Scientists Raise Alarm
About Ocean Health
July 14, 2005 — By Associated Press
SEATTLE — With a record number of
dead seabirds washing up on West Coast beaches from Central California
to British Columbia, marine biologists are raising the alarm about
rising ocean temperatures and dwindling plankton populations.
"Something big is going on out there," said Julia Parrish, an associate
professor in the School of Aquatic Fisheries and Sciences at the
University of Washington. "I'm left with no obvious smoking gun, but
birds are a good signal because they feed high up on the food chain."
Coastal ocean temperatures are 2 to 5 degrees above normal, which may be
related to a lack of updwelling, in which cold, nutrient-rich water is
brought to the surface.
Updwelling is fueled by northerly winds that sweep out near-shore waters
and bring cold water to the surface. The process starts the marine food
chain, fueling algae and shrimplike krill populations that feed small
fish, which then provide a source of food for a variety of sea life from
salmon to sea birds and marine mammals.
On Washington beaches, bird surveyors in May typically find an average
of one dead Brandt's cormorant every 34 miles of beach. This year,
cormorant deaths averaged one every eight-tenths of a mile, according to
data gathered by volunteers with the Coastal Observation and Seabird
Survey Team, which Parrish has directed since 2000.
"This is somewhere between five and 10 times the highest number of bird
deaths we've seen before," she said, adding that she expected June
figures to show a similar trend.
This spring's cool, wet weather brought southwesterly wind to coastal
areas and very little northerly wind, said Nathan Mantua, a research
scientist with the Climate Impacts Group at the University of
Washington. Without northerly winds, there is no updwelling and plankton
stay at lower depths.
"In 50 years, this has never happened," said Bill Peterson, an
oceanographer with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
in Newport, Ore. "If this continues, we will have a food chain that is
basically impoverished from the very lowest levels."
Problems at the bottom of the food chain could also be related to
decreases in juvenile salmon populations this summer.
NOAA's June and July surveys of juvenile salmon off the coasts of
Oregon, Washington and British Columbia indicate a 20 percent to 30
percent drop in populations, compared with surveys from 1998-2004.
"We don't really know that this will cause bad returns. The runs this
year haven't been horrible, but below average," said Ed Casillas,
program manager of Estuarine and Ocean Ecology at NOAA's Northwest
Fisheries Science Center in Seattle.
Scientists tracking anomolies along Washington's coast reported the
appearance of warm-water plankton species and scores of jellyfish piling
up on beaches. A Guadalupe fur seal, native to South America, was found
dead in Ocean Shores.
Parrish and a scientist near San Francisco report changes in bird
breeding. Both said starvation stress could be the cause for decreased
breeding and increased bird deaths.
Peterson, the NOAA oceanographer, said many scientists suspect climate
change may be involved.
"People have to realize that things are connected -- the state of
coastal temperatures and plankton populations are connected to larger
issues like Pacific salmon populations," he said.
Parrish cautioned that human activity could jeopardize the survival of
animals already stressed by environmental changes.
"This, for instance, would be a truly bad year for an oil spill," she
said.
Source: Associated Press |