Hypoxic Waters off the Oregon Coast: Sign of things to Come?

I recently received an email update of the latest Nature articles and found the feature news entitled: Oceanography: Dead in the water.

The article was about a disturbing finding off the Oregon coast which has been recurring each summer and growing in a patch of the regions coastal area. Biogeochemists alongside oceanographers have found low oxygen levels that have left this patch of ocean lifeless to sea life (fish, crabs, and the like) that once flourished in the area. Other coastal areas where this is found, result from local farms with fertilizer run off - but here, along the Oregon coastline, there isn't enough farming to cause the low water oxygen content. What is going on?

According to the researchers from Oregon State University, this may be a sign of what we will start to see happening across parts of the ocean. While we are not fully equipped with all the information, the phenomenon may be related to the changes in ocean circulation and the deep water hypoxic regions growing taller and wider. Ocean circulation is changing and is expected to slow down in the coming decades. The results of this slower circulation leads to wider and taller deep sea minimum oxygen zones.

For regional fish and shell fish farmers, the findings are a major concern - particularly as their industry is experiencing increasing demands for fish products.

You can read the Nature article here:  http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100811/full/466812a.html

Global Systems Integration for Health, Food and Water

This morning Secretary of State H. R. Clinton spoke about the Global Health Leadership Initiative at JHU's SAIS in DC. It was inspirational to hear that governments across the world will start to develop more integration their international projects across devloping countries in order to improve public health. This sort of program can of course be extended to food, agricultural and water supply and treatment. The integrated approach to improve global health is critical especially as financial and other resources across the globe are scarce and getting tighter as we strive for a more sustainable future.

Here is a link to the talk: http://www.sais-jhu.edu/pressroom/press-releases/MA2010/clinton-live.htm

Satellite Imagery Can Predict Future Famine and more

Now that intelligence groups have lesser use for old satellite images they collected during the Cold War era and the world has access to static geospatial maps through a few sources (including Google Earth or maps), the time series images from (say NASA) can be used to identify changes in agriculture and land use.  This kind of data can give insights into soil moisture and inferences can be made to famine, regional diets, future land use, or economic value of crops (and perhaps even disease epidemics). This is pretty powerful stuff.

With this forecast-type knowledge, food and health policy/lawmakers makers and others can be prepared or plan to handle regional issues before they become major problems.

Food Webs and Network Topology

Food webs describe the interactions between species in the food chain and their interdependence. Groups work on determining how the network or web changes when a disturbance is introduced into the food chain system. This sort of work is important in predicting how invasive species will affect a food network and its topology.

Source: foodwebs.org

Source: www.uri.edu

Salmon Farms

Salmon Farming and its link with hazardous pollutants is an issue of increasing concern especially since the rate of salmon consumption has increased over the past two decades across the US (>20% per year) and Europe (>14% per year) since 1990. The use of pesticides such as polybrominated diphenyl ether, a fire retardant, have been found in farmed salmon. (Data source: whyfiles.org/shorties.159salmon/)

Here is data showing the amount of flame retardant PBDE found in wild vs farmed salmon:

Source: http://whyfiles.org/shorties/159salmon/

Of course, salmon isn't the only fish being farmed. Here is a list of some other fish that are farmed across the globe:

• Atlantic Cod (gadus morhua)
• Atlantic Halibut (hippoglossus hippoglossus)
• Atlantic Salmon (salmo salar)
• Cobia (rachycentron canadum)
• Croker (larimichthys crocea)
• Milkfish (chanos chanos)
• Pacific Threadfin (polydactylus sexfilis)
• Parrotfish (oplegnathus fasciatus)
• Sea Bass (dicentrarchus labrax)
• Sea Bream (sparus aurata)
• Summer Flounder (paralichthys dentatus)
• Yellowtail Kingfish (seriola rivoliana, lalandi)

(Source: http://www.oceanspar.com/)

Groups are working on new solutions to improve health and safety of fish farming.

Increasing World Fish Consumption

Source: http://hokie-engineer.com/Tokyo/2004_Tsukiji_Fish_Market_01.jpg

I've never set my eyes on the world famous Tsukiji fish market in Tokyo, Japan - but it must be an incredible sight with an estimated 2000 tons of seafood handled here per day.

Increasing world fish consumption (shown below) has had a number of side-effects on the fish industry including the most direct: less wild fish

Wild fish are in highest demand as they are naturally healthier with less chemicals and pollutant byproducts found in their bodies. 

Wild fish catching has leveled off in the past decade with lower yields from these regions, while aquaculture (or fish farming) is increasing. Currently the growth rate of freshwater aquaculture is >10% per year in the last decade.

(Source: http://www.unep.org/dewa/vitalwater/article167.html)