The Mystery of Oregon's 'Dead Zone'

Roland Piquepaille writes "The area off Cape Perpetua on the central Oregon coast is now a gigantic crab and fish graveyard. It was first discovered in 2002, but according to the Christian Science Monitor, researchers at Oregon State University (OSU) have taken a close-up look into this coastal dead zone. And things are getting worse. A few weeks ago, the researchers measured the level of dissolved oxygen in this part of the ocean. They found that levels were 10 to 30 times lower than normal, down to 0.5 milliliters per liter, a characteristic of hypoxia. And because they have no explanations about this phenomenon, they're even envisioning a total absence of oxygen, or anoxia. Read more for additional details and pictures about this mystery."

Comments

volcanism

[wikinerd]

Could this be a result of imminent or undergoing volcanism? Perhaps a volcano is about to form or explode in the near future in the Oregon-Washington region and unleashes poisonous gasses in the sea water before unleashing its lava.

How did these gigantic crabs die?

[Kazzahdrane]

Presumably someone attacked their weakpoint (needing oxygen) with massive damage (a lack of it). I love how games help us learn!

Re:No explanation?

[drawfour]

Right, because scientists in the field of study who are stumped couldn't possibly have already looked into that and discounted it? You Google'd it, that suddenly means you have all the knowledge to tell the experts what is going on?

Right...

Re:No explanation?

[pipingguy]

I recently moved a few thousand kilometers westward and a Chinook Arch looks quite ominous and threatening to those that haven't seen it before. It's just nature, though. I always find it amusing when eco-types freak out and fret over what are natural earth processes.

The sky is not falling, despite what the linked image above might indicate.

CSM or ZDNET - Which is it?

[mdm42]

If the article references the Christian Science Monitor, why the hell is the link to some linkjack blog at ZDNET?

Surely the original article (at CSM) should be the one linked, and not to some warmed-over plagiarised rehash at ZDNet? Do the /. editorship actually bother to check any of this?

Re:Hypoxia is a characteristic of hypoxia?

[SethJohnson]

Welcome to a successful Roland Piquepaille slashdot bait. He's a master of re-explaining the basic. In this case, he's speaking down to the reader from his intellectual pulpit.

Seth

Re:Hypoxia is a characteristic of hypoxia?

[legoburner]

a complete cessation of brain function is a characteristic of death.

Try reading this site at -1 and you'll soon change this theory!

Re:USA IS IGNORANT!

[mark99]

It's always easy to blame the US for anything bad. It obviates the necessity of thinking things through.

Not that the USA is blame free, far from it. But I am amazed at what they get blamed for these days.

Re:USA IS IGNORANT!

[Darkman, Walkin Dude]

Erm. China and India aren't continents, nor is the United States of America. Also the US is not one of the most populous, I believe that the EU as a whole has almost double the population of the US.

Re:No explanation?

[The_Wilschon]

maybe I have the wrong definition of explanation

Yep. In order for "the culprit may be global warming" to qualify as an explanation, you'd have to detail just how you think global warming would have anything to do with this.

Popular Culprit?

[C0y0t3]

... Here, as in a handful of other coastal regions worldwide, the culprit may be global warming.
To be sure, the jury is still out on that connection, says Jane Lubchenco, a marine zoologist at Oregon State University who is heading up this day-long expedition....

This type of premature conclusion is, I believe, very damaging to those who want to have global warming taken seriously by the mainstream public (ie. Me). Leaping to the popular conclusion with no reason other than it being popular to blame frankly makes me doubt the professionalism of the researchers involved.

Maybe it's the over-logging in Oregon depleting the oxygen levels ("hypoxia" was the Word of the Day May 24th, 2004), or the number of $evil_utility_or_commercial_industry dumping toxic waste into the ocean, or perhaps if the media sweetheart "global warming" doesn't pan out, they can pin it on Saddam Hussein^d^d^d^d^d^d^d^d^d^d Bin Laden^d^d^d^d^d^d^d^d^d Iran's President whatsis name.

Whoever they are, we need to identify the culprit(s) and bring these godless killers to justice. Oh, wait, unless of course its us... in which case, market forces are sure to cause a "correction" in the system and all will be well on Wall Street once more.

Tim

fertilizer

[falconwolf]

. I don't think anybody's going to hold a farm responsible for polluting the environment because they used manure for fertilizer, and the only difference between chemical fertilizers and manure is that the cheaper version is made of feces.

Actually I think that can be part of the solution. From what I understand most of the feces from the pig farms are either dumped or buried, though some gets swept away into waterways with rain. Allowing the feces to compost though it can then be used for fertilizer then chemical fertilizers wouldn't need to be used so much. Also if they were allowed freerange, they could so in one location or field one year then moved to another the following year. The second year a covercrop could be sown, then the third grains or vegetables can be growth on it, without needing more fertilizers. Actually this is how some organic farms operate but the big agrobusiness farms would probably frown on it.

Falcon

Re:fertilizer

[mdarksbane]

Yes, organic methods of farming work great as long as you have the traditional methods to handle the actual food needs of the general population.

Most of the methods used by agro-business are employed because they increase productivity. Because of this the US produces enough food to feed most of the world. Going back to methods a few hundred years old, on a large scale, would probably have some nasty consequences that most people don't think about.

Now, what we need to do is find something better to do with all the pig crap that is accumulated. I know that for cows there has been some pretty nice research into using the methane rising from pits of manure as an eletricity source.

The general problem is just that there is a ton of pigs, and no management system for dealing with their waste. Even when you reuse it for fertilizer, at the first rain a large portion of it will wash off into the local river system. Finding a nice way to manage and process that that doesn't completely bankrupt the farmers would be a good step for the environment, rather than saying they have to switch over their whole farming method to being half as productive and catering to the elite who can afford to care how their pigs were raised.