Mass animal-die-offs 2019

A mystery is developing into the deaths of hundreds of thousands, maybe even millions of dead migratory birds dying around the White Sands Missile Range and White Sands National Monument, according to Martha Desmond, a professor at the university's department of fish, wildlife and conservation ecology. 

What was first believed to be an isolated incident turned out to be a much more serious problem when hundreds more dead birds were found in regions across the state. including Doña Ana County, Jemez Pueblo, Roswell and Socorro. "It's just terrible," Desmond told CNN. "The number is in the six figures. Just by looking at the scope of what we're seeing, we know this is a very large event, hundreds of thousands and maybe even millions of dead birds, and we're looking at the higher end of that."


Aussie Bushfire Update No 13: Shocker! Almost 500 million animals dead (The population of the EU): New heatwave forecast “extreme,” Area nearly twice the size of Belgium consumed
480 million animals are feared to have died in the bushfires sweeping Australia

Nearly a third of the koalas in their main habitat of New South Wales may be among the 480 million animals to have died in the Australian bushfires. Ecologists believe that 8,000 koalas have burnt to death on the state’s mid-north coast, about 240 miles north of Sydney. The site, one of the most populous koala habitats, was ravaged along with a leading hospital for the marsupials at Port Macquarie. “It may well be up to 30 per cent of the population in that region [was killed] because up to 30 per cent of their habitat has been destroyed,” Sussan Ley, the federal environment minister, said. More than five million hectares have been burnt across Australia in an unprecedented bushfire season...

Pig Crisis: 30,000 pigs dead in a hog-cholera epidemic that has struck Indonesia and is spreading fast: Hundreds of millions of pigs dead in China and Vietnam this year from disease
Almost 30,000 pigs have died in a hog-cholera epidemic that has struck Indonesia, with thousands more at risk, an animal welfare official said. Thousands of pigs have died in more than a dozen regencies across North Sumatra over the past three months, and the pace of deaths is increasing, authorities said."Every day, between 1,000 and 2,000 pigs are dying. It's quite a high figure," said Agustina, the veterinary office chief in Medan who goes by one name, on Friday. Still, he added that the current death toll was a small fraction of the 1.2 million hogs in North Sumatra, a part of Muslim-majority Indonesia that is predominantly Christian and where pork is an important part of local fare. 

The enormity of the problem is hard to get one's head around: Untold millions of tons of wildlife died in 2019 from natural disasters, extreme weather events, disease, famine: Radiation officially reported
We have already been warned a couple of years ago that by 2020, there will be a 70% decline in all wildlife since 1980. What happened in 2019 was astonishing, the deaths of wildlife were extraordinary, to say the least. Untold millions of tons of species killed from natural disasters, extreme weather events, disease, famine and for the first time official reports on links to radiation poisoning, in the Pacific.  

My report begins in January 2019, and not for the first time we start with an Australian tragedy just days into the new year.

Survival rates for salmon just 3 per cent on the West Coast of the U.S. Salmon demise is being blamed on global warming (we found an increase of 27% in radiation from 2012 to 2017)
An additional Chinook mortality has lead to a North Coast fall salmon angling closure.  TILLAMOOK: A recent die-off of fall Chinook salmon in the Wilson River has prompted fishery managers to close the entire North Coast to all salmon angling, effective December 13 – 31. The closure includes all North Coast basins from the Nestucca River to the Necanicum River. Monitoring of North Coast basins, in response to the recent die-off, observed in the Wilson River and by reports from the public of similar mortality events in other rivers, revealed substantial deaths of fall Chinook salmon (more than half of the carcasses sampled in the Nestucca, Trask and Kilchis rivers this week) prior to spawning. Additional pre-spawn mortalities have been observed in the Wilson River since last week’s closure as well. 

Fish all gone! Gulf of Alaska fishery to close for the first time ever: No more cod: Salmon all but gone: Millions of small sea birds died since 2015
Extremely low cod numbers have lead feds to close the Gulf of Alaska fishery for the first time ever. In an unprecedented response to historically low numbers of Pacific cod, the federal cod fishery in the Gulf of Alaska is closing for the 2020 season. It’s a decision that came as little surprise, but it’s the first time the fishery was closed due to concerns of low stock. “We’re on the knife’s edge of this over-fished status,” North Pacific Fisheries Management Council member Nicole Kimball said during talks in Anchorage Friday afternoon. It’s not over-fishing to blame for the die-off, but rather, climate change. Warming ocean temperatures linked to climate change are wreaking havoc on a number of Alaska’s fisheries, worrying biologists, locals and fishermen with low returns that jeopardize fishing livelihoods.

The Australian Koala Foundation claim Koalas are functionally extinct: More than a 40% decline in just 20 years with latest wildfires delivering another blow
Credit Australian Broadcast Company

As the wildfires begin to slow down in Australia one of the main concerns is the just how many animals and insects lost their life in the fires, a horrific report claimed beekeepers were traumatised after hearing animals screaming in pain after bushfires, the beekeepers were so horrified they needed counselling. Full story
The Australian Koala Foundation (AKF) believes Koalas may be functionally extinct in the entire landscape of Australia and the raging bushfires must have claimed even more of the vulnerable Koalas.

"It's the tip of the iceberg" Thousands of short-tailed shearwaters migrating from Alaska have been washing up on Sydney's iconic beaches but death rate of Alaskan seabirds is unprecedented
Photo Credit Daily Mail
Thousands of short-tailed shearwaters migrating from Alaska have been washing up on Sydney's iconic beaches, with who knows how many more dying out at sea in what could be confirmation of incredible fish shortages in the Pacific Ocean. The corpses have been spotted at several shorelines including Bondi, Manly and Cronulla. The birds are migrating back to southern Australia to breed after spending the summer in Alaska. But, according to experts, a higher number than usual are dying on the way due to a lack of food. The birds need to be at full strength to make the 14,000km trip over the Pacific but the krill and other fish they feed on have apparently dwindled due to sea temperatures rising.

As summer approaches Australia's drought and water shortage take toll with millions of dead fish and other marine species along with dead or dying fruit bats
Photo credit Rory McLeod. Dead fish at Lake Pamamaroo in the Menindee Lakes System,
Another mass fish kill event has been spotted in far western NSW, nine months after millions of fish were found dead on the nearby banks of the Darling River. New aerial footage appeared to show hundreds of thousands of dead fish at Lake Pamamaroo in the Menindee Lakes System, near Broken Hill. The NSW Department of Primary Industries (DPI) is yet to confirm the new kill and said in a statement it would be investigating, but the remote location would make verifying the mass kill extremely difficult. 

A crippling drought which has brought millions of people in Zimbabwe facing the risk of starvation has killed 55 elephants in the last 8 weeks
A crippling drought which is said to have brought millions of people in Zimbabwe facing the risk of starvation has reduced crop levels as the country slides into an ongoing economic crisis which is said to be much worse than during the Mugabe period which saw the cost of an egg rise to 100 billion Zimbabwe Dollars.
The drought is affecting wildlife too, at least 55 elephants have starved to death in Zimbabwe's Hwange National Park over the past two months amid a severe drought. "The situation is dire," Zimparks spokesman Tinashe Farawo said. 

As summer 2019 saw Alaska bake, more birds seals and other marine life continue to die in unprecedented numbers and the "Pacific Blob" has returned
2019 will go down as Alaska’s hottest summer on record, the latest benchmark in a long-term warming trend with ominous repercussions ranging from rapidly vanishing summer sea ice and melting glaciers to raging wildfires and deadly death and chaos for marine life.
According to Reuters, July’s statewide average temperature rose to 58.1 degrees Fahrenheit (14.5 degrees Celsius), a level that for denizens of the Lower 48 states might seem cool enough but is 5.4 degrees above normal and nearly a full degree higher than Alaska’s previous record.

Unusually warm temperatures across Alaska this summer led to die-offs of massive amounts of unspawned chum, sockeye, and pink salmon.
From the Koyukuk River to the Kuskokwim, to Norton Sound, to Bristol Bay's Igushik River, unusually warm temperatures across Alaska this summer led to die-offs of unspawned chum, sockeye, and pink salmon. Warm waters also sometimes this summer acted as a "thermal block" - essentially a wall of heat salmon don't swim past, delaying upriver migration. Stephanie Quinn Davidson, the Director of the Yukon Inter-Tribal Fish Commission, took a team of scientists along 200 miles of the Koyukuk River to investigate a die-off of chum salmon at the end of July. The team counted 850 dead, unspawned chum - and that, she said, was a minimum count. "We were boating, going about 35 or 40 miles per hour, and we know we missed a lot," she said. "On a boat going by relatively fast, we were probably getting at most half the fish and at the least about ten per cent of the fish." Locals to the area said this same thing happened four or five years, ago, she said, but not to the scale it did this year. She attributes the deaths to heat stress. 

What is spooking the whales? Scientists are mystified as another 20 pilot whales died just two weeks after another 60 died along the same coast of Iceland
David Schwarzhans, the pilot of the sightseeing helicopter, took images of the dead whales two weeks ago along the western coast of Iceland. 
More than 20 pilot whales have died stranded in mysterious circumstances on the south-western coast of Iceland, emergency services said Saturday, only two weeks after a similarly unexplained mass stranding had already killed dozens of the long-finned cetaceans.
The dead whales, part of a group of 50 stranded whales, were discovered late Friday near Gardur, some 50 kilometres (31 miles) from the capital Reykjavik.


Mass die-off of pilot whales wash up along western Iceland Thursday with experts claiming they died after becoming disorientated
Dozens of dead beached whales have been spotted by sightseers during a helicopter flight over western Iceland.
The dead pilot whales were photographed during the trip on Thursday over a beach at Longufjorur. It's unclear how the mammals became beached.
The region where they were spotted is secluded, inaccessible by car and has very few visitors.
Police in the nearby town of Stykkisholmur has been made aware of the discovery, local media say. The images were taken by helicopter pilot David Schwarzhans.


Heatwave cooks mussels in shells along a 150 mile stretch of northern Californian coastline: Largest die-off of mussels in at least 15 years
Yesterday The Big Wobble posted: Oyster fishermen in the Gulf Of Mexico are saying 100 per cent of what they dredge up is coming up dead, which is not only a serious hit to their livelihoods but could have lasting impacts for years to come.
Today a report in the Guardian claims, thousands of dead mussels, their shells gaping and scorched and their meats thoroughly cooked along a 150 mile stretch of northern Californian coastline.
According to the Guardian, a record-breaking June heatwave apparently caused the largest die-off of mussels in at least 15 years at Bodega Head, a small headland on the northern California bay, with a similar mass mussel deaths at various beaches across roughly 150 miles of coastline.


Oyster fishermen claim 100 per cent of what they dredge up is dead around Biloxi, Louisiana due to yet another deadly algae bloom
Oyster fishermen are saying 100 per cent of what they dredge up is coming up dead, which is not only a serious hit to their livelihoods but could have lasting impacts for years to come.
Fishermen will tell you part of the draw of the job is just being out on the water, but the waters near the Biloxi marsh are a little too quiet.
"North, east, west, there's usually someone harvesting someone trawling you don't see nothing, there's not one person out here," said oyster fisherman, Gregory Perez.
Gregory Perez says he's worked for years building and tending to these acres of water, or his private oyster leases.
This year was supposed to be the most lucrative for him until the oysters started dying.


The Deepwater Horizon Explosion in 2010 is thought to be responsible for record amounts of dead dolphins washing up along the Gulf of Mexico
More than 260 dolphins have been found stranded along the northern Gulf of Mexico since February 1st.
According to The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, that's three times the usual amount.
The increase has prompted NOAA Fisheries to declare an Unusual Mortality Event.
This declaration allows an investigative team to look into the high number of dolphin deaths stretching from Louisiana through the Florida panhandle.
Dr Terri Rowles, NOAA Fisheries Coordinator, has issued a statement informing the public what to do if they come into contact with any stranded mammals.


Dead gray whale radiation levels were higher than many of the salmon and halibut levels Bill Laughing-Bear has tested off the coast of Alaska
Bill testing the whale for a radiation reading
Dear Gary and Readers of The Big Wobble,


Greetings from Alaska once again. On the second of June, I had to make a road trip which took me along Turnagain Arm and rounding a bend on the Seward Highway, just right before a bridge on one of the tributaries, I noticed on my right, a gray whale that was lying dead on top of the silt. I had heard that several whales have recently died and people had asked if radiation was a possible cause. The “Authorities” had said, “absolutely NOT!”

So far this year, a record 70 gray whales have been found dead and along the west coast of the US but the true figure could be as many as 700 as most die out at sea
Alarmed by the high number of gray whales that have been washing up dead on West Coast beaches this spring, the federal government on Friday declared the troubling trend a wildlife emergency. The declaration by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration - technically, the agency dubbed the deaths an "unusual mortality event" - kicks in a provision of federal law that provides funding for scientists to figure out the cause when such die-offs of marine mammals occur, from whales and dolphins in the Pacific or Atlantic to manatees off Florida. 
So far this year, at least 70 gray whales have been found dead and stranded along the coasts of California, Oregon, Washington and Alaska - the most in nearly 20 years, scientists from NOAA said Friday. 
In recent weeks, whales have washed up in Marin, San Francisco and San Mateo counties. 


What comes out of the ocean reflects it's bio-health! May 2019 delivered a picture of death and decay along the West Coast and Gulf of Mexico, N America
A shark die-off in San Francisco Bay is being blamed on a parasite in the water.
Bay currents are pushing the carcasses ashore at Crown Beach.
So far this year, about 100 leopard sharks have washed up onto beaches around the area, not just in Alameda.
Many more will have died out at sea.
The deaths are blamed on a protozoan parasite that gets into the shark's brain, James C. Frank, Supervising Naturalist for the East Bay Regional Park District told KTVU.
This die-off has been happening annually.




"Half the expected growth in salmon volumes wiped out this year!" Salmon fishing industry on the verge of collapse after almost 10 million fish die in Norway
Photo norwaytoday.info

A sudden surge in algae has killed at least eight million salmon in one week across Norwegian fish farms, the state-owned Norwegian Seafood Council has said.
The enormous algal blooms, due to recent warm weather, have spread rapidly around Norway's northern coast, sticking to fishes' gills and suffocating them.
Wild fish can swim away from the lethal clouds of aquatic organisms, but farmed fish are trapped. The algae are continuing to spread, the Norwegian Directorate of Fisheries said.


Hundreds of sharks wash up dead off the coast of Wales, some heavily pregnant with pups hanging out of them and some with fin's missing.
Shocking footage shows how 100s of dead sharks washed up on a beach in Wales - leaving locals baffled.
Many of the sharks were found to have their fins missing - sparking fears they may have been cut off before the fish were tossed back into the sea.
Some fishermen have vented their fury that the shark massacre at Burry Port, West Wales, could have been the result of trawling.
Video footage shows the beach covered with more than100 shark bodies - with some having decomposed in the water.
Beachgoer Lisa Pritchard said she stopped counting after wave after wave of dead sharks washed onto the beach.


Florida's worst nightmare is back! It killed thousands of tons of marine life last year: Red tide has arrived on Manatee County shores early
It was the unprecedented horror of 2018 for Florida's beaches when toxic algae killed thousands of tons of marine life and have returned.
Red tide is back in Manatee County shores - news that will be unwelcome by everyone.
A sample taken at the Coquina Beach South Boat ramp on Monday found very low levels of Karenia brevis, the algae that cause red tide, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
It's not the first patch of red tide detected on Florida's west coast this month.
Very low levels of Karenia brevis were detected off of Nokomis Beach last week.


Another disaster unfolding for farmers! Hundreds of millions of pigs in danger as incurable swine fever sweeps through Eastern Asia
Vietnam has culled more than 1.2 million farmed pigs infected with African swine fever, the government said on Monday, as the virus continues to spread rapidly in the Southeast Asian country. Pork accounts for three-quarters of total meat consumption in Vietnam, a country of 95 million people where most of its 30 million farm-raised pigs are consumed domestically.
The virus was first detected in Vietnam in February and has spread to 29 provinces, including Dong Nai, which supplies around 40% of the pork consumed in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam's southern economic hub.
"The risk of the virus spreading further is very high and the evolution of the outbreak is complicated," the government said in a statement.


A "very unusual" spike in dolphin deaths after Turkey's largest-ever navy drills in the region (many more dolphins thought to be dead out at sea)
The Aegean Sea has seen a "very unusual" spike in dolphin deaths over the past few weeks, a Greek marine conservation group said Monday.
The Archipelagos Institute said while it's still unclear what caused the deaths, the spike followed Turkey's largest-ever navy drills in the region - the Feb.
27-March 8 "Blue Homeland" exercises that made constant use of sonar and practised with live ammunition.
Fifteen dead dolphins have washed up on the eastern island of Samos and other parts of Greece's Aegean coastline since late February, the group said.


A Virus and not a toxic algae is thought to be behind the deaths of hundreds of Florida fresh water turtles
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission says an unknown virus may be to blame for hundreds of turtles dying in the St. Johns River.
According to a spokesperson for the commission, scientists at the University of Florida have identified a novel virus in 18 dead turtles discovered along the river.
They say the virus seems to be a common link in the samples.
Since last March, FWC says more about 300 fresh-water softshell and cooter turtles have been reported dead or sick in the massive river.


The true number whales dolphins porpoises and birds which have died in the Atlantic in the first quarter of 2019 is unprecedented
For more than two years, scientists have been working to figure out the underlying cause of a so-called “unusual mortality event.
From January 2016 to mid-February 2019, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) recorded 88 humpback whale strandings with New York, Virginia, and Massachusetts at the top of the list.
Those numbers are more than double the number that of whales stranded between 2013 and 2016.
This increase prompted NOAA to declare an “unusual mortality event” in April 2017 for humpbacks from Maine to Florida. Nearly two years later, the declaration still stands.
NOAA is flirting with shipping channels as the reason for the huge spike in humpback whale strandings.


62 days into 2019 already 600 dolphins have washed up dead, with more dolphins dead at the bottom of the ocean or have washed out to sea along the French coast
62 days into 2019 and already 600 dolphins have washed up dead, with many more dolphins dead at the bottom of the ocean or have washed out to sea rather than ending up on the beaches.
While dead dolphins wash up on beaches in France each year scientists say the situation is alarming with the figure being much higher than any previous year at the same period.
According to The Local fr, the dolphins are washing up on the stretch of Atlantic coast running all the way from southern Brittany to the Spanish border with large numbers of carcasses found in the departments of Vendée and in the Charentes Maritimes.
 Most of the dead dolphins found bear injury marks which researchers say are caused by big fishing boats and the large fishing nets they use.


Thousands of cuttlefish wash up dead on a beach in Chile after heavy rains wreaked havoc at normally one of the driest places on Earth (Video)
Thousands of cuttlefish have mysteriously washed ashore in Chile's Bahia Inglesa, a coastal area that is one of the country's main tourist hotspots.
Locals say such an incident has not happened before, and environmental authorities are investigating and have warned locals not to eat the fish amidst pollution fears.
There are concerns that the dead fish could damage the region's fishing industry, a major driver of the local economy. Bahia Inglesa is a popular summer destination for Chile, with thousands attracted to the area's pristine beaches.
The deaths remain as ever, a mystery.

The thousands of dead cuttlefish washed up close to where heavy rains have wreaked havoc in northern Chile last week causing rivers to overflow and forcing residents from their flooded homes.


Record warm summers in the Pacific Northwest and Scotland has almost wiped out salmon which are being "cooked" in rivers and streams
Salmon-fishing. Scotland was the best place in the world for salmon fishing but some beats on famous rivers like the Spey and the Nith recorded not a single salmon caught during the entire season. Photo blogspot.com

Record warm summers in the Pacific Northwest are adding to the threats facing salmon.
According to the Weather Channel, the salmon was said not to have stood a chance and became "cooked" in rivers and streams.
The salmon population is already in drastic decline due to overfishing, habitat loss and pollution.
Now higher temperatures in rivers and streams are killing adult salmon before they can reproduce.
Dwindling winter snowpack is also shrinking rivers and streams.


More than 20,000 dead guillemots washed up dead on Dutch beaches blamed on severe starvation due to lack of fish
It was late on a stormy Saturday night when marine biologist Mardik Leopold's phone rang at his home on the remote northern Dutch island of Texel.
On the line was a coast-watch volunteer calling to tell him of reports of hundreds of dead guillemots washing up along the country's shores.
"The next morning, my phone rang red-hot from callers all over reporting dead birds," Leopold, based at Wageningen University's marine research department in the northern port city of Den Helder, told AFP. "
Alarm bells started ringing."
Since early January, more than 20,000 dead guillemots have washed up dead on Dutch beaches-from the northern Wadden Islands to southwestern Zeeland (probably thousands more died at sea).


A horror is unfolding in Australia as hundreds of thousands of livestock are dead after a year and a half's rain fell in just seven days
Torrential rains that lashed the coastal city of Townsville in Queensland state this week have swept inland and flooded grazing land gripped by severe drought for years.
Pictures posted on social media showed scores of cattle trapped on patches of high ground surrounded by water, or dead and dying in the mud.
“We’ve had a year and a half of rainfall in about seven days,” cattle grazier Michael Bulley told Reuters by phone from Bindooran Station west of Julia Creek in Queensland’s outback.
Bulley said he flew over his three properties by helicopter and saw water stretching for miles in each direction.


Mystery unfolding as 20,000 guillemots have died off the northern coast of Holland while thousands of headless fish wash up just a 100km away in Germany
Scientists are trying to find out why some 20,000 guillemots have died in recent weeks along the Dutch coast.
The birds were all emaciated and there are fears they may have been victims of a spill from the MSC Zoe container ship, from which some 345 containers fell in the sea during a storm, although experts stress its too early to blame the ship container spill.
Mardik Leopold, a seabird expert from Wageningen University, said the figure of 20,000 dead guillemots was based on educated guesswork.
"That's based on the average trending rate of one guillemot per kilometre of beach per day in the Netherlands with 300km [186 miles] available. That's 10,000 birds," he told the BBC.


Don't believe the phoney hype! Officials in Florida claim red tide killed 267 tons of marine life, when the actual total is thousands of tons, (links provided)
"This was Florida's Deep Water Horizon!" An incredible 408 marine life die-off's, almost one every day from July 2016 to November 2018 and is the biggest marine disaster in Florida's history and today the Coastal Conservation Association Florida and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission have come up with an official number of deaths during that period, they are claiming the red tide killed 267 tons of marine life along the Southwest coast of Florida. Full story

On December the 6th 2018, Fox13 claimed red tide blamed for the massive fish kill at Robinson Preserve Full story here


" Without the bats dispersing the seeds we won't have trees!" Flying foxes in danger as record numbers now dying in the heatwave
Photo Wildlife aid
Record high temperatures have devastated bat colonies across South Australia's state capital, Adelaide, with up to 3,000 flying foxes dropping dead from trees by the end of the weekend, according to local media.
At least 1,500 grey-headed flying foxes collapsed at the city's botanic gardens, parklands and riverbanks, with wildlife conservationists calling the incident the largest of its kind, the ABC news channel reported on Sunday.


824 manatee 589 sea turtles 127 bottlenose dolphins and probably billions of fish and countless birdlife dead from red tide algae in Florida
It has been one of The Big Wobble's biggest and most tragic stories of the last one and a half years.
A Florida red tide outbreak close to 16 months old has killed more sea turtles than any previous single red tide event on record, and manatee deaths are not far behind.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission attributed 589 sea turtles and 213 manatee deaths to this episode of red tide, which began in late 2017.
It had also killed 127 bottlenose dolphins as of the beginning of 2019, leading the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to declare an unusual mortality event.


Thousands of birds found dead at one of Western Australia's most important inland wetlands: Heatwave and algae bloom responsible
Thousands of birds have been found dead at one of Western Australia's most important inland wetlands.
A Department of Primary Industry and Regional Development veterinarian arrived at Lake Gregory in the East Kimberley earlier this month to take a sample, and found a number of wild birds in "poor conditions with low body weights".
On a department inspection, it was found several thousand birds had died at the wetland, but the cause of death remains a mystery.
Lake Gregory is a permanent freshwater lake located between the Great Sandy Desert and the Tanami Desert and was previously described by the department as the most important inland wetland in Australia.


A wall of Jellyfish have stung more than 22,000 beachgoers on Australia's Gold and Sunshine coasts in 1 week more than double the yearly average
Jellyfish! The Next King of the Sea; as the world’s oceans are degraded they are being dominated by jellyfish

Jellyfish have stung more than 22,000 beachgoers on Australia's Gold and Sunshine coasts, prompting officials to issue warnings and close beaches.
Safety authority Surf Life Saving Queensland said the bluebottle jellyfish -- also known as Pacific man-of-war -- have been blown in by recent winds.
The surge in jellyfish numbers coincided with a busy period on Queensland beaches, with Christmas, the New Year and the school holidays bringing people to the coast.

Hundreds of thousands of fish have died due to drought temperature drop and algae bloom in NSW Australia
Photo news-mail.com.au
Hundreds of thousands of fish have died in far western NSW as drought conditions continue to grip the state.
The NSW Department of Primary Industries and WaterNSW are investigating a large fish kill in several rivers and dams at Menindee after a sharp cool change hit the region following a period of very hot weather.
"The ongoing drought conditions across western NSW have resulted in fish kills in a number of waterways recently," DPI senior fisheries manager Anthony Townsend said in a statement on Monday.


Thousands stung by a jellyfish invasion in Queensland Australia in yet another case of the 21st-century indicator to the demise of our oceans
It is one of the 21st-century indicators to the demise of the world's oceans and the problem is exploding around the world.
jellyfish invasions are washing ashore all over the globe because of a lack of predators in the ocean to eat them.
Vast numbers of bluebottle jellyfish have been pushed ashore in Queensland, Australia, stinging thousands of people and forcing the closure of swim spots.
Surf Life Saving Queensland said thousands of people received treatment at the weekend.
Bluebottle stings are painful but typically not life-threatening.