Birds, Fish, and... Kirk Cameron?

[joeactor]

Hey gang,

If you haven't heard the news about recent mass bird and fish kills, here's a short news post:
http://gantdaily.com/2011/01/04/arkansa ... l-mystery/

Little Rock, AR, United States (AHN) â€" Preliminary necropsy reports of the nearly 5,000 red-winged blackbirds that fell to their deaths New Year’s Eve over Arkansas indicate the birds died from some sort of massive trauma.

The Arkansas Livestock and Poultry Commission Veterinary Diagnostic Lab stated that there was no sign of chronic or infectious disease. The agency said all major organs were normal and the birds appeared to be otherwise healthy.

The trauma was primarily in the bird’s breast tissue. The birds began falling over the town of Beebe at around 11:30 p.m. on Dec. 31.

...

But adding to the mystery surrounding the massive bird die-off is the discovery of more than 83,000 dead and dying fish along 17 miles of the Arkansas River two days earlier.

Almost all the fish were freshwater drum. Game and Fish Commission officers also found some dead yellow bass, white bass and sauger, but said they may be unrelated to the drum deaths.

There are a number of conspiracy and end-of-world groups seizing this story.

I caught a CNN broadcast where they interviewed Kirk Cameron.  He was surprisingly coherent, and when asked about the end-of-world ideas, told CNN he's not a veterinarian.  Maybe away from the influence of Comfort, he's more rational?

Anywho, just wondered about your take on these mass-kills.

Speculation anyone?
JoeActor

[LegendarySandwich]

Definitely signs of the end times (which will start on May 21st, 2011).

Hopefully Satan will protect us atheists.

[Sophus]

No, not Robert Gardner's Dead Birds. These dead birds in Arkansas.



I think it's safe to cross out the fireworks confused the birdies theory. The birds didn't start to drop until well after the fireworks celebration and "USGS records shows there have been 16 events in the past 30 years involving blackbirds where at least 1,000 of the birds have died seemingly all at once" (2theadvocate).

So here's the science mystery.... whodunit?

[Sophus]

Oop! I'm sorry Joe. I unwittingly made another thread that's pretty much about the same thing, although focus more on the scientific, and not apocalyptic, theories behind this event, feel free to merge them if necessary.

[joeactor]

Thanks Sophus - merge... Activated!

[elliebean]

I caught a CNN broadcast where they interviewed Kirk Cameron.  He was surprisingly coherent, and when asked about the end-of-world ideas, told CNN he's not a veterinarian.

Congrats to Kirk for having at least one lick of sense.  

[Whitney]

I'm going to go with the secret government weapons testing theory...most likely a mind control device  

[LARA]

I read some speculation that the birds may have run into an upper atmospheric hail storm as they exhibited signs of physical trauma, head injuries and the like.  This is consistent with the weather in the area when this happened.  We had a couple of very warm days followed by a cold snap on New Year's Eve.  Because of the sudden temperature change, there were many damaging tornadoes in the area that killed about 7 people.  It sounds very likely this flock of birds got caught up in the extreme weather in the area and were beaten to death by hail.

[KDbeads]

That's what I was thinking, hail damage, for the fish too.

[terranus]

Maybe the birds and fish were in some type of religious cult?  

[LARA]

From a Chicago tribune article: "Game and Fish spokesman Keith Stephens says the aquaculture school at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff will conduct tests to determine the cause of the fish die-off. The results will take about a month to come back. Stephens says only one species was affected, which indicates the fish were sick."

terranus wrote: Maybe the birds and fish were in some type of religious cult?  

Go on...  

[Whitney]

more dead birds (east texas) http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-ne ... dead-birds

[KDbeads]

Don't forget the ones in Sweden either, a whole 50 of them  
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110105/ap_ ... dead_birds

The armageddon talks have already started out here..................

[terranus]

It's Ahhhhmageddon!!

[Stevil]

Who say's NZ misses out on all the fun?
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10697906

Lots of dead fish
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/01/05/national/main7216597.shtml