Oxygen-poor ocean zones are growing: Linked to global warming, cannot sustain most marine life

[DeepModem Mom]

Source: Los Angeles Times

By Kenneth R. Weiss, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
May 2, 2008

Oxygen-starved waters are expanding in the Pacific and Atlantic as ocean temperatures increase with global warming, threatening fisheries and other marine life, a study published today concludes.

Most of these zones remain hundreds of feet below the surface, but they are beginning to spill onto the relatively shallow continental shelf off the coast of California and are nearing the surface off Peru, driving away fish from commercially important fishing grounds, researchers have found.

The low-oxygen, or hypoxic, zones may also be connected to the Pacific coast invasion of the Humboldt, or jumbo, squid. These voracious predators, which can grow 6 feet long, appear to be taking advantage of their tolerance for oxygen-poor waters to escape predators and devour local fish, another team of scientists theorizes.

Researchers believe these phenomena are linked to subsurface layers of hypoxic water in the tropical Pacific and Atlantic oceans that have been thickening over the last 50 years, according to the analysis published today in the journal Science.

The study, led by Lothar Stramma at the University of Kiel in Germany, warns that the spread of hypoxic waters that suffocate marine life is consistent with climate models forecasting what would happen as greenhouse gases accumulate in the atmosphere....

Read more: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-deadzone2-2008may02,0,1285619.story

[eleny]

1. I wonder if this is related to the decline in salmon reported yesterday

[DeepModem Mom]

3. Sounds like it could well be. nt

[Auggie]

13. Salmon fishing has been banned in California and Oregon for 2008

"The (Pacific Fishery Management Council) canceled the seasons after the fall run in the Sacramento River and its tributaries saw the number of spawning fish drop from more than 800,000 just six years ago to just over 68,000 last year. Experts are predicting that a little more than 50,000 fish will be in the river this coming fall."

<snip>

"The National Marine Fisheries Service has pointed to a sudden lack of nutrient-rich deep ocean upwellings caused by ocean temperature changes as a possible cause. But most biologists believe it is a combination of factors, including agricultural pollution, water diversions from the Delta and damaged habitat."

Link: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/04/10/BAO6103NBB.DTL

Did you get that? From 800,000 to 68,000 in six years!

We've fucked with the rivers for so long it's a wonder there are any fish left.

[eleny]

16. Yes, I heard that on the news very early this morning - 1/3

[tofurkey]

19. And the gov't is going to use our taxes (billions) to subsidize

the salaries of the fish killers, er, um fishermen, you know, after all of our overfishing and habitat destruction, etc. has created less fish to kill.

How about they just get new careers and go vegan?

[HughMoran]

2. But it's great for the squid

:D Apparently the other marine life moves to somewhere else. The NPR report the other day didn't seem to make it clear whether this was necessarily new or all bad, though it is probably not good in the long run.

[leftyladyfrommo]

11. Have you seen where the giant squid have moved north

into waters off Oregon or Washington. Yes, squid are doing very well right now.

[vickitulsa]

4. This is also consistent with -- or similar to -- a scenario from the earth's past,

as in billions of years past, that was explained and illustrated very clearly on a recent episode of History Channel's "The Universe" series. I don't remember the period (Jurassic, K-T Boundary, or one before that), but it was truly a scary time, when one of the "great extinctions" occurred, IIRC.

Scientists of various disciplines have been trying to understand the causes of these great extinctions for some time, and of course they're not all in agreement about them. But I do remember they were talking about a period of rapid global climate change in earth's history in this episode. They're pretty sure this happened because of where the fossils of certain animals, including microbes, suddenly are not found anymore in the layers after the rapid climate change.

Strange to think the activities of humans could be bringing about a similar event in modern times. But the way these things can go, apparently, once certain temperatures are reached, bringing about events that cause levels of hypoxia that have been seen in ice core samples dating waaaay back, there can be a "snowball" effect where the various factors feed into each other and thus everything changes faster -- too fast for most animal life to adapt.

Fascinating stuff!

[DeepModem Mom]

5. Thanks for your post, vickitulsa. nt

[FirstLight]

6. Fascinating, I agree...but terrifying too.

I guess we'd better buckle up, because we are about to go for one heck of a ride!


:hi: Hey Vicki! good to see you!
and of course, we agree - about the fascinating part of all this.... it really does put it in perspective to realize that humans and our "recorded' history are really just a blip on the Universal timeline...and we have also seen our race survive before, hopefully some will carry forward from here. (Have you ever read the book /series starting with "Spiritwalker" by Hank Wesselman? awesome future visions, from a scientist/antrhopologist who started having shamanoc journeys and visions...realy amazing to see the flip side of the coin, 6000 years in the future...)

....it is going to be really crazy and difficult for a while on this blue marble we call home.... that's for sure!:scared:

[bean fidhleir]

22. No, if we don't stop the ride before it gets going, we won't still be on at the end

We'll have fallen off into the fossil record, along with the dinos, the Neandertal people, and other victims of too-rapid change. But in our case, our fate will be our fault.

[Journeyman]

7. k & r . . .

[DeSwiss]

8. Step by step...

...we are slowly killing ourselves. While we piddle and argue with faux scientists about whether glowbal warming really exits. These are the numbskulls who've been bought and paid for by the oil companies.

- Planet murderers....


K&R!!!

[leftyladyfrommo]

9. We are not killing ourselves very slowly any more. We have

really picked up the pace. We could very seriously be the cause of our own extinction.

The sad part is that the world will most likely be a whole lot better off without us. We may have just been a huge cosmic mistake.

[DeSwiss]

14. A mistake indeed.

We don't seem to learn very well from our past. Not a good response for a species' preservation.

And when the inexorable march toward our own destruction becomes obvious to even the most addle-headed among us, they will cry to the scientists to please save us. Tell us what to do. While others will most probably resign themselves to our fate, as an act of god.

- Mother Nature has taken much abuse from us. But she always bats last....

[Uncle Joe]

10. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, DeepModem Mom.

[bronxiteforever]

12. Kick & R

[nam78_two]

15. KR.nt

[Lorien]

17. And the response from our Democratic front runners?

*crickets*

[DeepModem Mom]

18. I do hope our candidate will run on this issue this time...

and not listen to the consultants, as Al Gore did, never mentioning the cause he'd made the focus of his political career. It's an issue of life-and-death importance to every living soul, affecting the health and well-being of themselves and their children, and as such, I think, can be highlighted in a campaign.

[cornermouse]

20. Life on the planet began in the ocean.

I guess this means that death on the planet will also begin in the ocean.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

21. The environment should be our #1 issue in the upcoming election...,

Almost all other issues could be favorably resolved by focusing on restoring our planet's health.

[GliderGuider]

23. Everyone who cares about the state of the oceans needs to see this

This is a video of a lecture given by Dr. Jeremy Jackson at Middlebury College in Connecticut. Jackson, a marine ecologist and environmental advocate, professor of oceanography at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, describes how overfishing, habitat destruction, global warming and other human-induced activities have contributed to a crisis in the health of the world's oceans.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZkwewR69w8

You will never look at an ocean the same way again after viewing this.