Global warming may be killing sea life off Pacific coast

posted by Barry Parr  on Sat, Feb 23 at 12:23 pm in  Environment
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Changes in the California Current are creating dead zones in the ocean off the Pacific Northwest, reports the Chronicle. The likely cause is global warming.

Video images scanned from the seafloor revealed a boneyard of crab skeletons, dead fish and other marine life smothered under a white mat of bacteria. At times, the camera’s unblinking eye revealed nothing - a barren undersea desert in waters renowned for their bounty of Dungeness crabs and fat rockfish.

“We couldn’t believe our eyes,” Lubchenco said, recalling her initial impression of the carnage brought about by oxygen-starved waters. “It was so overwhelming and depressing. It appeared that everything that couldn’t swim or scuttle away had died.”

Upon further study, Lubchenco and other marine ecologists at Oregon State University concluded that that the undersea plague appears to be a symptom of global warming. In a study published in the journal Science, the researchers note how these low-oxygen waters have expanded north into Washington and crept south as far as the California state line. And, they appear to be as regular as the tides, a cycle that has repeated itself every summer and fall since 2002.

“We seem to have crossed a tipping point,” Lubchenco said. “Low-oxygen zones off the Northwest coast appear to be the new normal.”

 

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Free educational events at New Leaf Community Markets

Letter by Patti_Bond on Thu, Mar 11 at 10:13 am • 0 comments; click to add your own

On Tuesday, March 16 from 6 - 7 pm, New Leaf Produce Director, Mark Mulcahy, will present ” For the Love of Produce: Citrus.” Mark will talk about the difference between various types of citrus, where they come from, how to select them and prepare them, as well as provide suggested pairings and recipes.

On Tuesday, March 23 from 6 - 7:30 pm., Larry Jacobs of Jacobs Farm/Del Cabo and his team will give a talk on Organic Farming in Mexico. They will tell their story about the cooperative they

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Information Session on Roundabouts

Letter by Len Erickson on Wed, Mar 10 at 12:45 pm • 0 comments; click to add your own

Roundabouts were one of many features discussed in the report from the Traffic and Trails meetings last June and presented to the Midcoast in a public meeting last month.  On Saturday, March 13, there will be an information session on roundabouts open to interested members of the community.  The meeting is sponsored by Midcoast Park Lands and will be at the Granada Sanitary District office in El Granada, at 504 Avenue Alhambra, 3rd Floor.  The meeting time is 10:30am.  There will also be an

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Moon Valley Pony Club event, Saturday

Letter by Guest on Wed, Mar 3 at 01:50 pm • 0 comments; click to add your own
Saturday at Seventh Street Cafe and Bistro in Montara. Click for pdf.

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