Pacific Spirit Marine Institute
She Wore a Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka-dot Bikini…maybe not!
Thursday, May 24, 2007
She was afraid to go out in the water, but it wasn’t because she had abs of flab.
People in coastal communities across the globe are suffering respiratory illness believed caused by harmful algae and bacteria in our oceans.
Trouble breathing, when too close to the surf, is being reported in Sweden where at the Baltic Sea surf brings dead fish bobbing ashore. People on the southern shores of Maui are paying to have vile smelling piles of algae removed daily from their beaches.
Piles of sludge, larger than human beings, are coagulating on beaches in several areas of the world.
We are tossing raw sewage waste and the pathongens it contains such as cholera, hepatitis B and typhoid into our oceans at an astonishing rate. Canada flushes some 200 billion liters of raw sewage into the ocean annually.
The U.S. banned disposal of sewage sludge and industrial waste into territorial waters in 1991. What happens to that sewage sludge now? The open sea provides limitless opportunities for illegal dumping. We’ll have more on that topic later. (tag: sewage)
Fish, sea mammals and people alike are becoming increasingly ill from hazardous microorganisms growing at an alarming rate in our oceans.
Fishermen from the Chesapeake Bay (CDC.gov) have suffered red, circular skin rashes, memory loss and respiratory tract problems. As far back as 1997 they reported fish with bloody sores, died by the thousands with some fishermen reporting as much as 90% of the catch having visible bloody sores. In what part of the food chain did those fish land?
With hundreds of millions of dollars at risk in the seafood industry, can we expect any agency to be warning us about what we are eating?
Clearly we cannot rely on those we have entrusted with our health and safety. Our only hope is to become proactive.
While the debate rages over what is causing Global Warming, that which is killing our oceans is not open for debate. It’s us.
Labels: Sewage
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She Wore a Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka-dot Bikini…maybe not!
