Reading further, I was chilled
Posted by Michael on Saturday, February 16th, 2008This, after following Jim’s link ( Scientists fear ‘tipping point’ in Pacific Ocean) , I was chilled, as I read further:
“Only once during the past seven years did the strong northerly winds of spring and summer go away — and that time, in spring and early summer of 2005, the pendulum swung wildly the other way, with little wind at all until partway through summer.
That set off a chain of events that scientists concluded were responsible for a startlingly widespread wave of seabird deaths — from the Farallon Islands off San Francisco to Vancouver Island.
After that, researchers from Oregon State University, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife looked intensely at waters off the Oregon coast for the research announced Thursday. And the same thing is happening off Washington’s coast.
Mary Sue Brancato and her colleagues first noticed it on a visit to the coast in 2000 or 2001.
We were out there for another (research) project and we were like, ‘What is it with these thousands of dead crabs?’ ” said Brancato, a marine biologist who works at the Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary.
Those were Dungeness crabs. Later other species were affected, Brancato said, leading scientists to surmise it was some widespread cause. By 2004 they were taking measurements to document low levels of dissolved oxygen, the kind of oxygen sea creatures can use.
Holy shit.
February 17th, 2008 at 6:39 pm
I love in this story how Mary Sue Brancato says “We were out there for another (research) project and we were like, ‘What is it with these thousands of dead crabs?”
Ms. Brancato sounds so like a valley girl. You can imagine one of her colleagues that day responding “Dude, maybe these crabs are, like, Jonestown crabs, ya know?”