The California Misplaced Fishing Gear Restoration Venture recovered greater than 45 tons — 90,968 kilos — of misplaced, deserted or in any other case discarded fishing gear alongside the Santa Barbara, Ventura, Los Angeles, Orange and San Diego coasts and from across the Channel Islands in 2020 and 2021. The undertaking is a program of the Karen C. Drayer Wildlife Well being Heart on the UC Davis Faculty of Veterinary Medication.
“Misplaced, deserted or in any other case discarded fishing gear impacts the worldwide ocean, harming marine wildlife, degrading habitat, and endangering vessels and ocean-users,” mentioned Kirsten Gilardi, director of the WHC and its California Misplaced Fishing Gear Restoration Venture, which works instantly with business fishers to search out and retrieve the gear to cut back its impression. “We’re celebrating World Oceans Day, which is June 8, not solely by assessing the achievements of our undertaking so far, but additionally by persevering with this necessary work to take away probably the most impactful type of marine particles from southern California’s coastal ocean.”This crab and fish entangled in a gillnet are among the many many marine species that get trapped in misplaced or deserted fishing gear. (Courtesy Triton Diving Inc.)
Fishing for misplaced gear
Launched in 2006, the undertaking has eliminated 1000’s of nets, pots and traps and has launched lots of of dwell sharks, fish and invertebrates (e.g. lobsters, crabs) again to the ocean. The undertaking has additionally documented many lots of of marine organisms that haven’t survived being trapped or tangled in gear.
Divers, whose “day jobs” are business urchin harvesting, labored in 30-100 toes of water over the course of 133 days from December 2019 by way of December 2021. They discovered and retrieved 666 gadgets of fishing gear from a wide range of marine habitats. Virtually 1,400 dwell animals and greater than 7,900 carcasses have been documented in recovered gear and returned to the ocean.
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“In over 50 years of diving, most of that as a fisherman, I’ve been actually bothered by the entire misplaced fishing gear I’ve come throughout when underwater,” mentioned Glenn Dexter, a contract vessel operator and diver for the undertaking. “It has been actually rewarding to work with UC Davis from the F/V Triton, and with contract divers Tony Schroeder and Mike Neil, to search out and take away the gear. We’ve got left the ocean cleaner and safer for marine life and for the well being of the ocean.”Vessel operator and diver Glenn Dexter holds a dwell lobster caught and freed by the California Misplaced Fishing Gear Restoration Venture. (Courtesy Triton Diving Inc.)
Generally caught
Essentially the most generally noticed animals in recovered gear have been lobster, spider crab, different crab species and sea urchins. A number of useless cormorants, in addition to sharks and rays, have been additionally noticed in recovered gear.
“That is what World Oceans Day is all about — doing what we will regionally to guard our ocean globally,” mentioned Jack Ainsworth, government director of the California Coastal Fee, which has directed $2.3 million in mitigation charges to help this system through the years. “The ocean wants our assist as a lot as we’d like it. California’s $45 billion coastal economic system is determined by a wholesome, vibrant ocean.”
The California Misplaced Fishing Gear Restoration Venture simply acquired new funding from the California Coastal Fee to conduct extra work off the southern California coast in 2022.
“We’re actually wanting ahead to getting again on the market, on and within the water, to proceed cleansing up our ocean and saving marine wildlife,” Gilardi mentioned.
Bird flu has been detected in a sample of raw milk for sale in California, prompting an urgent … [+] recall.
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The California Department of Public Health (CDPH) has detected the avian influenza or “bird flu” virus in a sample of a raw milk product. The product which was for sale at retailers at the time of the testing has now been recalled by the producer after the state of California requested it’s withdrawal from sale.
The affected product is cream top, whole raw milk produced and packaged by Raw Farm, LLC of Fresno County with lot code 2024110. The best buy date of the batch is 11. Nov, 2024 meaning consumers could still have it in their homes. No illnesses have currently been reported from this batch of milk, but people can take several days to develop bird flu after exposure. According to the World Health Organization, most people develop symptoms within 2-5 days, but can take up to 17 days to develop.
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According to the CDC, bird flu symptoms may include fever or feeling feverish or chills, eye redness or irritation, and respiratory symptoms, such as cough, sore throat, runny or stuffy nose, muscle or body aches, headaches, and tiredness.
A picture of the affected brand of raw milk for sale in California.
CDPH
Customers should not consume any product matching the description above and should return the product to stores or dispose of it. The CDPH is also in the process of informing re also in the process of informing retailers about the infected product to notify them to remove it from their shelves. The CDPH has since visited both locations of the company’s farms and has found no further evidence of bird flu. The CDPH will continue to test the farm’s milk twice a week.
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The CDPH stresses that there is no risk of consuming pasteurized milk as the milk is heated to temperatures which inactivate bacteria and viruses. However raw milk does not go through this process, meaning any bacteria or viruses in the milk can be transferred to the consumer. Public health departments, as well as the CDC have long warned against the dangers of consuming raw milk, which has been responsible for outbreaks of Listeria, E. coli, Campylobacter and Salmonella, among other microbes.
California has been hit with bird flu outbreaks in both dairy cow herds and poultry farms with over 400 dairy herds affected as of 22. November. Twenty-nine human cases have also been recorded in the state, mostly individuals who have had close contact with infected livestock. The numbers of infected individuals are likely to be under reported and very little is known about the severity of disease in humans so far. Just two days ago, the CDC confirmed a case of H5N1 bird flu in a child in California with no known contact with livestock.
SpaceX launched another batch of its Starlink internet satellites to orbit early Sunday morning (Nov. 24).
A Falcon 9 rocket carrying 20 Starlink spacecraft — 13 of which are capable of beaming service directly to smartphones — lifted off from California’s Vandenberg Space Force Base on Sunday at 12:25 a.m. EST (0525 GMT; 9:25 p.m. on Nov. 23 local California time).
The Falcon 9’s first stage returned to Earth about eight minutes after liftoff as planned, touching down on the SpaceX droneship “Of Course I Still Love You” in the Pacific Ocean.
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The first stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket rests on the deck of a droneship shortly after launching 20 Starlink internet satellites to orbit from California’s Vandenberg Space Force Base on Nov. 24, 2024. (Image credit: SpaceX)
It was the 15th launch and landing for this particular booster, according to a SpaceX mission description. Twelve of those flights have been Starlink missions.
The Falcon 9’s upper stage hauled the 20 Starlink satellites to low Earth orbit, deploying them there about an hour after liftoff as planned, SpaceX reported in a post on X.
Sunday’s launch was the 115th Falcon 9 flight of the year. Nearly 70% of those liftoffs have been devoted to building out Starlink, the largest satellite constellation ever assembled.
The megaconstellation currently consists of more than 6,600 active satellites, and, as Sunday’s mission shows, it’s growing all the time.
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