Divers In Gulf Report "Zero Things" Alive

[Minstrel Boy]

Divers In Gulf Report "Zero Things" Alive

Aug 11

CLEARWATER - Diver Mike Miller struggles to convey the horror he has seen on the ocean floor. He struggles because there are only so many ways you can say dead.

"I'm talking zero things are alive out there," Miller said. "The only way to describe it is a nuclear bomb."

Miller and other alarmed divers say they have documented a dead zone 20 miles offshore in the Gulf waters from Johns Pass to Clearwater. This information, combined with an unprecedented number of dead turtles washing up on Pinellas County beaches this week, has divers, fishermen and scientists worried that red tide is killing more efficiently.

"Normally when we get a red tide, you can go a little north or a little west or south or someplace else and dive," said Ben Dautermen, who takes divers out of Clearwater on his charter boat. "Usually it doesn't kill every single thing."

http://news.tbo.com/news/MGB7OVBE8CE.html

[Endangered Specie]

1. Wont be long at that will be happening on land.

[The Backlash Cometh]

5. You know, I've read Irish myths that end that way.

Always with a dead zone that just keeps growing. I always thought, oh, how ridiculous. With mutations, comes adaptation, but, who really knows?

[Maple]

2. and then there's radioactive waste dumping

http://www.counterpunch.com/naumann08112005.html

[HeeBGBz]

46. And new oil drilling - Rally against coming up

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=161x515

[tsuki]

3. I remember when Cousteau came to Florida in the 1970's and

predicted this. Man-made pollution causing increasing red tide bloom. He predicted that the Gulf would eventually die.

[catzies]

10. I remember that. I was a child in Miami in the 70s and knew the Glades

were a very special place. My dad made sure we went there & all the other places South Florida has.

Every day riding my schoolbus junior high, we passed Miss Marjory Stoneman Douglas out for her morning constitutional and we waved. I think she was in her 80s then.

[ixion]

4. yes, there has been red tide more often than not this year

the beach has been like a fish war zone. very sad. :-(

[HysteryDiagnosis]

6. Not a pretty site.... this algae that blooms, I'd like to know what it

is that makes it bloom all the more...

[Dover]

12. Fertilizers washing down the rivers

http://www.livescience.com/environment/050427_dead_zone.html

An annual dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico has appeared earlier this year than in the past, suggesting it might be larger this summer.

The dead zone is created by spring runoff, which carries fertilizer and other nutrients into the Gulf. Phytoplankton blooms around river mouths spread. When the creatures die and sink to the bottom, their decomposition strips oxygen from the water, creating inhospitable conditions for other marine life.

The lack of oxygen is called hypoxia.

"We saw no hypoxia in this area until June of last year, and this year we found it in late March," Steve DiMarco of Texas A&M University said Tuesday. "If the physical conditions we noticed continue, it could mean an unusually strong hypoxic zone this year, and that's not good news."

Fishing crews, which have noticed the dead zones for decades, are forced to venture farther to make a catch.

Mississippi running high

The dead zone is centered along the Louisiana coast where the Mississippi and Atchafalaya Rivers empty into the gulf. It typically develops in late spring and early summer, on the heels of floods and generally heavy runoff. The Mississippi drains 40 percent of U.S. land area and accounts for almost 90 percent of the freshwater flowing into the Gulf of Mexico.

The Dead Zone Cycle

Red areas are high in river sediment and are thought to therefore include large amounts of phytoplankton.


The stratification of nutrient-rich river water and Gulf salt water.

The runoff creates stratification, a tendency for the influx of fresh water and salt water to not mix. ..cont'd

[kestrel91316]

16. As you sow, so shall you reap.

[alarimer]

18. That dead zone is different from the one off Florida

The dead zone off the Mississippi extends west of the river delta and is an area of extremely low dissolved oxygen caused primarily by excess nutrients in the water (probably from fertilizer). The area in Florida is an area that is apparently devoid of life from a red tide boolm. the red tide organism blooms sometimes for reasons that are not quite clear (but usually happen in summer when water reaches a certain temperature). The red tide organism produces a toxin that can kill fish and is ingested by shellfish, making them unsafe to eat. It can also kill turtles (but many turtles also die in shrimp nets- despite requirments that shrimpers have tutel excluder devices on their nets but that's another story), and manatees. Probably a lot of the fish fled the area because of low dissolved oxygen levels. When the red tide organisms dies, they die in very large numbers, depleting the water of oxygen. So probably when the red tide disperses (probably not until fall though) many fish will come back. But it is not a good thing that these blooms are happening more often. I think (but nobody is really sure yet) that runoff from the land can help the red tide bloom.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

27. This photo makes that pretty obvious

at least I think so...

[Vinnie From Indy]

37. This Looks LIke A Sat Photo Of The Outer Banks of NC.

n/t

[Al-CIAda]

7. "I believe man and fish can co-exist peacfully." nt

[VegasWolf]

8. "Is our fish learnin?" nt

[Voltaire99]

25. "Fishes is the future." (nt)

[CoffeeCat]

30. The fish will be fine. They know how to put food on their families. (nt)

[evolved Anarchopunk]

40. "We know where they [Gulf Fishies] are. They're in the area around

Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south, and north somewhat."

[Bonescrat]

15. I have a sick feeling...

that for some of us it gonna start getting a little more difficult to put food on our families...

[SammyWinstonJack]

42. And bush** understands that.

He understands how hard it for you to put food on your family. He is a compassionate conservative. :eyes:

[leftchick]

9. my husband used to dive there 20 yrs ago

I just read this to him and he is as sickened as me. :(

[Divernan]

11. A lifeless ocean bottom is the ultimate depressing sight

I've seen small dead zones like this in the Bahamas, all gray and brown ocean floor littered with fragments of dead coral. The fish avoid them because there is no food chain there to feed them. At those spots, the water temperature was an incredible 89 degrees, and I assumed too warm to support plant life. But these areas were maybe 30 or 40 feet in diameter, and at a depth of 40-60 feet. As these divers describe, there's a strip 20 miles out to sea going along the coast between Tampa and Sarasota. It takes many, many years and clean water including the proper water temperature, for coral to grow and reefs to form. If you have seen in person or on film the incredible beauty of healthy reefs, and the accompanying magnificent variety of fish life, this is just devastating news. Imagine the Grand Canyon or some other breathtakingly beautiful national park just laid waste - all gray and brown and totally lifeless. In Hawaii I was at one dive site where there were no reefs - just vast plains of sand with occasional lava boulders - and hardly any fish, just a few big turtles. Very bad vibes - oceans are meant to be teeming with life.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

28. Ummm, you mean like Glen Canyon... covered in water

So greedy bastards could sell more land in Las Vegas?

Like that?

[greyl]

13. Time to re-read Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring"

She was a pioneer.

"The more clearly we can focus our attention on
the wonders and realities of the universe about us,
the less taste we shall have for destruction."
-- Rachel Carson © 1954

Embedded within all of Carson's writing was the view that human beings were but one part of nature distinguished primarily by their power to alter it, in some cases irreversibly.
Disturbed by the profligate use of synthetic chemical pesticides after World War II, Carson reluctantly changed her focus in order to warn the public about the long term effects of misusing pesticides. In Silent Spring (1962) she challenged the practices of agricultural scientists and the government, and called for a change in the way humankind viewed the natural world.

Carson was attacked by the chemical industry and some in government as an alarmist, but courageously spoke out to remind us that we are a vulnerable part of the natural world subject to the same damage as the rest of the ecosystem. Testifying before Congress in 1963, Carson called for new policies to protect human health and the environment.
http://www.rachelcarson.org/

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-form/104-4325106-0924734

[SeanQuinn]

14. I think they all died when Clearwater opened the first Hooters.

:sarcasm:

That is insanely sad.

[Lochloosa]

32. I disagree...Hooters has great wings...

:evilgrin:

[AngryAmish]

44. If you think Hooters has good wings...

[norml]

17. It's because the Gulf Stream is slowing, and no longer washing away the

Red Tide.

First Alarming Signs of the Slowdown of the Gulf Stream Current
The Epoch Times Russian edition Jul 11, 2005


A color-enhanced view of the Gulf Stream crossing the Atlantic. Red indicates hotter temperatures, blue colder.

BRUSSELLS - Scientists engaged in climate-change research have found the first signs of the slowing of the Gulf Stream current which tempers the climate of Western Europe. The research was reported in the May 16th Sunday Times.

The slowing is the consequence of the greenhouse effect and a sign of temperature changes. The Gulf Stream current brings equatorial waters from the Atlantic Ocean to Northern Europe. These waters, warmed to tropical temperatures, influence the European climate.

However this huge ocean current, which dilutes northern cold waters with southern ones, will probably totally disappear because of the warming of the Earth’s climate, some scientists believe.


snip


http://www.theepochtimes.com/news/5-7-11/30207.html

[shadowknows69]

19. As go the oceans, so go we

been a good run folks but I think extinction is waiting on our shoulder

[Rex]

20. Planet reacts to vermin leeching resources.

Gonna be a triple shot of planet extermination because we don't believe in scientific evidence, unless we can manipulate the results to favor big business.

[silverweb]

21. We're going to suffocate ourselves.

There's really no turning back now.

Dead oceans and methane skies -- what a world awaits.

Every other problem facing us pales by comparison.

[xxqqqzme]

22. sadly, I'm glad I have no grandchildren.

what a world being left 2 not so many future generations.

[silverweb]

23. I feel the same way.

I have suggested to my children that they may want to think twice about bringing new life into our dying world and may want to think about adopting instead of having children of their own.

What a desolate feeling.

:(

[lonestarnot]

24. We are soooooo fucked!

[anitar1]

26. I fear more every day for our planet. n/t

[shadowknows69]

29. Our planet will be just fine

its us that're going away. Mother Gaia will be here for eons. Probably spawn new, hopefully less self-destructive, intelligent life when we are just ash and memory.

[silverweb]

51. You're right.

Mother Gaia will remain and will renew herself. All I can think of right now is that Tool song, Aenema.

Some say the end is near.
Some say we'll see armageddon soon.
I certainly hope we will.
I sure could use a vacation from this

Bullshit three ring circus sideshow of
Freaks

Here in this hopeless fucking hole we call LA
The only way to fix it is to flush it all away.
Any fucking time. Any fucking day.
Learn to swim, I'll see you down in Arizona bay.

Fret for your figure and
Fret for your latte and
Fret for your lawsuit and
Fret for your hairpiece and
Fret for your prozac and
Fret for your pilot and
Fret for your contract and
Fret for your car.

It's a
Bullshit three ring circus sideshow of
Freaks

Here in this hopeless fucking hole we call LA
The only way to fix it is to flush it all away.
Any fucking time. Any fucking day.
Learn to swim, I'll see you down in Arizona bay.

Some say a comet will fall from the sky.
Followed by meteor showers and tidal waves.
Followed by faultlines that cannot sit still.
Followed by millions of dumbfounded dipshits.

Some say the end is near.
Some say we'll see armageddon soon.
I certainly hope we will cuz
I sure could use a vacation from this

Silly shit, stupid shit...

One great big festering neon distraction,
I've a suggestion to keep you all occupied.

Learn to swim.

Mom's gonna fix it all soon.
Mom's comin' round to put it back the way it ought to be.

Learn to swim.

Fuck L Ron Hubbard and
Fuck all his clones.
Fuck all those gun-toting
Hip gangster wannabes.

Learn to swim.

Fuck retro anything.
Fuck your tattoos.
Fuck all you junkies and
Fuck your short memory.

Learn to swim.

Fuck smiley glad-hands
With hidden agendas.
Fuck these dysfunctional,
Insecure actresses.

Learn to swim.

Cuz I'm praying for rain
And I'm praying for tidal waves
I wanna see the ground give way.
I wanna watch it all go down.
Mom please flush it all away.
I wanna watch it go right in and down.
I wanna watch it go right in.
Watch you flush it all away.

Time to bring it down again.
Don't just call me pessimist.
Try and read between the lines.

I can't imagine why you wouldn't
Welcome any change, my friend.

I wanna see it all come down.
suck it down.
flush it down.

I don't want to see it all come down, but I believe it's going to happen and I believe we'll have caused it.

:(

[jab105]

31. i WAS JUST ON cLEARWATER beach last week...

there were dead fish everywhere...all along the beach and in the water...it was so sad...I'd never seen anything like it...

[WCGreen]

33. Well folks, those of us on the shores of Lake Erie

have seen this type of phenomena before. Baterial Blooms from sewage plants and fertizer runn off from farm land have litterally chked to life out of Lake Erie....

[BeFree]

34. Which reminds me...

... this is no joke.... the county (pinellas) next to this dead zone pumps it's sewage sludge into the ground using old water wells which became useless some twenty years ago because the water once withdrawn from them was too polluted. But since the holes were already there, and their sewage needed to be gotten rid of, they turned around and pumped the shit down the holes.

Anybody who knows the first thing about aquifers in florida knows that what goes down comes up. It seems the years of sewage pumping into the aquifer is now coming back up off the beaches. Deadly shit.

[hatrack]

35. Let's see - limestone aquifers in a state 10' above sea level . . . . .

Let's just pump our sewage into the ground! Yeah, that makes a LOT of sense! :eyes:

[BeFree]

45. Yep. you get the picture hatrack

And yet the officials in charge don't seem to have a clue. Either that or they just don't want to face the idea that it will cost them a few pennies per toilet flush to stop acting so stupid.

Without a change of mind, the dead zone off Clearwater will continue to grow like a cancer.

[hatrack]

47. Nothing brings tourists to town like red tide and dead fish!

I guess this litle scenario -i.e. tourists staying away from toxic and/or smelly water, stinky beaches littered with fish, etc. - didn't occur to the Big Brains in FL county & state government, did it?

[BeFree]

48. Doesn't look that way, does it?

Of course most of them can't see beyond profit margins, even the state people who are in charge of the environment. Oh, there are a few who could foresee what would happen, but they were a minority.

Just like with air pollution and nuclear waste, our enforcers have focused on today's greenback and have disregarded the consequences of actually giving permit after permit to pollute this that and the other.

[ellenfl]

49. apparently you haven't been keeping up with who our governor is . . .

btw, lake okeechobee and the st lucie river are also suffering by the hand of man. i don't know the particulars (not a scientist, you see) but these bodies of water are suffering from algae blooms . . . some of which are toxic.

ellen fl

[hatrack]

50. Oh, yeah, forgot about that

He never saw a Bible he didn't thump or a developer he didn't schtup, did he?

[The Stranger]

36. Could someone get Satan out of the Presidency so we can at least

rearrange the deck chairs on our sinking Titanic.

I'd like to sit down as I watch the world die.

[democracy eh]

38. A giant game of Jenga. How many pieces can we remove before collapse?

"Nevertheless, I can tell you with complete confidence that something extraordinary is going to happen in the next two or three decades. The people of our culture are going to figure out how to live sustainably--or they're not. And either way, it's certainly going to be extraordinary." Daniel Quinn

http://www.friendsofishmael.org/tools/readers/files/NewRenaissance_pamphlet.doc
http://www.ishmael.org

[oneinok]

39. very sad

I used to live in Clearwater and it is sad to see this happening.

[meganmonkey]

41. It sure is

Welcome to DU, oneinok!

:hi:

[Lowell]

43. This area of the Gulf is becoming inhospitable to fish and humans

The red tide started early this year. Normally a good storm or hurricane will break a bloom up and dissipate it. This year nothing seems to be able to get this plague away from our coast.

Not only are the fish piling up on our beaches, but the air is foul with the smell of the tide and the rotting victims. I don't know how anyone can come down here and enjoy the beach this year. Those of us who live here year round avoid it as best we can. Yet the effects of it touches us all. Runny noses, headaches and allergies abound.

Pinellas County has the worse coastal development in the country. With so many people building right on the shores of the Gulf of Mexico and the pumping of our waste into this body of water it is no wonder when catastrophies like this happen. We really need a good storm to come through here and clean up the waters and wash away the shoreline squatters.