Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Dead Fish Washing up on Beaches Up and Down East Coast

http://theintelhub.com/2010/08/16/dead-fish-all-over-the-east-coast-lack-of-oxygen-from-gulf-disaster/

The intel hub does a good job listing both closed beaches and dead fish washing up on beaches. He marks them on a map of the east coast. There is clearly something going on here.

Others have also commented on this flood of dead fish washing up on east coast beaches (in New Jersey in particular) and assembled some news stories documenting these events. See Washington's blog and Alexander Higgins blog.

What is going on? Is it the corexit? Is it the oil? University of Florida scientists have documented that the oil is thick in the water column--only dispersed into tiny particles. Dispersed oil and corexit could I suppose be in the loop current going up the east coast and killing fish as it moves north.

Or perhaps it is some sort of algea bloom brought on by the oil in the water or even warmer water temperatures not related to the spill.

The cause matters but the effect (scope and severetiy) also needs to be examined systematically and holistically.

The canary in the coal mine is dead. If fish kills are widespread, we are in deep trouble.

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