Investigation underway into mass death of sea lions on north coast of Peru

 Photo credit: http://mm.servidornoticias.com/photos/w_240/aa7/7472126w.jpg

Approximately 500 sea lions lie dead on a beach along the northern coast of Peru; environmental authorities are investigating.

by John Tyburski

Copyright © John Tyburski. All rights reserved.

The sudden deaths of around 500 sea lions has officials in Peru speculating on who is responsible. Meanwhile, Peru’s environmental police are investigating the mass die-off, the evidence of which—the rotting corpses of the animals—began to decompose on Anconcillo beach in the Ancash region about 250 miles north of Lima. The corpses have since been collected and moved off in response to public health concerns.

A local governmental leader accused fishermen of poisoning the sea lions, since the marine mammals move inward toward the shore in search of food and causing disruptions in fishing. The environmental police suggest that other explanations include disease and ingestion of plastic waste. Both juveniles and adults were affected by whatever caused the die-off.

Also still under investigation are the deaths of nearly 200 sea lions, dolphins, turtles, and pelicans, which were found washed ashore further north earlier in the month. These are not the only marine environmental mysteries for Peru, as a two-year-old case of the deaths of hundreds of dolphins found washed up on shore remains unexplained.

The environmental group Orca speculates that the noise and shock waves from explosions related to nearby oil exploration are to blame.  A report by the Maritime Institute Imarpe rules out oil exploration activities as well as viral and bacterial infections in the dolphin die-off of 2012. Rather, the report blamed the deaths on natural causes, although those natural causes were not described.

The Chilean paradox: Great maternal health despite abortion prohibitions

The Chilean experience challenges standard notions that access to legal abortion-on-demand is necessary for high-quality maternal health.

by John Tyburski

Copyright © Daily Digest News, KPR Media, LLC. All rights reserved.

First published at Daily Digest News on November 17, 2014

Popular opinion says that restricting access to abortion-on-demand will result in increases in illegal abortions, increases in complications resulting from unsafe illegal abortions, and overall reductions in maternal health indicators. The back alley coat hanger image is easily conjured up in the collective public imagination whenever abortion is debated.

In fact, however, these adverse outcomes have not been observed in several countries where abortion is limited or prohibited by law. Chile, for example, prohibited abortion with legislation ratified in 1989 and yet has shown a dramatic, steady decrease in maternal mortality ratio, or MMR, a maternal health indicator. In the context of the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals, Chile has become a “paragon” of maternal health in the entire American continent, as determined by the MELISA Institute, Concepcion, Chile.

According to a new report published on Friday in the Journal of the Chilean Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology, the number of hospital visits for complications from illegal abortions continues to decline at a rate of about two percent each year since 2001, along with abortion-related mortality. Hospitalizations for other kinds of abortion, including spontaneous and ectopic pregnancies, have remained constant over the same period.

The Chilean experience shows, argues report author Elard Koch, director of research at MELISA, that maternal health indicators can be significantly improved without allowing access to abortion. What is more, the evidence presented by Koch suggests that reducing morbidity and mortality associated with abortion plays a role in Chile’s successful maternal health program.

According to a MELISA Institute statement, Estimates for the annual number of illegal abortions performed in Chile range from 13,000 to 18,000. The risk of death from illegal abortion is estimated to be one in four million women of reproductive age. Approximately 16 percent of hospital discharges for all abortion types are attributed to illegal abortion complications. The most common method of illegal abortion is self-medication with misoprostol.

The progress in maternal health in Chile since 1989 is generally attributed to successes in maternal health policy, improved access to birth control, increases in women’s education, and the recent emergence of support programs for women with unplanned pregnancies who are at elevated risk of seeking abortion.

Buried babies from Ice Age accompanied by ancient weapons kit

Archaeologists uncover the 5,000-year-old bodies of two young children and find buried with them well-worn hunting weapons, providing valuable insight into ancient burial practices in North America.

by John Tyburski

Copyright © Daily Digest News, KPR Media, LLC. All rights reserved.

First published at Daily Digest News on November 14, 2014

Archaeologists are getting a unique glimpse into the burial practices of ancient Americans who lived right at the end of the last Ice Age, just as North America began to be inhabited. The insight comes from a 11,500-year-old burial site of two human babies in a pit in what is modern-day Alaska.

“Prior to these finds, we really did not have evidence of that facet of settlement and traditional systems for the early Americans who once inhabited this area,” says Ben Potter, an archaeologist at the University of Alaska in Fairbanks. “These are new windows into these ancient peoples’ lifestyle.”

The site under investigation was originally found in 2006 during a railroad project in central Alaska, north of the Tanana River. In 2010, Potter and coworkers found a partially cremated three-year-old child in a subterranean house also thought to be 11,500 years old.

Potter and his colleagues continued excavation in 2013 and found the remains of an infant and a fetus or possibly stillborn baby about 16 inches below where the remains of the three-year-old child were found years prior. The fetus is thought to be the youngest late Pleistocene human ever found. The researchers’ findings were published on Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The infant remains seem to have been covered in red ochre after having been curled and wrapped. While nothing was found along with the three-year-old child, the infants had buried with them weapon pieces dating to around 11,600 to 11,230 years old. These consisted of antler rods, arrow or spear points, and sharpened stones called bifaces. The objects were adorned with red ochre as well. The researchers suggest that the objects were part of a weapons system.

“These weren’t just created and placed there,” said Potter. “Together, they form a functional hunter’s toolkit.”

What is also noteworthy is that the objects showed wear and tear indicative of having been used prior to being buried with the infants. The people who inhabited the region of what is now called the Upward Sun River were likely the Denali, the primary inhabitants of central Alaska some 12,000 to 6,000 years ago, near the tail end of the Pleistocene epoch, or last Ice Age.

Hundreds gather and pay respects to spaceship crash victim

Nearly 1,000 mourners gather to recognize the pioneering efforts of Michael Alsbury, the pilot of SpaceShipTwo who lost his life in a recent crash.

by John Tyburski

Copyright © Daily Digest News, KPR Media, LLC. All rights reserved.

First published at Daily Digest News on November 13, 2014

Risking it all is something that upwards of 1,000 mourners honored at a memorial Thursday for Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo pilot Michael Alsbury who died in the craft’s unexpected crash during a test flight on October 31. Family, friends, and coworkers gathered to honor the memory of the pilot while WhiteKnightTwo, the SpaceShipTwo’s mothership, flew over the Mojave baseball stadium where the ceremony took place.

In attendance were Alsbury’s widow and two young children as well as Brian Binnie and Mike Melvill, America’s first private astronauts and the first pilots of SpaceShipOne, the first of Virgin Galactic’s craft to travel out of Earth orbit ten years ago. President of Scaled Composites Kevin Mickey delivered a eulogy in which he named Alsbury a hero of American space exploration. Mickey drew parallels of Alsbury’s sacrifice to those of the crew of NASA’s Columbia space shuttle which broke apart during atmosphere re-entry in 2003.

George Whitesides, CEO of Virgin Galactic also spoke at the ceremony, assuring mourners that Alsbury’s memory will outlive the rest of the development team. Founder Sir Richard Branson called Alsbury a leader, mentor, and friend and lamented that the world lost “a true space pioneer.”

Branson announced that the next SpaceShipTwo craft is already being built and will be called “Hope” in honor of Alsbury’s contribution. He said that Alsbury imparted hope to the Virgin Galactic family by pursuing and achieving the dream he and they shared.

Baffled diggers discover 5,000-year-old footprint of ancient fisherman

[The title was written by my editor.]

Ancient impressions found in Denmark during work on a tunnel project.

by John Tyburski

Copyright © Daily Digest News, KPR Media, LLC. All rights reserved.

First published at Daily Digest News on November 13, 2014

Leaving a legacy takes on new meaning in Denmark this week. Footprints thought to date back some 5,000 years ago were discovered during work on the Femern Belt link scheme, a project to connect the Danish island of Lolland with Germany’s Fehmarn island using an immersed tunnel. The region has been heavily influenced by the sea for thousands of years.

The researchers who found the prints speculate that they offer clues into how ancient people of the region worked tirelessly to cope with the powerful sea influences while fishing to feed their community. The prints were found near a system of fishing weirs consisting of gillnets fixed on stakes, constructs which also date to a similar time period.

“These prints show the population attempted to save parts of their fishing system before it was flooded and covered in sand,” said Anne-Lotte Sjørup Mathiesen of the Museum Lolland-Falster.

Sjørup Mathiesen and colleagues conclude from the two prints they found that two people entered a swampy seabed to gather their fishing sets and relocate them nearby.

“Their footprints were covered with a layer of sand and dirt shortly after, and have been there since,” Sjørup Mathiesen said in a statement.

One of the prints measured roughly the size of a U.S. men’s 9 shoe, while the other was smaller and was close to a women’s size five-and-a-half.

“One print is very small compared to the other. At the moment we can’t tell whether it belonged to a boy or a woman,” Sjørup Mathiesen said.

Archaeologists continue excavations at the site and hope that these and other finds will continue to shed light into how the ancient population lived.

“Here we have direct imprints from ancient people’s activities, which can be associated with a concrete event – a storm destroying the fixed gillnet on stakes. In order to secure the survival of the population, the fishing system had to be repaired,” Sjørup Mathiesen said.