‘Dead zone' worse than first thought
Published: August 15, 2006
thenewsguard.com
The oxygen-starved "dead zone" along the Pacific Coast causing massive crab and fish die-offs is worse than initially thought, scientists said.
Weather, not pollution, appears to be the culprit, said scientists, and no relief is in sight. However, some said there is no immediate sign of long-term damage to the crab fishery in the dead zone, a 70-mile stretch of water along the Continental Shelf between Florence and Lincoln City.
Oregon State University scientists looking for weather changes that could reverse the situation aren't finding them. They say levels of dissolved oxygen critical to marine life are the lowest since the first dead zone was identified in 2002. It has returned every year.
Strong upwelling winds pushed a low-oxygen pool of deep water toward shore, suffocating marine life, said Jane Lubchenco, a professor of marine biology at OSU.
She said wind changes could help push that water farther out, but current forecasts predict the opposite.
After a recent trip to the dead zone and an inspection via camera on a remote-controlled submarine, she said, "Thousands and thousands of dead crab and molts were littering the ocean floor. Many sea stars were dead, and the fish have either left the area or have died and been washed away."
Hal Weeks, a marine ecologist with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, said harvests in the last two years were record-breaking for the Dungeness crab despite dead zones.
"In that fishery, there has been no apparent effect," he said. "That doesn't mean there won't be."
Al Pazar, chairman of the Oregon Dungeness Crab Commission and a crab fisherman, said this season is shaping up to be the second-best ever, around 28 million pounds, but that most crabs are caught in the six or eight weeks following the season's winter opening, well ahead of the appearance of the dead zones.
The 2002 dead zone was the worst until this year's, he said. After 2002, he returned to the area when the season reopened and had good results. |
