Dead Zone Returns To Coastal Of Oregon For Sixth Year Straight - "New Normal" Says Scientist

[hatrack]

GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) — For the sixth year in a row, a dead zone of oxygen-depleted water that kills crabs and drives out fish is forming off the Oregon Coast, raising the possibility it could become the new normal as the climate warms, scientists said Monday.

The formation appeared to be dissipating in early July, but a survey of the 25 miles of Continental Shelf between Newport and Cape Perpetua last Friday by the Oregon State University research vessel Elakha found conditions returning to those of last year.

"It does, indeed, appear to be the new normal," said Jane Lubchenco, professor of marine biology at OSU. "The appearance of the low-oxygen water again is consistent with predictions of climate change. The fact that we are seeing six in a row now tells us that something pretty fundamental has changed about conditions off of our coast."

Unlike the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico, which is caused by fertilizer washing down the Mississippi River, the Oregon Coast dead zone is triggered by northerly winds, which create an ocean-mixing condition called upwelling. This brings low-oxygen waters from deep in the ocean close to shore, and spreads nitrogen and other nutrients through the water column, kicking off a population boom of plankton, the tiny plants and animals at the foundation of the ocean food web.

EDIT

http://www.oregonlive.com/newsflash/regional/index.ssf?/base/news-20/118584626958850.xml&storylist=orlocal

[phantom power]

1. "New normal" and "dead" in the same sentence. There's your zeitgeist.

[hatrack]

4. "Dead" - it's the New Black!

:evilgrin:

[Dogmudgeon]

6. Dead is the new Alive

Black is the new Green.

Brown is the new Blair.

--p!
Wind is the new Coal.

[Dead_Parrot]

7. Yes! Embrace the fear! nt

[EVDebs]

2. And a similar dead zone at the mouth of the Mississippi

http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/news/topstory/2004/0810deadzone.html

and other areas

http://www.epa.gov/msbasin/taskforce/world.htm

"The Lower Columbia River is listed as "impaired" by the States of Oregon ad Washington due to toxic chemicals that are found in fish tissue, and the associated cancer risks. Some toxic contaminants are at levels that affect the health of certain fish and wildlife species, and may be high enough to cause human health effects."

and

"In Tillamook Bay, Oregon, chum, coho, and steelhead trout stocks are listed as depressed in the basin. Historically, the Tillamook Basin was an important producer of coho salmon, with runs averaging more than 150,000 fish. Fewer than 300 adult spawners were observed annually from 1990 to 1992. Gill net fishery landings averaged over 45,000 coho annually in the 1920s and 1930s. By the 1980s and early 1990s, landings were estimated at only 19,000 fish per year. Past studies have identified the following factors which may reduce or degrade fish habitat: 1) poorly placed dikes; 2) forest fires; 3) logging and road construction; 4) loss of slough habitat; 5) increased sedimentation from watershed erosion; 6) the Bayocean Spit breach; and 7) subsequent changes in bay circulation and salinity. Possibly the most important factor to affect past and present conditions in the watershed was a series of forest fires earlier this century which affected 63 percent of the basin and reduced habitat, protective cover, and nutrient input. Other factors which may have affected coho populations include the high historic harvest rate and the effects of hatchery releases."

http://www.epa.gov/owow/estuaries/about3.htm

[xchrom]

3. six years and it's the new normal?

something is very wrong with that sentence of hers.

nature abhors a vacuum -- so my suspicion is that this isn't a normal anything -- but a precondition for something that will knock her socks off.

[sandnsea]

5. Well goddammit

This affects one of my favorite tide pools, where there are never any shells or starfish or much of anything anymore. I've read articles that the entire sea floor looks like a killing field of crab and similar sealife, when they get in this area and can't get out. A few years ago they were saying they ddn't know what was causing this, and I can also attest that it's cooler here this year and the winds are more normal than they had been in previous years. So I don't exactly know what unusual wind pattern they're referring to. I'm not sure I buy that explanation.