A diver swims around a coral reef in Key West, Florida, on July 14. Photo: Joseph Prezioso/AFP via Getty Images
The University of South Florida said Monday its researchers have transported some 1,500 coral specimens to tanks on land as “unprecedentedheat wavesand escalating water temperatures” create “a massive coral bleaching event.”
Why it matters:Coral reefs provideshelter for over 25%of ocean animals, and are economically key to over half a billion people’s livelihoods.
The big picture:Ocean temperatures surrounding South Florida and the Florida Keys are athistoric levels. Extreme sea surface temperatures hit a possible record 101°F Monday, per provisional data reported by Tampa Bay meteorologistJeff Berardelli.
BarbieorOppenheimerwas the weekend cinematic choice, so lacking anything pink to wear, or not in public at any rate, we opted for the Christopher Nolan biopic of the father of the A-Bomb.
It was a sobering experience, a three-hour trip through the mind-boggling weirdness of quantum physics and Oppenheimer’s tortured soul, with a cacophonous soundtrack characteristic of the director (Batman,Dunkirk,Inceptionand so on) the one downside. The events were dramatic enough without overlaying them with loud music that sometimes made the dialogue hard to hear.
After years of campaigning and supporters making their voices heard, the mayor of Tomohon issued an order to end all sale and slaughter of dogs and cats and the selling of dog and cat meat at the market. Garry Lotulung/AP Images for HSI
112SHARES
It was an incredibly moving sight: My Humane Society International colleagues and their local partners marked the end of the dog and cat meat trades at Indonesia’s most infamous market, Tomohon Extreme Market, by rescuing those who would have been the final victims of this reprehensible commerce.
During the rescue, one of the dogs saved from the meat market approaches and greets an HSI responder. Garry Lotulung/AP Images for HSI
Working with the city government and the remaining traders, we were able to secure a permanent ban on the sale and slaughter of dogs and cats at the market, ensuring the safety of the animals who would have been sent to slaughter. Now, never again will another dog or cat experience the horrors that countless others have endured at this market. For the survivors, 22 dogs and three cats, we now have a chance to show them the compassion, respect and kindness they deserve.
An HSI responder interacts with one of the dogs rescued from the meat market at the Animal Friends Manado Indonesia Care and Rehabilitation Center. Garry Lotulung/AP Images for HSI
The cruelties dogs and cats have suffered at Tomohon Extreme Market over the decades are shocking—bludgeoned with wooden bats and, often still alive, burned with blowtorches to remove their fur. Once we learned about it, walking away was inconceivable, despite how many times we were told change was “impossible.”
The end of the dog and cat meat trades at Tomohon Extreme Market and the closure of a network of traders’ slaughterhouses there will set a vital example that campaigners elsewhere can follow, strengthening both national and regional efforts to achieve similar gains. This is an outstanding breakthrough, and I could not be prouder of our friends, colleagues and allies who have made it happen, the members of our HSI Companion Animals team and our close partners at Animal Friends Manado Indonesia. Together, we reached an accord with the six dog and cat meat traders still active at Tomohon Extreme Market; these traders operated the slaughterhouses that killed animals to supply the market stalls there and elsewhere in the city and region. The six have committed to forever cease trading, slaughter and sale of dogs and cats and their meat, and to close all dog and cat meat facilities and operations, including slaughterhouses and sales of live or butchered animals anywhere ever again.
Lola Webber, HSI’s director of campaigns to end the dog meat trade, interacts with one of the cats rescued from the meat market at the Animal Friends Manado Indonesia Care and Rehabilitation Center. Garry Lotulung/AP Images for HSI
To call such a place “notorious,” as some travel websites did, is to invite a kind of curiosity, I suppose; tourists might feel encouraged to stroll past its stalls, witness the scene firsthand, and see the dog and cat meat on display alongside bushmeat and meat from other domestic animals. But the most accurate word to describe it, surely, is “sickening.” It was a place where humanity was lost.
Our campaign to end the kind of cruelty we saw at a critical market hub of the dog and cat meat trades highlights our continued focus on addressing the root causes of animal cruelty, regardless of the time and effort required. As our founding generation imagined, we are still willing and prepared to confront cruelty wherever it occurs and without regard for the strength, status or authority of the perpetrators.
In Indonesia, we’ve helped to end the dog and cat meat trades in 22 jurisdictions thus far, and we’re working to secure prohibitions in other markets. Our work is far from over in the nations where these trades still flourish. But bringing down the curtain on cruelty at Tomohon Extreme Market is a big victory and a crucial precedent that will propel our fight forward, and we promise you, we’ll see that fight to the finish.
Why hunters hunt––and why far more men quit hunting now than take it up
Seán McCormack, managing trustee of the Animal Care Trust in Taiwan, recently brought to our attention “Hunting Linked To Psychosexual Inadequacy & The 5 Phases Of AHunter’s Life Of Sexual Frustration,” by Brent Lambert, published in November 2016 under the subject headings Neuroscience, Psychology, and Society by the lifestyles web site FeelGuide.com.
Observed Lambert, a prolific writer on many topics, yet better known as a Hollywood set designer, “In his 2015 book,What Is Sport: A Controversial Essay About Why Humans Play Sports, social psychologist Rob Alphaexplains how researchers with the Genetic Economic Analytics Group found the neurophysiological link betweensex and a man’s desire to hunt.
A weekslong heat wave will intensify this weekend and push temperatures close to 130 degrees
Was this content a good use of your time?
Your feedback will help us improve the product
An already dangerous weekslong heat wave will only worsen this weekend asa heat domeintensifies and reaches peak strength over parts of the Western United States.
The heat dome is so formidable theNational Weather Service in Phoenixcalled it “one of the strongest high pressure systems this region has ever seen.” Around 100 heat records could fall today through the weekend as it intensifies, piling onto the more than 1,000 high temperature records broken in the US since June.
More than 90 million people are under heat alerts after the heat dome expanded into places like California, which is now experiencing its first extreme heat wave of the…
In the spirit of today’s topic, let’s cut to the chase — Colorado has a hunting problem.
According to Colorado Parks and Wildlife, the state features10 big game animals: Elk, moose, bear, mountain lions, mountain goats, Rocky Mountain and Desert bighorn sheep, pronghorn and…
A new dangerous long-lasting heat wave could set dozens of heat records, even in notoriously hot places
Was this content a good use of your time?
Your feedback will help us improve the product
Editor’s Note:A version of this article originally appeared in the weekly weather newsletter, the CNN Weather Brief, which is released every Monday. You cansign up hereto receive them every week and during significant storms.
Phoenix is supposed to be hot, but the severity of the upcoming heat wave will bring a level of heat that will test even heat-hardy places and do so for longer durations than have ever been observed before.
A sea otter in Santa Cruz has gone from entertainer to most wanted. (Courtesy: Mark Woodward Native Santa Cruz)
0
SANTA CRUZ, Calif. (AP) — A sea otter launched into the national spotlight after images of her aggressively wresting surfboards away from surfers off the coast of Santa Cruz, California circulated on social media is building a fan club as she continues to evade capture.
A team of wildlife experts with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and the nearby Monterey Bay Aquarium have been trying to capture the 5-year-old animal, known as otter 841, since last week because they say she poses a public safety risk.
They say they want to examine her and relocate her at a zoo or aquarium —as yet to no avail.
She now has a growing fan club, with people showing up every day to get a glimpse of her spending time sunbathing on the rocky shore, diving in the water and chomping down on crabs.
Jessica Fujii, Sea Otter Program Manager at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, said the team has faced some challenges in its pursuit, including bad weather.
The main issue is more just her ability to evade. Because this has been an ongoing effort, she is wary of those nets,” Fujii said.
Federal and state wildlife officials did not return messages from The Associated Press seeking comment Thursday on their effort to catch otter 841.
The mischievous mammal was made famous by a professional photographer who posted photos and videos on social media that show her aggressively approaching surfers and getting on top of surfboards — on at least one occasion biting and tearing chunks off a board.
They can’t throw a net over her in the water. They can’t tranquilize her because of fear of her drowning. So they really need to get hands on her,” said the Santa Cruz photographer, Mark Woodward.
The team trying to capture her has used a baited surfboard. She’s gotten on it multiple times in the past few days, according to Woodward. But as soon as a wildlife official towing the surfboard carrying her gets near the team’s boat, she dives off, he said.
The otter’s aggressive behavior is highly unusual, and the reason is unknown, federal wildlife officials said.
Aggressive behavior in female southern sea otters may be associated with hormonal surges or due to being fed by humans,” the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said in a statement last week.
Otter 841 was born in captivity and released into the wild in June 2020. She is tagged with her number and has a radio transmitter that officials have been monitoring to keep tabs on her.
They said it is not the first time the otter has been aggressive toward humans. She was observed approaching people in late 2021. In May 2022, she was spotted with a pup in the Santa Cruz area, and four months later exhibited similar aggressive behavior.
Meanwhile, her fans want her to be left alone.
Just leave ’em alone. Just let ’em have fun. Hasn’t bitten anybody. Roughs up the board. It’s like a dog with a chew, you know?” said Jackie Rundell, a Santa Cruz resident who on Wednesday visited the bay.
Southern sea otters, whose population dwindled to about 50 in 1938, are managed by the Fish and Wildlife Service. They are listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act and are protected under the Marine Mammal Act and California state law.
JOIN THE CONVERSATION (
0
)
Now with a population of about 3,000, sea otters play a fundamental role in maintaining healthy coastal ecosystems by preying on sea urchins that can multiply and eat their way through the kelp forests both marine creatures share, wildlife officials said.
July 21, 2023 – An outbreak of H5N1 bird flu in household cats was recently reported by theWorld Health Organization, underscoring that these viruses can infect and cause illness in household pets. Thirty-four domestic cats across eight provinces in Poland tested positive for avian influenza A(H5N1) virus (“H5N1 bird flu”). Many of the infected cats showed neurological signs (e.g., paralysis, seizures) and became severely ill or died. H5N1 bird flu viruses are widespread globally among wild birds and domestic poultry and have caused sporadic infections in mammals. It is important to note that a review of the genetic sequences of the viruses found in cats in Poland does not show any reason to change CDC’s risk assessment to human health, which remains low for the general public. Further…
Ted S. Warren/Associated PressFile – Washington Gov. Jay Inslee speaks Friday, April 22, 2022, at an event with President Joe Biden at Green River College in Auburn, Wash., south of Seattle.
Washington Gov.Jay Inslee(D) said on Sunday that climate change is “pounding on the door” after a scoring heat wave has gripped much of the United States this summer, breaking some records.
In an interview on ABC’s “This Week” withMartha Raddatz,Inslee warned of the dangers of climate change, while praising the Biden administration and calling on states to do more to tackle the problem.
“The climate change problem, the fuse has been burning for decades, and now the climate change bomb has gone off. The scientists are telling us that this is the new age. This is the…
Exposing the Big Game 
