About 2,000 dead penguins have washed up on the coast of eastern Uruguay in the past 10 days, and the cause is a mystery.
Bird flu has been ruled out by environmental authorities after the Magellanic penguins, mostly juveniles, died in the Atlantic Ocean and were carried by currents to Uruguayan shores.
“This is mortality in the water. Ninety per cent are young specimens that arrive without fat reserves and with empty stomachs,” Carmen Leizagoyen, head of the Environment Ministry's department of fauna, told the AFP agency,
She stressed that all samples taken have tested negative for avian influenza.
Magellanic penguins nest in southern Argentina. In the southern hemisphere winter, they migrate north in search of food and warmer waters, reaching the coast of the Brazilian state of Espirito Santo.
“It is normal for some percentage to die, but not these numbers,” Ms Leizagoyen said, recalling that a similar situation occurred last year in Brazil, for undetermined reasons.
Hector Caymaris, director of the Laguna de Rocha protected area, told AFP that he counted more than 500 dead penguins along 10km of Atlantic coast.
Environmental campaigners blame the increase in Magellanic penguin deaths on overfishing and illegal fishing.
“From the 1990s and 2000s, we began to see animals with a lack of food. The resource is overexploited,” said Richard Tesore, of SOS Marine Wildlife Rescue.
A subtropical cyclone in the Atlantic, which hit south-eastern Brazil in mid-July, probably killed the weakest birds, he said.
As well as penguins, Mr Tesore said he has also recently found dead petrels, albatrosses, seagulls, sea turtles and sea lions on the beaches of Maldonado, a department east of Uruguay's capital, Montevideo.
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Virat Kohli (c), Mayank Agarwal, Rohit Sharma, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Hanuma Vihari, Rishabh Pant (wk), Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav, Ishant Sharma, Shubman Gill
A new relationship with the old country
Treaty of Friendship between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the United Arab Emirates
The United kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the United Arab Emirates; Considering that the United Arab Emirates has assumed full responsibility as a sovereign and independent State; Determined that the long-standing and traditional relations of close friendship and cooperation between their peoples shall continue; Desiring to give expression to this intention in the form of a Treaty Friendship; Have agreed as follows:
ARTICLE 1 The relations between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the United Arab Emirates shall be governed by a spirit of close friendship. In recognition of this, the Contracting Parties, conscious of their common interest in the peace and stability of the region, shall: (a) consult together on matters of mutual concern in time of need; (b) settle all their disputes by peaceful means in conformity with the provisions of the Charter of the United Nations.
ARTICLE 2 The Contracting Parties shall encourage education, scientific and cultural cooperation between the two States in accordance with arrangements to be agreed. Such arrangements shall cover among other things: (a) the promotion of mutual understanding of their respective cultures, civilisations and languages, the promotion of contacts among professional bodies, universities and cultural institutions; (c) the encouragement of technical, scientific and cultural exchanges.
ARTICLE 3 The Contracting Parties shall maintain the close relationship already existing between them in the field of trade and commerce. Representatives of the Contracting Parties shall meet from time to time to consider means by which such relations can be further developed and strengthened, including the possibility of concluding treaties or agreements on matters of mutual concern.
ARTICLE 4 This Treaty shall enter into force on today’s date and shall remain in force for a period of ten years. Unless twelve months before the expiry of the said period of ten years either Contracting Party shall have given notice to the other of its intention to terminate the Treaty, this Treaty shall remain in force thereafter until the expiry of twelve months from the date on which notice of such intention is given.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF the undersigned have signed this Treaty.
DONE in duplicate at Dubai the second day of December 1971AD, corresponding to the fifteenth day of Shawwal 1391H, in the English and Arabic languages, both texts being equally authoritative.
Signed
Geoffrey Arthur Sheikh Zayed
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