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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."
If those fish that are dying out there aren't worth protection under the free market, then they aren't worthy of survival.
Things that are truly important to humanity's survival will be preserved by market forces. Which means someone like Outback Steakhouse will take a genuine interest in their survival and will spend the money to stop these dead zones and prevent hypoxia/anoxia from happening.
If you really want to save the fish off of Oregon's coast, then put them on the menu.
[end right wing parody]
--- Grow a pair, liberals... stop letting the Republicans bully you!
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...
If the article references the Christian Science Monitor, why the hell is the link to some linkjack blog at ZDNET?
/. editorship actually bother to check any of this?
Surely the original article (at CSM) should be the one linked, and not to some warmed-over plagiarised rehash at ZDNet? Do the
New mod option wanted: -1 DrunkenRambling
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
$5 / month hosted VPS on linux = awesome!
Lets not forget that China & India are also not signees.
Thus the three most populous continents on earth are simply not concerned.
There are places where the networks are not touching,and there are places where they are-Boeing's Lori Gunter
Informative, 5 ?
I live real close to this area, am on vacation in Lincoln City at the moment, and I'd like to say that when they say they have no explanations about this phenomenon you should not take that to mean that the annual upwelling of cold water from the bottom just off the continental shelf here is either news to anybody here or is a satisfactory explanation for what is going on here.
By the way, the part about the wind generating these currents, or currents anywhere, is wrong. Currents are generated by a combination of the earth's rotation, the uneven solar heating of the earth's surface and the underwater topologies of the world's oceans. Wind is better thought of as the atmospheric currents and the ocean current patterns clearly do NOT overlap the atmospheric currents.
OK, now, with that out of the way, the point is, nobody yet knows why everything is dead out there. Not you, Not Google, Not me, Not anybody - yet.
Hmm, we've been dealing with this in the Gulf for a while. It's recurrant - it goes away, then comes back the next year, and is caused by too much algae, which is basically fed by nitrogen rich runoff from ground water. IIRC, though, wind actually helps by mixing the water, so global warming shouldn't really enter into this picture. Not to say the article didn't quote somebody saying that, or that different climates won't affect things, but that's just what I heard. For anybody interested, there's a pretty scientific assessment of the phenomenon (in the gulf at least) here (I don't think anybody's linked to this yet, apologies if this is a dupe). Anyway, don't panic, Oregonians, you'll survive! Cheers.
I remember an advert for an insecticide that 'kills cockroaches for up to 90 days'. I wouldn't look forward to that army of zombie cockroaches coming after me when they come back to life in three months ...
Don't go to a brothel if you want to buy broth
This is nothing new. Roland Piquepaille has been submitting stories which invariably link to his own blog (which carries a pale imitaiton of the original article) for ages. There have been accusations that he is paying the slashdot editors for the service of publishing his stories. See http://www.google.com/search?q=roland.piquepaille+ site:Slashdot.org.
Why the rip on myspace users? They may not have our informed, moderated sci/tech discussion, but they do have girls there.
A slashdotter who didn't build his own computer is like a Jedi who didn't build his own lightsaber.
That's just a link to a Roland the Plogger blog, who doesn't understand the problem. Read the New York Times story, which has important facts the Plogger missed, like the fact that this has been happening for the past five years. The local paper, the Register-Guard, has a good story. "On the way down, the camera lens illuminates a nighttime blizzard, a flurry of broken chunks of plankton called "marine snow." This is evidence of what caused this year's hypoxia - an onslaught of nutrients brought to shallow coastal waters by wind-driven currents, whose decomposing structures suck up available oxygen."
This is no mysterious dramatic event. It happens every year, but this year, it's worse than usual, possibly because ocean currents have shifted due to weather.