Strange weather disrupts marine ecosystems along Pacific Coast

People have been saying this for a long time now, including myself. Our planet is changing right before our eyes.

SAN FRANCISCO � Marine biologists are spotting ominous signs all along the Pacific Coast this year: higher nearshore ocean temperatures, plummeting catches of groundfish, an explosion of dead birds on coastal beaches and perhaps most disturbing, very few plankton � the tiny critters that form the basis of the ocean�s intricate food web.

From California to British Columbia, unusual weather patterns have disrupted the marine ecosystem, scientists say. The normal northerly winds failed to show up this year, preventing the usual upwelling of colder water that sustains the plankton and, in turn, many other species from anchovies to cormorants to whales.

Is this just a strange year, or is this what global warming looks like? Few scientists are willing to blame the plankton collapse on the worldwide rise in temperatures attributed to carbon dioxide and other gases believed to trap heat in the earth�s atmosphere.

Yet few are willing to rule it out.

If these patterns continue, it could show that something in the atmosphere � and the Pacific Ocean � has permanently changed, with serious consequences for coastal birds, fish and marine mammals.

�These natural changes can teach us a lot about what might happen if global warming came along,� said Francisco Chavez, an oceanographer at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute. �That global change is going to affect the ocean is a given.

We just don�t know how or what the effects will be.�

I just don't know what it is going to take before the powers that be admit our planet is changing. And not for the better.

www.tracypress.com...

I have read reports in the last few weeks of severe marine "dead zones" on the Gulf Coast, the California Coast and off the Coast of Boston.
The Gulf coast zone spreads 20 - 30 miles from shore and there have been dead turtles washing up along the Florida, Geargia and Texas coasts.
One diver who regularly dives off the Gulf Coast said whole areas were completely devoid of life, including the corals, everything dead

Here's a sampling of the problem.
www.sptimes.com...

Do you think all the earthquake activity may be contributing to this? Of course I am sure pollution may have some affect depending on how deep the dead zones go.

Are there dead zones in areas relativly free from pollutition? If there are it could be a natural, cyclical occurance.

Still my bet is on global warming and pollution.

I think there is a good possibility that off the Washington coast there was a large underwater volcanic eruption following a massive earthquake swarm in the area. I think Robert Felix had reported on his site iceagenow.com that there were some 2000 quakes in the swarm. I think this is also an area of one of the kills. Who here remembers the pic from near Japan of the underwater volcano and the red coloring to the water?

I know that earthquakes and volcanos effect the ocean life. But I really believe the we (humans) are the major cause and effect.