Pacific Spirit Marine Institute
Monday, August 18, 2008
Meet me in St. Louis Louis, Meet me at the fair!cotton Candy goes solar.
If they’re going to dump that crap it may as well serve a porpoise!
DuPont make waders that ‘breath underwater’. Haven’t they done enough already?
Three amigos, three pesticides not friendly to Salmon!
Pass me the rake, I have a little something here I need to bag up!
Cap-and-trade-program. Who is paying for their profits?
Will liquid coal quench our thirst?
I’ll buy it from you, then sell it to you…what do you think?
Labels: Alaska, Dead zones, Dupont, Green for a Day., Salmon, cap and trade, carbon-trading market, coal to liquid
© 2009, Pacific Spirit Marine Institute.
EcOLinks
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Lake Michigan is changing faster than researchers are able study it.
Scuba diving researchers are finding what sounds like scenes right out of Jurassic Park. Strange new primitive plant life. Carpets of mussels starving out native species in the lake.
Scientists are saying the ecology of the lakes are being upended.
Fishermen are hauling up stinky E. coli bacteria and botulism spored mats of algae. Algae that stretches from Chicago to the Straits of Mackinac. The expanse can be seen from boat decks and hilltops.
Scientists are afraid this “lake moss”, coined by fishermen, is also contributing to the deaths of migratory birds, which are wide spread.
Thousands of migratory birds have died from Type E Botulism poisoning from Lake Michigan, but they didn’t get it from eating canned goods.
Scientists are blaming invasive populations of zebra mussels and round gobies.
Zebra mussels are also plaguing Lake Erie. The invasive attack of aquatic mollusks has tripled in the last 3 years and the mussels are adapting to colder and deeper waters.
The great lakes aren’t the only place these devils are being found. In the warmer waters of California reservoirs the same zebra mussels are multiplying like rabbits.
The California Fish and game department doesn’t know if they came from Lake Erie or some other affected waterway, but their problems are the same as those in the great lakes as a result of this invasive species.
$1.5 billion in damages have occurred across 23 states. Adding insult to injury these creatures also spew phosphorous which contributes to yet more dead zones and toxic algae.
The population of Quagga mussels, larger than the Zebra mussels are contributing to the crashing populations of small fish like smelt. They are snatching the food right out of their diets. No smelt means no Salmon. The salmon feed on the smaller fish.
The quagga has spread through the Colorado River Aqueduct to several Southern California reservoirs. The measles are known to clog pipes and California can ill afford to have one drop of water cut off worsening its already ‘crisis’ water situation.
California of course has an education campaign; “don’t move a mussel” reminiscent of the 90’s j-walking campaign “don’t get caught red handed” that was popular in the streets of San Francisco.
The adaptability of these invasive creatures to thrive in deep cold waters as well as warm waters is really disturbing. I keep asking myself what kinds of problems these upstarts have caused in the areas in which they are native.
Cameron Davis, president of the Alliance for the Great Lakes says, “The ecological balance of the Great Lakes is at a tipping point.”
The Quaggas colonize the sandy bottoms and deeper portions of the Lakes while the well known Zebra mussels like to attach themselves to smoother objects like rocks and man-made structures like water pipes.
These species suck water in and press it out taking nourishment from the tiny little creatures in the water. This constant, ceaseless filtration of the water is making the water so crystal clear that sunlight can penetrate far deeper than ever before. This sunny situation allows a certain type of algae (cladophora) to run rampant. Now it grows in waters twice the depth as it once did just a decade ago.
These species are starving out the bigger fish by eating the plankton and iporeia which are at the bottom of the lakes food chain.
Henry Vanderploeg from NOAA says …”The mussels are really messing up the food chain.” Shakespeare couldn’t have said it better himself.
Photo thanks: Ron Dermott, Zebra mussels
Botulism dead bird Michigan DNR
Labels: Dead zones, Great Lakes, NOAA, Zebra Mussels, migratory birds
© 2009, Pacific Spirit Marine Institute.
Lake Michigan goes Jurassic.
Monday, August 11, 2008
Huge patches of algae are cropping up throughout the Chesapeake Bay.
Oceans aren’t the only bodies of water feeling the affects of bad runoff.
Mike Naylor from the state Department of Natural Resources told the Baltimore Sun, “We have a lot of people in these watersheds and very little forest cover left.” “So our waters have more nutrients than they should, and they’re warmer than they should be, so these things combine to allow algae to thrive.”
The Chesapeake Bay is known for it’s blue crabs. The crab population already in jeopardy has dropped below last years levels which were already alarmingly low.
Last years harvest of the crabs was the lowest recorded since 1945. NOAA fisheries biologists believe the population cannot be sustained at the past rates of exploitation. Maryland announced it would end the season for catching female crabs about 2 months early.
One local man said the only other time he can remember conditions being this bad were when there was a fertilizer seep from a nearby farm into the cove in which he crabs. The crabs have been dying in the water, suffocated from a lack of oxygen.
Watermen are disputing the NOAA report. They say they are finding more blue crabs this year than in the past 15 years. The watermen say they couldn’t be overfishing the crab stocks because more fishermen leave the water every year. They are disputing that the NOAA survey is accurate.
NOAA’s surveys are said to be highly accurate in predicting the population of the blue crabs.
Scientists and fisherman are at odds.
NOAA says if strict regulations were not put into place that nearly 7 out of every 10adult crabs would be harvested. The population cannot withstand that kind of pressure. Now the algae blooms.
So which came first?
Are the harvests down because the population of the crabs is down, or are the harvests down because the population of the fishermen is down?
One thing is certain. If the algae blooms had been on the Eastern Shore of the bay instead of in the wealthy Baltimore County area there wouldn’t be so much public outcry. This area is littered with expensive homes along the water. When the algae gets thick enough to clogs the boat intakes the phone starts ringing off the hook.
One community resident says he can smell the mildew from the dying algae when he comes into the neighborhood at night.
Meanwhile…
Could runoff from well maintained and fertilized lawns, gardens, and car exhaust could be contributing to the problem?
People aren’t the only invasive species troubling the Chesapeake Bay either. Scientists say there are now more than 150 exotic species (not native) in the bay, many of which hitchhike in on ships from Asia and Europe.
Plans to test ultraviolet light, filters and some types of chemicals to see how effective they are at destroying exotic larvae and other creatures are already underway aboard a ship in Baltimore.
Four years ago, the Coast Guard began requiring large ships crossing the oceans to stop 200 miles off American shores and dump their ballast water and replace it with ocean water. The Salt water from the open ocean kills some kinds, but not all, of fresh water organisms that stow away in the ballast waters and travel from port to port.
Photo Thanks: Maryland Department of Natural Resources Aug.8 2008
Labels: Chesapeake Bay, Dead zones, NOAA
© 2009, Pacific Spirit Marine Institute.
Dead Zones in Chesapeake Bay.
