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Dead Fish in Maryland. Still No Apocalypse.
Another die-off. Still no apocalypse.
Animal die-offs continue, this time with 2 million dead fish in Maryland.
Most of the dead fish have washed up on the shores of the Chesapeake Bay, sounding, once again, like the result of some sort of apocalypse (hey! That’s not until May!).
As Heather said, the best explanation is the simplest one. And there is a simple explanation this time, too.
In this case, its the reason offered by the Maryland Department of Environment. A dramatic drop in temperature and a large population of young spot fish.
The area experienced its coldest December in 25 years last month, which caused stress. The enormous number of the dead fish is simply due to the fact that spot fish are an overpopulated species in the Chesapeake Bay, the largest estuary in North America.
Fish die-offs in the aren’t aren’t completely unheard of. In fact, they’re rather common. In the mid-70s, some 15 million fish were killed in the largest die-off in the region’s history.
This latest mass killing of fish due to natural circumstances is only newsworthy because of the birds falling out of the sky in Arkansas and Louisiana, where there was also a recent fish die-off.
It’s fun to joke about this being a sign of the end of the world, but best to keep the gallows humor out of our explanations to the kids. I’m sticking to “the water was too cold,” “the fireworks too stressful.”
What about you? How are your kids reacting to these die-offs?
Photo: survivalacres.com
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Cecelia commented on Jan 06 11 at 9:23 pmI think that unless your child is actually reading the paper & questioning what the heck is going on with the animals… there is no reason they should even know about it (unless of course you have birds falling from the sky over your house/fish washing up on your beach). If they are literate enough to be reading a newspaper then just answer any questions they have as honestly as you can (and “I don’t know” is a perfectly acceptable answer).
sherry commented on Jan 09 11 at 5:44 amare you kidding me? my grandson is 9 and he is scared to death of the war, he didn’t want obama to become president because he is black and he was afraid, because they were learning about president lincoln, that he would be assassinated. this news is probably causing him nightmares!!!! don’t underestimate our children. they are more in tune with what goes on in the world now that we EVER were. They bring the war right into our living room, the news media is so sensationalist they report the same horrific news over and over for DAYS!! how can they not have nightmares?? a woman gets shot in her living room just minding her own business, 14 headless bodies found in acapoco. if it is a natural phenomenon, why is it all over the news?
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