Big Hungry Squid Invade California Waters

Voracious Jumbo Squid Invade California
AP

MONTEREY, Calif. (July 25) - Jumbo squid that can grow up to 7 feet long and weigh more than 110 pounds are invading central California waters and preying on local anchovy, hake and other commercial fish populations, according to a study published Tuesday.

An aggressive predator, the Humboldt squid - or Dosidicus gigas - can change its eating habits to consume the food supply favored by tuna and sharks, its closest competitors, according to an article published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal.

"Having a new, voracious predator set up shop here in California may be yet another thing for fishermen to compete with," said the study's co-author, Stanford University researcher Louis Zeidberg. "That said, if a squid saw a human they would jet the other way."

The jumbo squid used to be found only in the Pacific Ocean's warmest stretches near the equator. In the last 16 years, it has expanded its territory throughout California waters, and squid have even been found in the icy waters off Alaska, Zeidberg said.

Zeidberg's co-author, Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute senior scientist Bruce Robison, first spotted the jumbo squid here in 1997, when one swam past the lens of a camera mounted on a submersible thousands of feet below the ocean's surface.

More were observed through 1999, but the squid weren't seen again locally until the fall of 2002. Since their return, scientists have noted a corresponding drop in the population of Pacific hake, a whitefish the squid feeds on that is often used in fish sticks, Zeidberg said."As they've come and gone, the hake have dropped off," Zeidberg said.

"We're just beginning to figure out how the pieces fit together, but this is most likely going to shake things up.

"Before the 1970s, the giant squid were typically found in the Eastern Pacific, and in coastal waters spanning from Peru to Costa Rica. But as the populations of its natural predators - like large tuna, sharks and swordfish - declined because of fishing, the squids moved northward and started eating different species that thrive in colder waters.

Local marine mammals needn't worry about the squid's arrival since they're higher up on the food chain, but lanternfish, krill, anchovies and rockfish are all fair game, Zeidberg said.

A fishermen's organization said Tuesday they were monitoring the squid's impact on commercial fisheries.

"In years of high upwellings, when the ocean is just bountiful, it probably wouldn't do anything," Zeke Grader, the executive director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations. "But in bad years it could be a problem to have a new predator competing at the top of the food chain."

Ever notice how California always seems to get invaded or populated by some kind of sea monsters. Like, it's not bad enough that they are a feeding ground for "great white sharks". Now, they have "huge" squid that are not exactly cute, cuddly or friendly. Makes for a nice comfy day at the beach! But hey, they are our fellow creatures, and, as an animal person, I support them being there.

Animalz Rule,

Bobby Sharpe www.myspace.com/akuasharpe BobbySharpe.blogspot.com

Animal Rights In Spiritualism

Animal Rights in Spiritualism aims to function in the same way as any other animal rights group, the only difference being that A.R.I.S literature will emphasise the spiritual side of the argument and their venues for setting up stall will be churches/centres worldwide. Their words will be designed to bring about an awareness of the fact that animals are not only able to suffer on a physical, mental and emotional level (just as we are) but have a spirit capable of love, thought and survival over death.

Other creatures are not here for our use but for their own spiritual progression. What Great Spirit worth its light would divine a law that favoured one species at the expense of another? Material bodies.....are just vehicles for the soul to work through and when they are shed the spirit within is seen as the sum of the love it gave in life…..or didn’t......

Because we have entered bodies with greater brain capacity than that of some other animals, we have a duty to protect and care for them where it is needed and to leave them to fulfil their lives in their own environment where not. We cannot think that because they have a lower intellect than ours they have nothing to offer but their bodies for us to eat, wear, experiment upon and torment in the name of sport, science, fashion and our taste-buds, no more than we would consider roasting a mental patient for lunch.

So, where limited intelligence cannot be used as an excuse to inflict torture, society will look for a blessing to absolve itself of all wrong-doing…. in religion. Most faiths have a lot to answer for in this respect, for their denial that an animal has a soul implies not only that it has little sensitivity to pain and fear, but adds weight, in their follower’s eyes, to the belief that its life is pointless beyond one of servitude to homo sapiens.

Others suggest that these creatures do have a soul but know they are here for human benefit, gladly giving themselves as a sacrifice for our good. Tell that to the cow who walked five miles, searching frantically for her calf who had been taken away to slaughter, the turkey, living in a crowded shed with no windows, suffering painful joints due to the way it is bred for the Christmas dinner plate or the laboratory animal living in near darkness, having a fit after being force-fed drugs through a stomach tube. It may be true that most of these victims do not bear a grudge (and it is this selfless virtue that is picked up by some psychics who put forward this theory) but that does not mean they accept the horrors we inflict upon them.

"Below are some extracts from both the teachings and philosophy of the renowned guide SILVER BIRCH regarding animal abuse:

“How can that which is cruel be right? How can that which causes pain, inflicts torture, be right? It is contrary to all that we teach. It is wrong to experiment on those who are not capable of resisting. Your world cannot produce remedies for the diseases which it has created by living contrary to the laws of The Great Spirit. There will be found remedies for all your diseases but they will not be found by experiments on animals.”

Let us have a voice on behalf of those who cannot speak for themselves, from the rostrum, in the newspapers and after service at every spiritualist/psychic centre in the world. Pledge your help now!

Hope this article wakes some folks up that have NO respect or anything for our fellow creatures. As the picture says, "animal love is pure love". It is also unconditional!

If YOU would like more reading materials on animals and spiritualism and, their oneness with us, check out "The Spiral Circle" bookstore at New Age, metaphysical, bookstore, spiritual, enlightenment

Peace & Love, Animalz Rule

Bobby SharpeBobby Sharpe's "Indigo Spiritz" www.myspace.com/akuasharpe

Chinese "Dragon Bones" and Amazon Monster

Chinese Villagers Eat Dinosaur Bones

BEIJING (July 4) - Villagers in central China dug up a ton of dinosaur bones and boiled them in soup or ground them into powder for traditional medicine, believing they were from flying dragons and had healing powers.

Until last year, the fossils were being sold in Henan province as "dragon bones" at about 4 yuan (50 cents) per kilogram (2.2 pounds), scientist Dong Zhiming told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

Dong, a professor with the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said when the villagers found out the bones were from dinosaurs they donated 200 kilograms (440 pounds) to him and his colleagues for research."They had believed that the 'dragon bones' were from the dragons flying in the sky," he said.

The calcium-rich bones were sometimes boiled with other ingredients and fed to children as a treatment for dizziness and leg cramps. Other times they were ground up and made into a paste that was applied directly to fractures and other injuries, he said.

The practice had been going on for at least two decades, he said.

Dong was among a team of scientists who recently excavated in Henan's Ruyang County a 60-foot-long plant-eating dinosaur, which lived 85 million to 100 million years ago. Local officials held a news conference Tuesday, showing off the find to the public for the first time.

Another two dinosaur fossils were being excavated in the area, which is rich in fossilized dinosaur eggs, Dong said.

The Chinese have also recently discovered bones they say belonged to a dinosaur that was as big or bigger than a T-Rex and could fly! Who said "dragons don't or didn't exist? I seriously do not believe these people are fabricating all this stuff with "dragon bones" etc. We shall see, sooner or, later!

Amazon Monster Is Only a Myth. Or Is It?
By LARRY ROHTER

RIO BRANCO, Brazil (July 8) -- Perhaps it is nothing more than a legend, as skeptics say. Or maybe it is real, as those who claim to have seen it avow. But the mere mention of the mapinguary, the giant slothlike monster of the Amazon, is enough to send shivers down the spines of almost all who dwell in the world’s largest rain forest.

The folklore here is full of tales of encounters with the creature, and nearly every Indian tribe in the Amazon, including those that have had no contact with one another, have a word for the mapinguary (pronounced ma-ping-wahr-EE). The name is usually translated as “the roaring animal” or “the fetid beast.”

So widespread and so consistent are such accounts that in recent years a few scientists have organized expeditions to try to find the creature. They have not succeeded, but at least one says he can explain the beast and its origins.

I keep telling everyone, "there is stuff here that NO ONE wants to acknowledge, but, sooner or later, it all comes to surface"! If YOU would like to read the rest of this story, click the link Amazon Monster Is Only a Myth. Or Is It?

"The more YOU know, the more YOU grow,

The more YOU grow, the further YOU go"

Bobby Sharpewww.myspace.com/akuasharpe BobbySharpe.blogspot.com

Boto? Rare Pink Dolphin In Louisiana

It's sleek, fast, cute — and pink.

A charter-boat captain from Lake Charles, La., photographed a rare pink dolphin a couple of weeks ago in Calcasieu Lake, an estuary just north of the Gulf of Mexico in southwestern Louisiana.

According to Calcasieu Charter Service's Web site, Capt. Erik Rue was on the lake June 24 with fishing customers when five dolphins came into view — four normal-looking gray ones, and a bright pink one that appeared to be an adolescent.

"It appears to be an uncanny freak of nature, an albino dolphin, with reddish eyes and glossy pink skin," the Web site reads. "It is small in comparison to the others it is traveling with and appears to be a youngster traveling with mama."

There is a species of pink dolphin that lives in the Amazon River in South America, but this one appears to be a more common bottlenose dolphin.

See, you never know. Just when YOU think YOU have seen it all, BAM, out of nowhere, a "pink dolphin". And yes, pink dolphins do exist. The one that lives in the Amazon River is known as a "boto". There are also pink dolphins that live in China.

Here are two links to sites that will give YOU more info on pink dolphins and, more pictures of the Louisiana dolphin. Endangered Dolphin Duck Hunting, Goose Hunting & Saltwater Fishing in Louisiana & Texas

"The more YOU know, the more YOU grow,

The more YOU grow, the further YOU go"

Bobby Sharpewww.myspace.com/akuasharpe BobbySharpe.blogspot.com

Bald Eagles Escape Extinction

Bald eagles soaring to escape extinction

The bald eagle, America's national symbol, is to be removed from its list of endangered species, 40 years after it was on the brink of extinction, officials said yesterday.

The majestic sea bird, which was almost wiped out by hunters and insecticide poisoning, has not only survived but is now thriving.

The interior department's announcement that it is to remove the species from the protection of the Endangered Species Act signalled a major victory for tough federal conservation laws, said naturalists.

In 1963, there were only 417 mating pairs of bald eagles known to exist. Government biologists, however, have now counted nearly 10,000 mating pairs, including at least one pair in each of the 48 contiguous states.

The Continental Congress put the bird on the country's official seal in 1782, although Benjamin Franklin preferred the turkey and called the eagle a "bird of bad moral character". The eagle was long viewed as a nuisance and dangerous predator. It was hunted for its feathers, the subject of a 50-cent bounty in Alaska and poisoned in some states.

President Bush said its resurgence should be credited to cooperation between landowners and federal and state governments. "This great conservation achievement means more and more Americans across the nation will enjoy the thrill of seeing bald eagles soar," he said.

What a great success story for the Bald Eagle and, for a change, mankind. It is so cool to see one of these magnificent creatures in the wild and it's natural habitat.

Animalz Rule,

Bobby Sharpewww.myspace.com/akuasharpe BobbySharpe.blogspot.com

Shark Pregnant! Wonder How?

Shark Pregnant in Aquarium With No Males
By SONJA BARISIC,

NORFOLK, Va. (June 25) - Veterinarian Bob George sliced open the dead shark and saw the outline of a fish.

No surprise there, since sharks digest their food slowly.

Then George realized he wasn't looking at the stomach of the blacktip reef shark, but at her uterus. In it was a perfectly formed, 10-inch-long shark pup that was almost ready to be born.

George was dumbfounded.

He had been examining the shark, Tidbit, to figure out why she reacted badly to routine sedatives during a physical and died, hours after biting an aquarium curator on the shin. Now there was a bigger mystery: How did Tidbit get pregnant ?

"We must have had hanky panky" in the shark tank, he thought.

But sharks only breed with sharks of the same species, and there were no male blacktip reef sharks at the Virginia Aquarium & Marine Science Center in Virginia Beach.

Could Tidbit have defied nature, resulting in the first known shark hybrid?

The other possibility was that Tidbit had conceived without needing a male at all.

A recent study had documented the first confirmed case of asexual reproduction, or parthenogenesis, among sharks: a pup born at a Nebraska zoo came from an egg that developed in a female shark without sperm from a male.

One of the scientists who worked on that study contacted the aquarium, which sent him tissue samples from Tidbit and her pup for testing. If the pup's DNA turns out to contain no contribution from a male shark, this would be the second known case of shark parthenogenesis.

George hopes to receive a preliminary report soon, but conclusive results could take months.

Tidbit had lived at the aquarium for most of her 10 years, swimming with other sharks in a 300,000-gallon tank.

The sharks get yearly checkups. On May 24, workers guided the 5-foot, 94-pound Tidbit from the main aquarium into a smaller corral to be examined out of public view.

Blacktip reef sharks are sensitive to change, so it was standard procedure to give Tidbit a sedative. This time, Tidbit went under the sedation too deeply - maybe because of a combination of the unknown pregnancy and the stress of being handled and of having recently been bitten by another shark, George said.

George and Beth Firchau, the curator of fishes, massaged Tidbit's tail to get her blood flowing and gave her a stimulant to help her breathe.

The shark swam away, bumped into a wall, headed back toward Firchau and clamped onto her left shin. Whether Tidbit meant to attack Firchau or just collided into her and snapped reflexively is hard to know.

The pain didn't hit Firchau right away.

"Oh, you're not supposed to do that. That was weird," she thought as she felt the shark tug on her leg.

Members of the shark physicals team pulled Firchau out of the tank and began administering first aid. She credits their swift reaction with saving her life.

Firchau was taken to a hospital to get stitches while George and other team members tried to revive Tidbit. The shark rallied a couple times but died about 12 hours later.

George initially was depressed by the events. But something positive emerged out of the negative.

Since Tidbit hadn't looked pregnant - and there was no reason to think she was pregnant - the pup likely would have been born and immediately eaten by another shark, without aquarium employees ever knowing it had existed.

But Tidbit's death led to George stumbling upon a mystery of nature.

In normal reproduction, an egg is fertilized by sperm, producing an embryo that contains a set of chromosomes with half coming from the mother and half from the father.

In asexual reproduction, an egg splits in two and DNA contributed from the mother doubles, so each resulting egg has a full complement of chromosomes from the female. The eggs then fuse, producing a single embryo with no DNA from a father.

Asexual reproduction is common in some insect species, rarer in reptiles and fish, and has never been documented in mammals. Until now, sharks were not considered likely candidates.

But with sharks, "this is probably something that does happen in aquariums, more often than we realize," said Bob Hueter, director of the Center for Shark Research at the Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota, Fla.

He said the phenomenon is coming to light with the joint Northern Ireland-U.S. research that analyzed the DNA of a hammerhead shark born in 2001 in the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha, Neb. The study was published in the Royal Society journal Biology Letters on the day before Firchau was bitten.

Asexual reproduction among sharks is more likely to happen in captivity, when there is no other option for reproduction, than in the wild, Hueter said.

Crossbreeding, on the other hand, is not known to happen at all among sharks, said Heather Thomas, aquarist at the John G. Shedd Aquarium in Chicago.

"It's not natural," Thomas said. "If you've got a shark that needs to swim to breathe and cross it with a shark that can lay on the bottom to breathe, what are you going to get? Are you going to get these weird mutations?"

If the pup indeed turns out to be a hybrid, DNA testing should be able to identify the species of the father. The most likely candidate would be a sandbar shark, the most similar shark to a blacktip reef in the aquarium, George said.

While parthenogenesis "is certainly kind of a spiffy, interesting thing," George hopes the tests confirm crossbreeding, since that would be a first among sharks.

Asexual reproduction, or, parthenogenesis, has been proven in a number of cases with other life forms. So, this is not to far out of the ordinary. Crossbreeding, on the other hand, would be a first, however, "I do not think that is the case"! But, "what do I know"? I am only the dj/guitarist/cabbie/writer and animal lover!

Animalz Rule,

Bobby Sharpe www.myspace.com/akuasharpe BobbySharpe.blogspot.com

Italian Albino Mountain Goat Exists

Albino Mountain Goat Spotted in Italy

MILAN, Italy (AP) - Forest rangers in the northern Italian Alps have confirmed for the first time the existence of an albino mountain goat - and named him "Snowflake."

Rangers took photos of the albino capra ibex climbing with its mother Sunday at about 10,000 feet above the Les Laures valley in the northwestern Val d'Aosta region, said Christian Chioso, a regional wildlife official.

"This is the only one ever documented, the only one ever seen," Chioso said by telephone on Monday. He said albinism is rare in any species and has not been previously documented among the capra ibex, a type of wild mountain goat with large curved horns that lives in mountainous areas.

Chioso estimated the albino animal is about a year old.

Hikers had been reporting seeing a white animal at higher elevations for months, and forest rangers have been keeping a lookout, Chioso said.

The goat was seen near the boundaries of the Big Paradise National Park, which was established to protect the species. Chiaso said about 4,000 wild mountain goats populate the park.

This is a really cool story because it points out the fact that "new" species or oddities in the animal world are being discovered all the time now. Basically saying, "we probably do not have any idea exactly what all is living with us on this planet"!

I'm telling YOU, "one of these days, GODZILLA"!

Animals Rule,

Bobby Sharpewww.myspace.com/akuasharpe BobbySharpe.blogspot.com

Super Grizzly Bear

Bear Is Second-Largest Seen in North Rockies

GREAT FALLS, Mont. (June 21) - State bear managers seeking to capture and collar female grizzly bears as part of a population count recently trapped a 7 foot, 6 inch male grizzly that weighed 750 pounds after a winter of hibernation.

Mike Madel, bear management specialist with the state Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks, said it took two scales and a hydraulic crane to weigh the 8-year-old bruin that had 3 1/2-inch claws and a neck circumference of 4 feet.

"This bear was just a beautiful bear," Madel said. Madel said the big male with the bronze head, golden back and dark chocolate legs could weigh as much as 900 pounds by the fall.

"This is really a large male," he said. In fact, it is the second-largest male grizzly ever recorded in the Northern Rockies Region, Madel said. Madel captured the bear he dubbed "Big Daddy," on May 24. He was trying to capture female grizzlies near Choteau to fit them with radio collars to track their movements and whether they have cubs. "We actually were trying to avoid males," Madel said.

But he decided to put a radio collar on the bear to track its range. Madel said he didn't know the big bear even existed. "Here's a bear that's down on the Front, and he's accustomed to moving in and around human activity, and he's never caused a conflict before," Madel said.

The average-sized male grizzly along the Rocky Mountain Front is 600 pounds, while females are around 300 to 325 pounds. Madel, who has been managing bears on the Front for 24 years, wonders if the bear he trapped this spring was sired by the largest male grizzly ever recorded in the Northern Rockies: an 8-foot, 800-plus pound bruin trapped in 2003 in the Blackleaf Wildlife Management Area northwest of Choteau.

"This bear," he said, "looked very much like that bear." Madel collected hair from the 2003 bear, but an Idaho lab lost the samples, making it impossible to know if they're related. Madel said the younger bear captured this spring hasn't reached its full size. "He's got some growing to do," Madel said.

Brown bears, or, "grizzlies", are some of the most intelligent and magnificent creatures on this planet. It totally disgusts me when I see these "great white hunter" geeks out with their super weapons trying to kill these beautiful animalz.

Animalz Rule,

Bobby Sharpe www.myspace.com/akuasharpe BobbySharpe.blogspot.com