Unthreaded
There's nothing funnier than "predictions",
clipe
gc
I've seen squid die offs in quite warm waters.
that said - I can imagine some extended shallows and a seriously cold east wind causing accelerated cooling via wave action thermally shocking a population.
tomo
Global Risks in Turbulent Times
Ian Bremmer, the president of The Eurasia Group, has identified 10 global developments that, if ill-managed, could result in major worldwide upheavals. He speaks with Steve Paikin about his predictions.
clipe
Supertroll, tomo & stewgreen
Fish and shellfish may be "coldblooded" but (most) don't contain "antifreeze". Fish have the option of swimming somewhere else, but any shellfish etc stranded or located above the Low Tide Level would be vulnerable to terminal frostbite.
I have witnessed beaches covered in cuttlefish bones, as in this story from May 2011. It is a natural event, but weather conditions can cause the evidence of it to appear "suddenly"
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-13451208
"Thousands of cuttlefish are being washed up on Cornish beaches.
Local wildlife experts claim the weather may be the reason why Gwithian beach in west Cornwall has seen more than 50,000 cuttlefish bones washed up in recent days."
It does make a change to read about natural deaths caused by cold, some news agencies only want to report on unexpected finds due to warm water.
golf charlie
Pcar
@clipe
Justin Trudeau's trip to India was a disaster
Andrew Scheer unmasks Justin Trudeau "You Have Embarrassed All Canadians"
Trudeau is a Clinton/Blair/Cameron/Obama clone. One would have thought after seeing those charlatans, electorates would be more sensible. Alas, the gullible never learn.
Sorry
Pcar
Supertroll
The sand dwellers on tidally exposed flats I can go with (my neat screenwash bottle froze solid on the M4 last Thursday morning - I'd hazard a guess that might be -10°C or lower) - much less so the lobsters + crabs (although The Lobster Doctor says they don't react well to sudden thermal shock) - so it might well be thermal shock / cold that caused the event - seawater freezing at roughly -2°C .
A cursory scan of the photographs seems to show quite a diverse assortment of creatures piled up - Thermal shock might be an answer - but without knowledge of local conditions speculation is pretty futile .... if it was all shallow and cooled quickly... - that was a lot of sealife on the beach... cold survival is a matter of acclimation for many animals - maybe they got caught out - my windscreen washer bottle certainly was over the space of 15 mins or so.
That said - the casualty diversity is what struck me - cod is generally a lower water fish - I'd be curious to see what species of fish / crustacea and snaily/wormy things succumbed. Doesn't look like anybody's too bothered beyond shoveling it all into trucks to be dumped before it starts to honk badly.
In all though I would expect some routine sample taking and a selection of cadavers dispatched to various labs for investigation - that is after all what we pay out taxes for.
tomo
@ST We just had a cold wind event
but I think days in other years have been much colder ..eg enough to freeze parts of the sea for a day or so
stewgreen
Tomo. I once did some work on tidal flats in East Anglia. Periodically there are layers of cockle shells all of the same size. Within the shell are carbonate layers that are laid down on successive tides. They indicate all the shells died between the same winter tides and were eroded and swept together. All the animals died during the same low tides when low temperatures froze the sands down several decimetres and killed the cockles.
This seems to me a reasonable explanation for the recent die off of nearshore fish, lobsters and other shallow offshore organisms, although rough water might be the cause. I see no necessity for human involvement.
Supertroll
Re fish-lobster-&c die off
I recall the die off being attributed to strong wave action combined with the cold snap. The combination would be sufficient to send water colder than 2 degrees C down to the sea floor, there to cause a severe thermal shock. It would also prevent the sea from freezing. I believe elsewhere around the British Isles (the Solient?, somewhere more protected from waves) the sea froze during last week's cold spell.