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Unprecedented Mass Die Offs As Pacific Ocean “Turning Into A Desert” Off California Coast
Thursday, May 28, 2015 4:22
See link for video:
http://beforeitsnews.com/alternative/2015/05/unprecedented-mass-die-offs-as-pacific-ocean-turning-into-a-desert-off-california-coast-3162074.html
“Ocean’s dying, plankton’s dying… it’s people. Soylent Green is made out of people. They’re making our food out of people. Next thing they’ll be breeding us like cattle for food. You’ve gotta tell them. You’ve gotta tell them!”
It was the dying cry of Charlton Heston in the creepy 1973 film Soylent Green… and it could resemble our desperate near future.
The ocean is dying, by all accounts – and if so, the food supply along with it. The causes are numerous, and overlapping. And massive numbers of wild animal populations are dying as a result of it.
Natural causes in the environment are partly to blame; so too are the corporations of man; the effects of Fukushima, unleashing untold levels of radiation into the ocean and onto Pacific shores; the cumulative effect of modern chemicals and agricultural waste tainting the water and disrupting reproduction.
A startling new report says in no uncertain terms that the Pacific Ocean off the California coast is turning into a desert. Once full of life, it is now becoming barren, and marine mammals, seabirds and fish are starving as a result. According to Ocean Health:
The waters of the Pacific off the coast of California are a clear, shimmering blue today, so transparent it’s possible to see the sandy bottom below […] clear water is a sign that the ocean is turning into a desert, and the chain reaction that causes that bitter clarity is perhaps most obvious on the beaches of the Golden State, where thousands of emaciated sea lion pups are stranded.
Over the last three years, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has noticed a growing number of strandings on the beaches of California and up into the Pacific north-west. In 2013, 1,171 sea lions were stranded, and 2,700 have already stranded in 2015 – a sign that something is seriously wrong, as pups don’t normally wind up on their own until later in the spring and early summer.
“[An unusually large number of sea lions stranding in 2013 was a red flag] there was a food availability problem even before the ocean got warm.”Johnson: This has never happened before… It’s incredible. It’s so unusual, and there’s no really good explanation for it. There’s also a good chance that the problem will continue, said a NOAA research scientist in climatology, Nate Mantua.
Experts blame a lack of food due to unusually warm ocean waters. NOAA declared an El Nino, the weather pattern that warms the Pacific, a few weeks ago. The water is three and a half to six degrees warmer than the average, according to Mantua, because of a lack of north wind on the West Coast. Ordinarily, the north wind drives the current, creating upwelling that brings forth the nutrients that feed the sardines, anchovies and other fish that adult sea lions feed on.
Fox News added:
The warm water is likely pushing prime sea lion foods — market squid, sardines and anchovies — further north, forcing the mothers to abandon their pups for up to eight days at a time in search of sustenance.
The pups, scientists believe, are weaning themselves early out of desperation and setting out on their own despite being underweight and ill-prepared to hunt.
“These animals are coming in really desperate. They’re at the end of life. They’re in a crisis … and not all animals are going to make it,” said Keith A. Matassa, executive director at the Pacific Marine Mammal Center, which is currently rehabilitating 115 sea lion pups.
The same is true of seabirds on the Washington State coast:
In the storm debris littering a Washington State shoreline, Bonnie Wood saw something grisly: the mangled bodies of dozens of scraggly young seabirds. Walking half a mile along the beach at Twin Harbors State Park on Wednesday, Wood spotted more than 130 carcasses of juvenile Cassin’s auklets—the blue-footed, palm-size victims of what is becoming one of the largest mass die-offs of seabirds ever recorded. “It was so distressing,” recalled Wood, a volunteer who patrols Pacific Northwest beaches looking for dead or stranded birds. “They were just everywhere. Every ten yards we’d find another ten bodies of these sweet little things.”
“This is just massive, massive, unprecedented,” said Julia Parrish, a University of Washington seabird ecologist who oversees the Coastal Observation and Seabird Survey Team (COASST), a program that has tracked West Coast seabird deaths for almost 20 years. “We may be talking about 50,000 to 100,000 deaths. So far.” (source)
100,000 doesn’t necessarily sound large, statistically speaking, but precedent in the history of recorded animal deaths suggests that it is, in fact massive. Even National Geographic is noting that these die off events are “unprecedented.” Warmer water is indicated for much of the starvation faced by many of the dead animals.
Last year, scientists sounded the alarm over the death of millions of star fish, blamed on warmer waters and ‘mystery virus’:
Starfish are dying by the millions up and down the West Coast, leading scientists to warn of the possibility of localized extinction of some species. As the disease spreads, researchers may be zeroing in on a link between warming waters and the rising starfish body count. (source)
The epidemic, which threatens to reshape the coastal food web and change the makeup of tide pools for years to come, appears to be driven by a previously unidentified virus, a team of more than a dozen researchers from Cornell University, UC Santa Cruz, the Monterey Bay Aquarium and other institutions reported Monday. (source)
Changing temperatures in the Pacific Ocean, driven by the natural cycle of gyres over decades, shifts wildlife populations, decimating the populations of species throughout the food chain, proving how fragile the balance of life in the ocean really is.
Recently, the collapse of the sardine population has created a crisis for fisheries and marine wildlife alike on the West Coast:
Commercial fishing for sardines off of Canada’s West Coast is worth an estimated $32 million – but now they are suddenly gone. Back in October, fisherman reported that they came back empty-handed without a single fish after 12 hours of trolling and some $1000 spent on fuel.
Sandy Mazza, for the Daily Breeze, reported a similar phenomenon in central California: “[T]he fickle sardines have been so abundant for so many years – sometimes holding court as the most plentiful fish in coastal waters – that it was a shock when he couldn’t find one of the shiny silver-blue coastal fish all summer, even though this isn’t the first time they’ve vanished.” [emphasis added]
“Is it El Nino? Pacific Decadal Oscillation? [La] Nina? Long-term climate change? More marine mammals eating sardines? Did they all go to Mexico or farther offshore? We don’t know. We’re pretty sure the overall population has declined. We manage them pretty conservatively because we don’t want to end up with another Cannery Row so, as the population declines, we curb fishing.” said National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) official Kerry Griffin. (source)
According to a report in the Daily Mail, the worst events have wiped out 90% of animal populations, falling short of extinction, but creating a rupture in food chains and ecosystems.
And environmental factors are known to be a factor, with pollution from chemicals dumped by factories clearly tied to at least 20% of the mass die off events of wildlife populations that have been investigated, and many die offs implicated by a number of overlapping factors. The Daily Mail reported:
Mass die-offs of certain animals has increased in frequency every year for seven decades, according to a new study.
Researchers found that such events, which can kill more than 90 per cent of a population, are increasing among birds, fish and marine invertebrates.
The reasons for the die-offs are diverse, with effects tied to humans such as environmental contamination accounting for about a fifth of them.
Farm runoff from Big Agra introduces high levels of fertilizers and pesticides which createoxygen-starved dead zones which fish and aquatic live is killed off. Also preset in agriculture waste are gender bending chemicals like those found in Atrazine, used in staple crop production, and antibiotics and hormones, used in livestock production, which creates hazardous runoff for fish populations:
Livestock excrete natural hormones – estrogens and testosterones – as well as synthetic ones used to bolster their growth. Depending on concentrations and fish sensitivity, these hormones and hormone mimics might impair wild fish reproduction or skew their sex ratios. (source)
Pharmaceutical contaminants are also to blame for changing the sex of fish and disrupting population numbers, while a study found that the chemicals in Prozac changed the behavior of marine life, and made shrimp many times more likely to “commit suicide” and swim towards the light where they became easy prey.
Fish farms also introduce a large volume of antibiotic and chemical pollution into oceans and waterways:
The close quarters where farmed fish are raised (combined with their unnatural diets) means disease occurs often and can spread quickly. On fish farms, which are basically “CAFOs of the sea,” antibiotics are dispersed into the water, and sometimes injected directly into the fish.
Unfortunately, farmed fish are often raised in pens in the ocean, which means not only that pathogens can spread like wildfire and contaminate any wild fish swimming past – but the antibiotics can also spread to wild fish (via aquaculture and wastewater runoff) – and that’s exactly what recent research revealed. (source)
Mass die offs of fish on the Brazilian coastline have linked to pollution from the dumping of raw sewage and garbage.
In the last few days it was reported that a massive die off of bottlenose dolphins in the Gulf of Mexico was connected by researchers to BP’s Deep Water Horizon oil spill. Evidence was found in a third of the cases of lesions in the adrenal gland, an otherwise rare condition linked with petroleum exposure. More than a fifth of the dolphins also suffered bacterial pneumonia, causing deadly lung infection that is likewise rarely seen in dolphin populations.
Posted : May 29, 2015 11:18 am
Topic starter
https://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=D-QwTkYMhr0
https://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=z1s0OTxW_ME
Posted : May 30, 2015 2:32 am
Not just in California. There are "dead zones" just off the Gulf Coast and areas off New England where a lack of oxygen in the water where nothing lives.
In addition, since June 2015, there has been an extensive algal toxic bloom of the West Coast, from California to Washington that has resulted in numerous closures of important shellfish fisheries in all three states. These blooms have some of the highest concentrations of domoic acid ever observed in these areas, leading to the closure of Dungeness crab fishing
Sardines, anchovy and other fish that feed on the algae and other microorganisms known as plankton can accumulate the toxin, in turn poisoning birds and sea lions that feed on them. The toxin is also poisonous to humans who consume the tainted sea life. California officials have warned against consuming recreationally harvested mussels and clams, commercially or recreationally caught anchovy and sardines, or the internal organs of commercially or recreationally caught crab taken from Monterey and Santa Cruz counties.
Officials in Oregon have halted all shellfish harvesting from the Columbia River south to Tillamook Head and closed the entire state coastline to razor clamming because of elevated levels of domoic acid. High levels of paralytic shellfish toxins (PSTs), another toxin associated with the blooms, have led to the closure of mussel harvesting along the Oregon Coast north of Gold Beach. The Dungeness crab season has already been postponed twice since November along the central Oregon coast and people throughout Washington and Oregon have all been warned against eating Dungeness crab and other West Coast shellfish, seriously impacting fisheries, canneries, and restaurants alike.
Toxic blooms have increased dramatically around the world in the last 10 years as the temperature of waters in the lakes, rivers, and oceans rise. The algae blooms in the Great Lakes this year is seriously affecting water supplies in towns along the adjacent shorelines. Some scientists have postulated that a continued increase in algal blooms could eventually affect oxygen production around the world.
Too bad it isn't a asteroid that we should do something about. :-X
All coastal Washington beaches have also been closed to razor clamming
Posted : January 5, 2016 1:46 pm
Toxic blooms have increased dramatically around the world in the last 10 years as the temperature of waters in the lakes, rivers, and oceans rise.
NO
they
Haven't
Algea blooms ("Toxic" is just bullcrap emotional manipulation) have been around since before we remember, they have always happened and they have NOT noticeably increased... they are PREDICTED to increase... MAYBE... (more which means they haven't yet...)
Too bad it isn't a asteroid that we should do something about. :-X
I'm not sure your mouth has much more foot room, but keep trying to shove them in there!
Please read studies on topics you are going to make studies on (unless you are an expert in that field). You are making statements that are wrong & misleading.
Posted : January 5, 2016 2:14 pm
I love the arrogance of people who think man can destroy earth.
Posted : January 5, 2016 4:43 pm
Sorry, LF, but you are very wrong. My statements are NOT wrong or misleading and can be supported with a very minimal internet search...or maybe just reading the newspaper. You're right...algal blooms have been around for eons, but that doesn't make them non-toxic. What part of poisonous don't you understand? I'm sure the fisheries would voluntarily lose millions of dollars over a puny little non-toxic algae bloom. Perhaps you should offer yourself as a taste tester of razor clams on the Oregon coast. And, yes, I am an expert on the subject.
RE: asteroids vs climate change...You do remember you are the one who suggested that an asteroid hitting the earth was what we should concentrate on, don't you?
Sparty We may not be able to destroy the earth, but we can certainly make life on it very unpleasant for everyone concerned until the next mass extinction and then the earth will be just fine.
Posted : January 6, 2016 1:15 am
I at least linked one study, can you do the same for algae blooms ?
Posted : January 6, 2016 2:34 am
Toxic blooms have increased dramatically around the world in the last 10 years as the temperature of waters in the lakes, rivers, and oceans rise.
NO
they
Haven't
Algea blooms ("Toxic" is just bullcrap emotional manipulation) have been around since before we remember, they have always happened and they have NOT noticeably increased... they are PREDICTED to increase... MAYBE... (more which means they haven't yet...)
Too bad it isn't a asteroid that we should do something about. :-X
I'm not sure your mouth has much more foot room, but keep trying to shove them in there!
Please read studies on topics you are going to make studies on (unless you are an expert in that field). You are making statements that are wrong & misleading.
There are more, and larger algae blooms detected, many in places where they haven't occurred before. The jury is still out on whether they have increased or whether we are just getting better at detecting and analyzing them. So, to say definitively that they aren't increasing is just as false as saying they are at this point.
There is such a thing as toxic algae, but most kinds aren't. People get this confused with harmful algae blooms (HABs), because both can kill marine life, and do. Perhaps you should do some more of that reading you suggested too. Because your statements are misleading, as well.
And, sorry, but islandnewbie's asteroid statement was funny. Lighten up.
Posted : January 6, 2016 10:15 am
The word "toxic" should be taken in the same light as "organic" these days. Both are marketing words.
Posted : January 6, 2016 10:46 am
LF - Just for you...links to stories and research on toxic algal blooms. Enjoy:D
http://www.popsci.com/toxic-algal-blooms-in-2015-were-unprecedented/
http://abc7news.com/business/tiburon-researchers-study-this-years-toxic-algae-bloom/1076860/
http://edition.cnn.com/2015/08/13/us/toxic-algae-blooms-pacific-great-lakes/
Posted : January 6, 2016 10:46 am
Well, you might want to consider "toxic" as a marketing word, but you are probably in an extremely limited minority. Consider the definition of "toxic" in the Merriam-Webster Dictionary: " containing or being poisonous material especially when capable of causing death or serious debilitation; extremely harsh, malicious, or harmful." Just to be on the safe side, I think I'll avoid anything labeled "toxic".
Posted : January 6, 2016 11:13 am
Depends on who labels it. According to people like the Food Babe, nearly everything is "toxic". Hence why all these people now are selling "cleanses" to remove the "toxins". I never knew so many people lived without livers and kidneys.
Posted : January 6, 2016 11:16 am
So, to say definitively that they aren't increasing is just as false as saying they are at this point.
I'm saying we don't know and that not even anyone is claiming they have increased... because we DON'T know.
There is such a thing as toxic algae, but most kinds aren't. People get this confused with harmful algae blooms (HABs), because both can kill marine life, and do. Perhaps you should do some more of that reading you suggested too. Because your statements are misleading, as well.
Nothing is going on now that hasn't gone on since before we cared to pay attention; not sure why you guys are so combative.
Anthropomorphic "Climate change" as modernly coined is bullshit, but that doesn't mean we should trash the environment; I'd rather see people spend resources on the "meteor" situation which we KNOW exists than something that we can't show exists (ie increasing algae blooms, human caused global warming etc...).
Don't be so polarized, this isn't a "us vs them" topic, or shouldn't be.
LF - Just for you...links to stories and research on toxic algal blooms. Enjoy:D
http://www.popsci.com/toxic-algal-blooms-in-2015-were-unprecedented/
http://abc7news.com/business/tiburon-researchers-study-this-years-toxic-algae-bloom/1076860/
http://edition.cnn.com/2015/08/13/us/toxic-algae-blooms-pacific-great-lakes/
None of these even claim an increase in algae blooms.
Well, you might want to consider "toxic" as a marketing word, but you are probably in an extremely limited minority. Consider the definition of "toxic" in the Merriam-Webster Dictionary: " containing or being poisonous material especially when capable of causing death or serious debilitation; extremely harsh, malicious, or harmful." Just to be on the safe side, I think I'll avoid anything labeled "toxic".
Toxicity is always dose dependent, there is no such thing as "poisonous" either... it's just the wrong dose level.
Water is toxic at the wrong dose level and good for you at the right dose level.
the current use of "toxic" is as an emotionally manipulative term based on "fear"; I think that is what Sparty was getting at.
Posted : January 6, 2016 11:46 am
USA Today: "In the past few years, reports have shown the number of toxic blooms and dead zones around the world have been increasing dramatically..."
ABC7News: "What we see this year has happened before, though this time, it's stronger and more widespread. Events like this are happening more frequently than we've seen in millions of years of geologic records. "If you go back far enough, you see conditions that were worse than today, but you are talking about the dinosaur period," Larry Madin, Ph.D., from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, said."
In addition to these specific quotes, every single article talks about the algal blooms increasing in frequency or area of impact. None are so blind as those who will not see.
Posted : January 6, 2016 3:47 pm
In addition to these specific quotes, every single article talks about the algal blooms increasing in frequency or area of impact.
Guess I skimmed too fast...
Good for the algae, I'm not against any life!
so what are we going to do about this knowledge?
Posted : January 6, 2016 4:14 pm
At this point, I'm not sure anyone has the answers to the long-term problems, just band aid solutions. It will probably be a long, messy fight...and we might lose. :S
Posted : January 6, 2016 9:46 pm
At this point, I'm not sure anyone has the answers to the long-term problems, just band aid solutions. It will probably be a long, messy fight...and we might lose. :S
I don't think it will be that bad, it definitely could be worse... I'd rather it be warm than cold...
My wife and I brought a rock with us from alaska, it's from the Matsu Valley area and has a fossilized fern leaf... Alaska used to be a gigantic rain forest.... it may be again in a few tens of thousand years
Humans are amazingly adaptable.... we are on the cusp of runaway technological advances, I have hope that what ever changes come we will survive... unless a large meteor hits us 😛 haha 😉
this planet will continue to change, as it always has.. one of the oldest species on land is the Tuatara (200 Million Years) and the earth is what.. 4.543 billion years old?
that means a L O T of stuff is extinct right now; happens all the time.. even the Tuatara of today is "evolved" from the 200 million years ago Tuatara fossils.
The only constant is change.
Posted : January 7, 2016 2:12 am
"....I'd rather see people spend resources on the "meteor" situation which we KNOW exists than something that we can't show exists (ie increasing algae blooms, human caused global warming etc...)...." LiquidFluoride - 1/6/16
Enter our asteroid; end of algea bloom... end of human caused global warming....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bU1QPtOZQZU
Swan
Posted : January 9, 2016 10:46 pm
😀
Posted : January 10, 2016 10:52 am
Topic starter
The link in swan's post did work for me for some reason.
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=bU1QPtOZQZU
Posted : January 10, 2016 12:51 pm
Alana33........it worked for me.........
Posted : January 10, 2016 6:10 pm
Topic starter
(tu)
Posted : January 11, 2016 10:39 am
"....I'd rather see people spend resources on the "meteor" situation which we KNOW exists than something that we can't show exists (ie increasing algae blooms, human caused global warming etc...)...." LiquidFluoride - 1/6/16
Enter our asteroid; end of algea bloom... end of human caused global warming....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bU1QPtOZQZU
Swan
Jeebus, and that's happened at least 6 times in earths history...
Posted : January 11, 2016 1:37 pm
Topic starter
Here's a good article.
Sorry, it's not about meteors!
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/jan/07/human-impact-has-pushed-earth-into-the-anthropocene-scientists-say
Posted : January 11, 2016 3:09 pm
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