“Grandmothers” in the Iberian population have been seen observing during the interactions with yachts and other vessels.Įxperts believe this could be play among juvenile orcas. They learn matrilineally, and post-menopausal females assume the greatest importance in individual pods. Highly social cetaceans, orcas (also known as killer whales) use complex vocalisations to communicate and to hunt for food, from small fish to blue whales. This is the same behaviour that has been seen in the Iberian orca population, but it is the first time it has been known to happen in northern waters. ![]() but came back at fast speed, twice or thrice. The orca stayed behind the boat “looking for the keel. “What I felt most frightening was the very loud breathing of the animal,” he said. The whale hit again and again, creating “soft shocks” through the aluminium hull. In a similar phenomenon in 2018, fishermen in the central province of Babylon found dead carp in their thousands, but an investigation failed to discern what had caused it.“I said: ‘Shit!’” Rutten, who said he had heard about the “Portuguese accidents”, told the Guardian. "The water's toxicity might increase and infiltrate the land too." which raises the level of pollution," he said. He warned of further risks of pollution in the water and surrounding lands the more animals die. It would scourge the land if farmers use it for irrigation", Salman said. The water can no longer "be used for agriculture. to determine if there is any presence of chemical substances", Salman added.īut the high salinity levels may be enough to cause considerable damage. Samples from both the fish and the water will be "analyzed. He joined a mission on Monday to inspect the deaths of "tons" of fish, he said, noting the Amshan's waters are home to nine species. Khodr Abbas Salman, a Maysan province official overseeing its marshes for the Iraqi environment ministry, told AFP that "according to terrain analyses we have conducted, the level of oxygen (in the water) is zero, in addition to a rise in salinity levels".įishermen's boats lie close to the drying riverbed of the Amshan river in Iraq's southeastern Maysan province.Īn Iraqi government official measures the oxygen level and salinity of the water of the Amshan river. Declining rain over the past four years as well as upstream dams have reduced the flow of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers where ancient civilisations flourished. ![]() It endures blistering summer heat and frequent dust storms. Largely arid Iraq is ranked by the United Nations as one of the world's five countries most impacted by some effects of climate change. Iraq's agriculture ministry on Sunday announced it was forming a committee to look into the causes of the fish deaths, according to state news agency INA.Įnvironmental campaigner Ahmed Saleh Neema said "a rise in temperatures" leading to increased evaporation, coupled with reduced water flow contributed to "a lack of oxygen and high salinity" in the river. The region is home to fabled marshes in the floodplain of the Tigris river, already suffering from the effects of global warming. An AFP photographer saw thousands of small fish washed up on the banks of the Amshan river in Majar al-Kabir, an area in Maysan province that borders Iran.
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