By Search EzineArticles.com
This aint exactly rocket scientry boys...
I picked up a copy of The Oregonian this morning and read a story about how the ocean conditions this year are killing off seabirds in record numbers. Murres and cormorants are washing up on shore like pieces of Northwestern forest driftwood, mainly due to starvation.
Most biologists are blaming a lack of cooling ocean winds which are causing warmer Pacific ocean temperatures, which are causing a lack of phytoplankton production, (which then need to stirred up from the ocean bottom by the wind),which are causing Anchovys and Sardines to die, which are causing the birds to go without food.......which is causing the birds to die!
Whew.
Scientists seem to have a pretty good grasp on this theory, and even though solution wise,they are pretty much held at the mercy of Mother Nature, the explanation still makes perfect sense.
Of course, any discussion of warming of anything on this planet wouldn't be complete--without the blaming of global warming. Which of course has been blamed for everything short of the scalding temperatures of McDonalds coffee.
The Oregonian's article mentioned global warming on several occasions, and biologists and scientists would not rule this out as a possible contributing factor in the changing oceanic conditions this summer.
Enter the Coho.
Biologists have also recorded fewer catches of Coho Salmon on the Oregon coast with numbers down from 44,000 fish last year to about 5700 this year. Marine biologists have also stated that the size of the fish has generally been smaller, again, with one theory being that there is less food for the Coho to feed on--therefore less growth. Where the fish are or where they have gone is a complete mystery. As one wildlife biologist said " it is a big ocean nobody really knows".
O.K., this is where I get confused.
We have the ocean-- which past history has told us is affected greatly by currents and temperature.
We
No comments:
Post a Comment