What Is Killing Portugal's Octopuses? 1000's wash up on shore.

Well, the saga continues.... Another species on our planet has been effected by the sudden, but now common, die offs...

1000's of octopuses have been washing up on shore in Portugal.

Of course, this never before heard of scenario is being blamed on disease. I think the only disease that could be causing all of this is man.

Such a shame... First the bee's, then the birds... now the fish and octopuses.... What or who is next I wonder...


Source: Time

Possible warm current from Gulf bringing oil and the disputant chems up with it. ?

Wednesday, Jan. 06, 2010

reply to post by Anttyk47


octopusses (Sp?) have a natural body oil they spray to defend from predators. I doubt our oil could hurt them.

it is at least weird. all those sea creatures mass dying.

best comments for me are those like - yeah, it's normal, it's from cold weather....

I have a house on the shore for 30+ years, seen very cold winters but never, and i mean never have seen more than 1 creature washed up on the beach so ..... normal.... hm....

maybe swamp gas is killing them. i heard portugal is full of swamps. or another - yeah portugal has some cold winters - so they died from cold weaher

It makes me so sad I could cry. The sea life is dying the coral reefs are dying, the birds, the bees....

In many species of octopus , the females die after the have protected their eggs often similtainiously .So I wonder what sexes they are ?

LOL! Humans will be next! I wonder what people will say then

Originally posted by ByteChanger
Well, the saga continues.... Another species on our planet has been effected by the sudden, but now common, die offs...

1000's of octopuses have been washing up on shore in Portugal.

Of course, this never before heard of scenario is being blamed on disease. I think the only disease that could be causing all of this is man.

Such a shame... First the bee's, then the birds... now the fish and octopuses.... What or who is next I wonder...


Source: Time

edit on 18-1-2011 by ByteChanger because: (no reason given)

Don't forget the oak trees...They may not be an animal but they are still living, and they are currently dying as well...

reply to post by totalmetal


you have read this post above; post by PoorFool

it was last year, the oak trees have been a risk know of as late as 2002, not really a new happening now.

The oceans may be not have much fishes in the next few years if this goes on. What you have seen is only the big fishes.What about the tiny dead baby fishes that you do not notice or does not wash up to shore. The baby octopus may be suffering the same fate as the bigger ones. If the fate of those babies sea creatures are dieing like the bigger ones the oceans will not have much life in the near future. The population of birds and other animals will decrease in the future too.

I would just like to point out, I used the link and went to Time's article about the octopuses, and i see no number of actual octopus deaths. What i read is 1210 lbs., I did NOT read 1000s of dead octopus.
Although i do not have a clue of how many that actually is, I just wanted to point out that your title may not be completely accurate

Originally posted by freedish
reply to post by Anttyk47

 

octopusses (Sp?) have a natural body oil they spray to defend from predators. I doubt our oil could hurt them.

i'm not sure i follow your logic.

can i point out that the article is a year old? not that the date makes it less of a tragedy but the deaths can't be linked to anything recent like the oil spill.

I'm going to guess that some idiot was dynamite fishing in the area, I've seen it being done myself in the Mediterranean.
They skim the few fish that float to the top off and leave the rest to be washed in with the tide. I remember literally walking across a silver carpet of dead fish on the beach after someone had been dynamite fishing in the area.
It is not pleasant

reply to post by ByteChanger


hi there,

thanks for the post ,

But this is not new, i see this every year on the Portuguese news, it seems to be a seasonal thing combined with big storms in the Atlantic.

as for the other die-offs, yes i agree about the trees, here in Portugal we are losing a lot of the Oaks and most of the Pines.

snoopyuk

reply to post by snoopyuk


not only is it not new but i've already posted that the article itself is a year old.

Don't forget the oak trees...They may not be an animal but they are still living, and they are currently dying as well...

Wow, I didn't hear about them. That is sad. We've had, and thankfully, still have a GIANT oak tree out in the field.

What is killing them? An unknown or pest? I know out in BC, they have been fighting a losing battle with the bark beetle. I think it was wiping out a lot of pine trees at one point.

Same down here in Ont, our wood is quarantined. Its illegal to remove it from the area... Its all Infested wood.

One day your kids will ask about "the birds & the bee's" and will get a totally different story then what we've been taught for generations...

So sad.

Ah yea... I see an update on one of my source pages...

Correction:The Portugal unprecedented octopus die-off was January 2010, not January 2011.
Source: Earthfiles


Sorry. It was in the new news of a couple of websites.... My bad.

Now, in addition to the mysterious die-off of birds and fish, comes a new report of thousands of dead octopus on the beach in Portugal.
Source: Coast to Coast AM


Guess it was dredge up to coincide with all the other recent tragedies. Not kewl.

Mods: Feel free to close this year old news break.