Latest news with #HannahAnderson
Yahoo
6 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Panama City Beach ordinance limits digging holes at the beach
PANAMA CITY BEACH, Fla. (WMBB) – It's against the law in Panama City Beach to dig holes deeper than 2 feet without refilling them. One hole can easily trap a sea turtle that has come ashore to build a nest. 'We have a lot of sea turtles and marine life that come up onto our shores and cause them to get trapped or have a hard time to get back to their home,' Panama City Beach Beach Safety Supervisor Hannah Anderson said. The sand holes can be extremely deceptive. 'People could like fall into the sand and they could get buried very deep if it was like a very deep hole and it would be very hard to get out,' beachgoer Carlos Nolser said. In 2016, an Oklahoma teenager dug a hole in the side of a dune at St. Andrews State Park. The soft sand collapsed, burying Travor Brown in the hole. First responders eventually pulled him out, but he suffered brain damage due to a lack of oxygen. Brown died after his family agreed to remove him from life support. Holes in the sand can also delay emergency vehicles' response time. 'If we get a call and we're going kind of fast on the sand, sometimes we can hit those holes that people have dug and it will stop us right in our tracks. Maybe we have to be out of service for that call if we have to work on getting us out of that hole,' Anderson said. Beach Safety Patrol Officers patrol up and down the beach, keeping a lookout for deep holes. First, they provide a warning to the person responsible. If the hole is not filled, code enforcement can write them a ticket, which costs more with every new offense. Many beachgoers are unaware of the ordinance. 'That's something I never would have thought about. But I had no idea the safety concerns that might come about from digging holes, you know, big-sized holes holding the sand,' Beachgoer Phillip Prater said. No metal shovels are allowed on the beach and the city also has a 'Leave no Trace' ordinance, requiring people to remove all personal items from the ordinances also impact sea turtles, especially now that nesting season is underway. Panama City Beach Turtle Watch volunteers have found six turtle nests so far. Once those eggs hatch, the hatchlings need a clean, dark, flat surface to make it to the Gulf. No holes in the beach can increase their chances of survival. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
ABC News
14-05-2025
- Science
- ABC News
Scientists surprised to find possums in WA's Pilbara region
When zoologist Hannah Anderson travelled to Western Australia's Pilbara region to research threatened species she was not expecting to see the common brushtail possum. Despite being one of the most abundant, widespread and frequently encountered Australian marsupials, little is known about their distribution in the north-west of the country. Only 13 records of the species were publicly available in the Pilbara region until Ms Anderson, a senior zoologist at Biologic Environmental, uncovered many more. "They're not a species people talk about in the Pilbara," she said. Ms Anderson's team established 47 additional independent records for the region, which mostly came from riverine and rocky environments near Pannawonica in the south-west and the Yarrie mine site in the north. "It's still low numbers, but a lot more than what was recorded on the online data repository map," she said. Ms Anderson said the records provided a better understanding into the distribution of the Pilbara species, but further surveys and monitoring programs were needed to chart their population trends. Edith Cowan University PhD student Shelby Middleton has also been researching the species in WA, and says little is known about possum populations in the Pilbara. But her recent paper reveals a clue that could help conserve the species in similar environments. The study was the first to discover the Pilbara and Mid West populations of common brushtail possums were genetically closer to the subspecies found on the east coast, South Australia and Central Australia than those in WA's South West. "That means they are actually a completely different subspecies to what we previously thought," Ms Middleton said. She said the brushtail possum was presumed extinct in Central Australia and that the genetics of the possums found in the Pilbara and Mid West were very closely related to what would have once inhabited the area. Eventually the species may be able to help grow populations there, she said. "This [research] could definitely have implications on what animals should be translocated in the future," Ms Middleton said. "When they translocate these animals, they need to look at what are the best populations to source them from. "It's really important to try and bring back these ecosystems that used to exist … before humans and cats came in and destroyed their environment." Australian Wildlife Conservancy senior ecologist Jennifer Pierson said the research was "really exciting" and could help re-establish and supplement populations in arid zones. She said possum populations from Dubbo and Kangaroo Island had been reintroduced into the Newhaven Sanctuary, north-west of Alice Springs in the Northern Territory, but their source habitats were vastly different. "So having another group of possums that might have different adaptations to arid conditions is really encouraging for us," Dr Pierson said. "It opens up more exciting opportunities about learning where we might be able to do it and access to more diversity for us to create really robust populations."
Yahoo
19-04-2025
- Climate
- Yahoo
Rogue Wave Sweeps Man Away, 4 Drownings in Australia (Video)
Australia, it seems, can't catch a break. Or rather, to use a terrible pun, it's catching loads of breaks – sorry – specifically on the east coast, as the region has been battered by storm after storm, with massive waves on one hand wreaking havoc on coastlines and communities, and on the other, bringing historic swell for surfers. The latest of which has seen some of Australia's heaviest slabs light up outside of Sydney, caused four drownings (one in Victoria; three others in New South Wales), and spectators along the coast flocking to see the action, in some cases, getting a little too close, prompting concerns. One man, seen in the video above, was captured riding 'the Dee Why Express' per the caption, getting swept away by a rogue wave while watching the giant surf from the northern beaches of Sydney. However, as mentioned, there have been casualties amongst the spectating, too. A group was washed off the rocks at a beach off Punch Bowl Road, southeast of Melbourne. One woman died, and another man has gone missing. "One of the women managed to make her way back to shore but the other woman and the man were unable to," a Victoria Police spokesperson said. Then, there were three drownings in NSW, all on Good Friday. One, a fisherman was swept off the breakwall at Wollongong Harbor; another, who was believed to have fallen into the water in Sydney Harbor; and a third in the state's southerly coast, in the afternoon, at Green the flipside, surfers have been scoring during the relentless run of swell, with Sydney's Cape Solander going off, and all the action broadcast live via media dream team Hannah Anderson and Nick Carroll, under their latest endeavor, We Shouldn't Be Friends. Check out the action here. Due to all the heavy swell activity, Surf Lifesaving NSW issued a warning statement: "As NSW beaches continue to be hammered by strong surf and wild weather, volunteer surf lifesavers and lifeguards are issuing a timely reminder that when you visit the beach and find it closed, do not enter the water and take unnecessary risks.'
Yahoo
18-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
'Scary Stuff': Watch Live from Massive Cape Solander
'How the fuck do they even get out there? It's so gnarly.' Hannah Anderson – photographer, videographer, media maven etc. – butt-dialed me while coordinating this live video feed from Sydney, Australia's infamous widow-maker slab, Cape Solander, and this was amongst the chatter that gurgled through the phone, transmitting through satellites in space, all the way on the other side of the world, then into my rectangular digital device. Advertisement Isn't technology incredible? I can be sitting at home in Los Angeles, tuning into real-time footage from thousands of miles away. Still baffles the mind. And so can you! Hit play above. Related: Aussie Surf Spot 'Deadman's' Lives Up to its Name (Video) 'It's bigger and heavier than anything we've ever seen since the Red Bull event in 2016,' says Hannah's partner-in-crime, the inimitable Nick Carroll. 'Waves are breaking off the ledge. It's extremely heavy here today, like, really risky. Waves are bending around the side, and wrapping down the line. I suspect it's going to get a lot better throughout the day. It's having that classic morning sickness, that wobble in it right now. This swell has only just really filled in. It's gonna bulk up, get stronger. The wind's really clean. We're expecting to see some magic here today.' Stay tuned to Hannah and Nick's latest endeavor, We Shouldn't Be Friends. And in the meantime, kick back and watch the carnage above. Related: 22-Footer: Biggest Wave Ever Surfed at Bondi Beach? (Video)
