Scientist warns of ‘environmental disaster’ in Lake Baikal due to ‘irreversible’ pollution – ‘The coast has never looked like this before’

By Olga Gertcyk14 July 2015 (The Siberian Times) – Humans are having a dire impact on the lake, which Russians have long boasted as one of the cleanest – if not the cleanest – on the planet, says expert  Dr Oleg Timoshkin, researcher from the Limnology Institute of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy […]

Ocean dead zones swirl off Africa, threatening coastlines with mass fish kills

By Robert Scribbler5 May 2015 (RobertScribbler.wordpress.com) – The world ocean is now a region of expanding oxygen-deprived dead zones. It’s an upshot of a human-warmed ocean system filled with high nutrient run-off from mass, industrialized farming, rising atmospheric nitrogen levels, and increasing dust from wildfires, dust storms, and industrial aerosol emissions. Warming seas hold less […]

Floodwaters causing new Gulf of Mexico dead zone off Texas

By Rusty Surette18 June 2015 COLLEGE STATION (KBTX) – Record rainfall totals in many parts of Texas the past few weeks means a record amount of freshwater pouring into the Gulf of Mexico – as high as 10 times the normal rate – and that could lead to huge problems for marine life and commercial […]

Biologist: Dead zones in the ocean threaten our most important food fish – Oxygen minimum zone ‘to start in North Africa and go all the way down to the tip of South Africa’

By Lynne Rossetto Kasper9 May 2015 (Splendid Table) – Three years ago, I interviewed Eric Prince, a research fisheries biologist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Southeast Fisheries Science Center. He and his colleagues had found that a huge dead zone, an area of the ocean with very little oxygen, had developed in the […]

Stench of dead fish in Rio lake won’t spoil Olympic Games, officials hope

By Bruce Douglas17 April 2015 Rio de Janeiro (The Guardian) – Below the open arms of the statue of Christ the Redeemer, and not far from the upmarket neighbourhood of Ipanema, the Rodrigo de Freitas lake is usually a popular spot for Rio’s cyclists, joggers and coconut sellers. But over the last few days the […]

Lake Baikal ‘seriously ill’: World’s deepest lake suffers alien algae, record water-level drop

13 March 2015 (RT) – The shores of Lake Baikal in Siberia, the world’s largest body of fresh water and popular tourist destination, are covered with rotting algae dangerous to its unique ecosystem. Baikal is getting increasingly contaminated by spirogyra, which could pose a threat to the purity of its waters. Spirogyra is not native […]

CO2 emissions threaten seafood as ocean acidification spreads along U.S. coastlines – ‘We’re the canary in the coal mine for what’s happening with our shellfish industry. Conditions are going to get progressively worse.’

By Maria Gallucci23 February 2015 (IBT) – Taylor Shellfish Company was grappling with a crisis in the summer of 2009. Millions of oyster larvae were dying in its Washington hatcheries, and production had dropped by 80 percent. Down the coast, Oregon’s hatcheries faced the same problem. Highly acidic ocean water, it turned out, was dissolving […]

Image of the Day: Phosphorescent glow from algae bloom near Hong Kong, 22 January 2015

By Nick Kirkpatrick 23 January 2015 (Washington Post) – Along a seashore in Hong Kong yesterday, a vibrant blue glow was seen emanating from the water. Beautiful photographs show the shore glimmering, with the lights of the city sparkling in the background. But this idyllic setting is potentially toxic. The luminescence is an algal bloom […]

Global warming already having profound impacts on lakes in Europe – ‘Cyanobacteria like it hot, which is part of the reason why we’re seeing more toxic algae blooms’

By Lisa Borre 21 July 2014 (National Geographic) – For perspective on how climate change is affecting lakes, those of us here in the U.S. can just look across the pond, where scientists and the agencies involved in meeting the European Union’s Water Framework Directive have amassed an impressive body of research on the topic. […]

Beautiful and sad GIFs show the ongoing destruction of the oceans

By Laura McClure     15 August 2014 (TED) – Scientist Sylvia Earle (TED Talk: My wish: Protect our oceans) has spent the past five decades exploring the seas. During that time, she’s witnessed a steep decline in ocean wildlife numbers — and a sharp incline in the number of ocean deadzones and oil drilling sites. An […]

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