Are die-offs occurring more often? To the casual reader, it can certainly seem that reports emerge on a regular basis of thousands of animals of a species suddenly dying. The latest victims are common murres in the Northeast Pacific. They have been dying for months, but estimates of the toll jumped sharply when David Irons, a retired United States Fish and Wildlife Service biologist walking a beach in Whittier, Alaska, found close to 8,000 dead birds in early January.
http://tinyurl.com/zrumb9w
In late January, a group on a whale-watching trip off the California coast witnessed a rare superpod of gray whales. The footage shows the pod traveling at the end of the day, and they briefly interact with a group of Risso's dolphins. Captain Todd Mansur and Captain Frank Brennan used a drone to capture the event.
http://tinyurl.com/m9dj384
