Earthsky Interviews
Jane Lubchenco has documented mysterious Pacific dead zones
02-18-2009 - Water
Jane Lubchenco: We’ve seen six in the past six years, and none before that. It’s surprising to see this in an area that is usually so rich with oxygen, and all of the conditions for life.
Jane Lubchenco is a marine biologist at Oregon State University. She said most dead zones are caused by nutrient pollution from fertilizer runoff.
Jane Lubchenco: But the dead zone that we’re seeing in Oregon and Washington is different, because it’s not connected to runoff of nutrients from the land, but instead is a result of changes in the upwelling of nutrients from the deep sea.
The excess nutrients take up all the available oxygen in the water, suffocating ocean life. Lubchenco described the scene on the ocean floor during the summer of 2006.
Jane Lubchenco: A virtual wasteland of dead Dungeness crabs, dead worms, dead stars, dead anemones, just littering the sea floor.
Lubchenco believes the dead zone is driven by changes in coastal winds, which may be related to climate change.
Jane Lubchenco: In the summertime this disaster strikes. In winter, the system returns to normal. And so things begin to recover, but just when they’re starting to recover, then next summer rolls around and another devastating impact – the system is getting hit every summer. So we have very real concerns that the long term consequences are not going to be good ones.
Our thanks today to NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Written by EarthSky
2 Responses to “Jane Lubchenco has documented mysterious Pacific dead zones”
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Jane Lubchenco
In March 2009, Jane Lubchenco was confirmed by the U.S. Senate as Under Secretary of Commerce and Administrator of NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration). Prior to that, Dr. Lubchenco had been at Oregon State University in Corvallis, Oregon, where she had been an environmental scientist and marine ecologist actively engaged in teaching, ... >>
I lived in Newport, Or from 1965 to 1973. As a kid I was always fascinated with the Ocean. Several of my friends parents were fishermen and the Oregon State University marine research center was on the south shore of Yaquina Bay. During that time, “dead” zones in the Pacific, right off the coast were noted by both the commercial and sport fishermen as well as by OSU.
Everything you can think of was blamed for their existence from the Russian trewlers lurking offshore to the effluent from Georgia Pacific’s papermill in Toldeo, OR. One cause raised was “global cooling” caused by our pollutants blocking the sun’s energy. That was the cause celebe’ of the time.
Trouble was (and is) that nobody ever managed to prove any cause or even to pinpoint a location for any period of time.
I think these “dead” zones have always existed and we haven’t a clue as to cause. A good reason to continue our study of the world around us. We haven’t learned everything yet!
Is it possible that the oceanic “Dead Zones” in the Pacific Northwest are results of previous polluting oil-spills? Perhaps leftover residue from the clean-ups would be carried more easily in suspension in warmer waters of summer, making it more accessible to ingestion by plants and animals, thus blocking their ablilty to respire.
Roberta H.
B.S.Agriculture
University of Arizona
is there ways of replenishing the oxygen in the sea.
why do people keep littering