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COLUMBIA — The Missouri women's basketball team has set itself up nicely for the postseason.

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https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/21/us/ny-driver-strikes-family/

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In Washington State's Puget Sound, antibiotic-resistant bacteria are infecting the area's harbor seals and harbor porpoises. A recent preliminary survey of 11 animals has produced worrying results: 80 percent of animals sampled carried bacteria that were resistant to an antibiotic, and more than 50 percent carried bacteria that were resistant to multiple antibiotics.

"These animals are sentinels," says Stephanie Norman, a veterinary epidemiologist with Marine-Med who is working to understand the causes and the prevalence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in the region's marine mammals-a project supported by a wide range of local and state organizations.

"Studying these animals gives us a nice profile of the health of the Puget Sound area," she says.

Over the next 10 months, Norman and her team plan to collect and analyze bacteria from a total of 138 harbor seals and harbor porpoises of different ages to build a more comprehensive picture of the scope of this problem in Puget Sound. This will help scientists better understand the risk that these bacteria pose to marine animals, as well as the humans, living in the area.

Wild animals aren't routinely taking antibiotics to treat infections, but widespread antibiotic resistance in ocean creatures could still have a major impact on the conservation of endangered species. That's because, as in the case of an ailing young southern resident killer whale that was administered antibiotics in 2018, veterinarians and others trying to rescue sick animals sometimes use these medications.

"If these are endangered animals, like the orcas that you have in Puget Sound, then it makes sense [to treat them], because saving one animal can actually save that whole population," says Maria Palamar, a wildlife veterinarian and cofounder of Resolve Conservation, an organization that uses technology and citizen science to address wildlife protection issues. Along with the southern resident killer whales, antibiotics have also been used to treat wild Hawaiian monk seals and loggerhead sea turtles.

Antibiotic-resistant bacteria in marine environments could be dangerous to humans, too. Marine bacteria can cause skin infections in people with even small scrapes or insect bites, or food poisoning in people who eat contaminated seafood, especially for seafood eaten raw, such as oysters. In certain countries, like Brazil and Australia, oysters have been found to harbor antibiotic resistant Vibrio parahaemolyticus or Escherichia coli (E. coli), both of which can be fatal to humans.

Palamar says understanding the geographic distribution of antibiotic resistance in wildlife is extremely important. "As we get more and more urbanized, and species are adapting to urban environments, we need to start considering what their role is in moving around these antibiotic-resistant bacteria that could come to farms, could come to pets, could come to humans," she says.

Scientists have yet to conclusively establish the source of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in Puget Sound, but humans likely play an important role says Linda Rhodes, an environmental microbiologist at the Northwest Fisheries Science Center. Culprits could include failing wastewater treatment or septic systems, runoff, and waste from livestock or even pets, she says.

Rhodes and her team have also found that Puget Sound has surprisingly high levels of certain types of fecal bacteria. By examining the genetic makeup of these bacteria, the researchers have shown they come from humans and ruminants, most likely cattle. This is particularly problematic as human and cattle feces can harbor a panoply of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

Norman says that while most marine antibiotic resistance probably comes from land sources (like humans and livestock), the use of antibiotics in marine fish farms may also be cause for concern. (Although salmon farming is being phased out in Washington State, it is still allowed in neighboring British Columbia.)

Antibiotic resistance in marine animals is a problem that should concern everyone, not just conservationists, says Norman. "Animal health, human health, and environmental health are all connected," she says. "You can't really look at one without considering the other two. We ultimately are tied to the same water that these animals use."

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Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria Are Turning Up in Puget Sound Marine Life | Hakai Magazine

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In Washington State's Puget Sound, antibiotic-resistant bacteria are infecting the area's harbor seals and harbor porpoises. A recent preliminary survey of 11 animals has produced worrying results: 80 percent of animals sampled carried bacteria that were resistant to an antibiotic, and more than 50 percent carried bacteria that were resistant to multiple antibiotics.

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Some bodies had been buried in cloth, some wore cotton headdresses and others had red-cinnabar paint preserved on their skulls. Buried beside many of the victims were young llamas, each less than 18 months old. They too were sacrificed. The team noticed that the children were buried facing west to the coast while the llamas faced east to the Andes Mountains.

Using radiocarbon dating, the site was dated to about 1450 A.D., which placed it at a time before the neighboring Inca empire invaded. The team also attempted to collect DNA from the teeth of some victims but were only successful in a fraction of cases. What they got was enough to tell them that both boys and girls were present, meaning the sacrifice wasn't gender specific. Further DNA analysis could help determine whether the children were local or if they came from across the Chimú state, but based on some morphological details the team thinks the victims came from around the empire.

A major clue to figuring out why the Chimú sacrificed the children came in the form of a thick mud layer preserved on top of the sand where the victims were buried. Because the area is a desert, the mud layer indicated there was once a period of heavy rain, like that seen during an El Niño, or a natural warming of the Pacific Ocean's surface waters that has cascading effects on the weather. Such a deluge would have devastated the Chimú state, flooding crops, killing fish and sweeping people away.

Also in this mud layer, the scientists found preserved footsteps of sandaled adults and barefoot children, as well as signs that the llamas were dragged there. The children, it appeared, were marched to the site, which was just on the outskirts of the Chimú capital city, Chan Chan. The killings, the authors suggest, were done at the order of the Chimú state as an appeal to their gods or ancestral spirits to mitigate the rains.

"The picture that starts to emerge is that under conditions of severe climatic disruption, the sacrifice of children may have been the most powerful means of communication with the supernatural," said Haagen Klaus, a bioarchaeologist from George Mason University in Virginia not involved in the study.

Tiffiny Tung, a bioarchaeologist at Vanderbilt University also not involved in the study, said that in addition to illuminating the Chimú's rituals, the finding provides a look into the state's political machinery. The sacrifice, she said, would have let the Chimú leaders demonstrate to their people the lengths to which they would go to appease the deities and protect the community. At the same time, carrying out such a massive slaughter of children would have been a reminder of the leaders' power and authority over their citizens.

"That's a great way to get people to step in line," she said.

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Massacre of Children in Peru Might Have Been a Sacrifice to Stop Bad Weather

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Some bodies had been buried in cloth, some wore cotton headdresses and others had red-cinnabar paint preserved on their skulls. Buried beside many of the victims were young llamas, each less than 18 months old. They too were sacrificed. The team noticed that the children were buried facing west to the coast while the llamas faced east to the Andes Mountains.

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When Vanessa Pirotta is surveying whales in the frigid water off Antarctica, the traffic-packed roads back home are far from her mind. "You see absolutely nothing out there at times," says Pirotta, a marine biologist at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia. "So when a ship eventually comes along, I think about how jarring it must be for a whale or shark."

Marine roads are invisible, but they are busier than ever. Each year, ships use these paths to ferry more than 10 billion tonnes of goods from one country to the next. Global trade relies heavily on seaborne transport, but large whales and sharks are paying the price.

Ship strikes are one of the leading causes of death and injury in whales. Collisions account for more than half of all fatalities in some species, such as the North Atlantic right whale. The low rumble of cargo vessels also disrupts marine mammal communication, hindering their ability to navigate during migration and find food.

According to Pirotta, these impacts likely hit the giants of the ocean the hardest, as they are more likely than smaller species to cross paths with ships. "Great whales, basking sharks, and whale sharks are more vulnerable because they spend a lot of time close to the surface," says Pirotta. "They travel over long distances, and so do ships."

In recent research, Pirotta and her team turned to an unlikely source-land road infrastructure-to uncover new insights into how to protect marine giants from ships. Biologists managing wildlife living near busy freeways often draw on a system known as the road ecology framework to provide a snapshot of threats and potential mitigation strategies. But the "roads" in Pirotta's study are shipping routes used to shuttle cargo across the sea.

Using this framework, the researchers were able to review the current threats associated with shipping and pinpoint key steps to minimize them.

To shield animals from ship strikes, the team suggests reducing speed limits in shipping lanes, and even diverting some ship lanes away from areas frequented by marine giants. In fragile areas like the Arctic, where melting ice has opened up previously inaccessible areas, they say establishing new shipping pathways should be avoided altogether. This would create quiet sanctuaries similar to no-take fishing reserves.

But making changes to the marine roads themselves only tackles one side of the problem. "The roads we drive on every day have visible edges," says Pirotta. "But in the ocean, there are no clearly defined boundaries." This means that indirect impacts, such as sound and chemical pollution, can extend far beyond shipping lanes.

With this challenge in mind, the researchers propose spacing out shipping routes, establishing buffer zones to lower the spread of noise and contamination into nearby whale habitats. These roadside boundaries could be constructed using models that estimate how far noise travels in different areas of the ocean. Designing cleaner, quieter ships will help mitigate these effects even further.

Hedley Grantham, director of spatial planning at the nonprofit Wildlife Conservation Society, points out that implementing some of these strategies will require action from policymakers.

"The marine noise issue in particular needs to be prioritized, as we are constantly learning more about how it affects marine giants," says Grantham, who was not involved in Pirotta's research. "We need to legislate noise-free areas to protect these animals from vessels."

Pirotta hopes that the research will spark discussions between marine scientists, policymakers, and the shipping industry about developing new ways to protect marine life from maritime transport.

"It's about working towards a common goal," says Pirotta. "At the end of the day, marine scientists want to keep marine mammals safe from ships, and so does the shipping industry."

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Stopping Marine Roadkill | Hakai Magazine

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When Vanessa Pirotta is surveying whales in the frigid water off Antarctica, the traffic-packed roads back home are far from her mind. "You see absolutely nothing out there at times," says Pirotta, a marine biologist at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia.

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Jacobs news

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000 jobs last month -- fewest since september 2017 - cnn

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US added only 20,000 jobs last month -- fewest since September 2017

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The US economy added only 20,000 jobs in February, a surprisingly low number that bucked the trend of huge jobs gains in recent months.

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https://www.abc17news.com/news/common-household-items-pose-toxic-materials-risk/1053351627