15 cases—nine in Colorado and six in Washington—have been associated with poultry farms.

The source of infection for one patient in Missouri has still not been identified.

A map shows human cases of bird flu across the U.S. in 2024.

Number of Human Bird Flu Cases

Number of Human Bird Flu Cases001616

A map shows human cases of bird flu across the U.S. in 2024. California has seen a surge of 16 cases after reporting its first earlier this month.

Map: Ian RandallSource: Centers for Disease Control and PreventionCreated with Datawrapper

California has been by far the hardest hit state since the virus, which had been infecting wild bird and poultry populations around the world, was detected in cattle earlier this year.

According to the latest CDC data, 186 livestock herds have been affected in California by the outbreak, 142 of which have been hit in the last 30 days.

Numbers of deaths among cows in the state have climbed so rapidly that authorities have been unable to remove the carcasses at times, leading to some farmers simply dumping them at the side of the road while they await collection.

“The current bird flu situation in the U.S. is quite disturbing and odd,” Jeremy Rossman, senior lecturer in virology at the University of Kent, U.K, previously told Newsweek when California reported its first cases among farmworkers. “I do not think they are doing a good job at containing the outbreak, and put simply, they are not containing the outbreak.”

So far, all cases are thought to have arisen via animal spillover, but as more and more humans get infected, the risk that the virus could jump between people increases.

Read more Bird Flu

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“The more transmission that occurs in cows—and the more human spillover that occurs—the more chances that the virus will mutate and start to spread from person to person,” Rossman told Newsweek.

If that were to happen, especially as flu season approaches in the U.S., the implications could be serious. “The biggest concern is that we just don’t know what it would be like if, in fact, we did get this human transmissible bird flu coming from cattle,” Rossman said.

In its update, the CDC confirmed that “all available data so far suggest sporadic instances of animal-to-human spread” and that “the farmworkers in California and Washington state all described mild symptoms, many with eye redness or discharge (conjunctivitis).”

However, Rossman said that the nature of mutation means that if the virus begins spreading in human populations, its characteristics could change too. Rossman added, “The concern is that we would get person-to-person spread as efficiently as you get with seasonal flu, but that it has a very high case fatality rate.”

Montana Public Radio | By Edward F. O’Brien, 

Ellis Juhlin

Published October 29, 2024 at 7:45 AM MDT

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• https://www.mtpr.org/montana-news/2024-10-29/briefs-wolf-trapping-regulations-big-game-hunters-off-to-a-strong-start

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FWP releases proposed wolf trapping regulations

Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks has released proposed regulations for the 2024-2025 wolf trapping season. The draft is available for public comment from now until November 12.

New this year is a court-established geographic area limiting wolf trapping. This comes after a judge ruled wolf trapping in certain regions threatened federally protected grizzly bears. The proposal also includes new rules that would go into effect throughout that geographic area, if a grizzly were to be incidentally caught in a trap.

Under the new regulations, the court-established geographic area will have a shorter trapping season from January 1 to February 15. Areas outside that zone of grizzly habitat will allow a longer trapping season.

The Fish and Wildlife Commission will vote on the changes in their November 12 meeting.

Western Montana big-game hunters start the season with strong harvest numbers

West central Montana hunters enjoyed a robust start to the big game general hunting season this weekend.

Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks says data collected at check stations near Anaconda, Bonner, Darby and Fish Creek show harvest numbers ahead of last year’s opener.

For example, the white-tailed deer and elk harvest was almost double the 2023 opening weekend at the Bonner station. Region-wide, the elk harvest was up 30 percent from the same time last year.

Hunter traffic was steady, too.

More hunters passed through each of the stations this opening weekend compared to last.

Overall, west-central Montana’s four wildlife check stations saw over 2,300 hunters collectively. That’s nearly 200 more than last year.

Hunters are required to stop at all check stations they pass, even if they have not harvested any animals.