Dead Fish Have No Politics

I’m following quite a few interesting threads right now, one of them being the fate of excess nitrogen that flows from farm fields, to streams, to oceans to dead zones. The latter is a phenomenon that is producing increased alarm among those who have been monitoring ocean oxygen levels. Here’s why. (very short before-after video from a deep-sea camera.)

Cape Perpetua where this video came from is off the coast of Oregon. Similar images coming from oceans around the world. The nitrogen story is one of horribly too much of a good thing.

In October 2009…the Pacific Deadzone off Oregon is likely irreversible.

the dead zone off the Northwest is one of the few in the world that could be impossible to reverse. That is because evolving wind conditions likely brought on by a changing climate, rather than pollution, are responsible, said Jack Barth, professor of physical oceanography at OSU…The gradual warming of surface waters across the north Pacific, the report funded by the National Science Foundation said, has tended to isolate deep waters far below the surface – allowing less oxygen penetration.There also has been a change in wind patterns, encouraging the upwelling of that low-oxygen water and inhibiting the natural flushing action of water.

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