U.N. REPORT WARNS OF NITROGEN RUNOFF KILLING FISHERIES
MSNBC
March 29, 2004

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/4624359/

The number of oxygen-deprived "dead zones" in the world's oceans has been increasing since the 1970s and is now nearly 150, threatening fisheries as well as humans who depend on fish, the U.N. Environment Program announced Monday in unveiling its first-ever Global Environment Outlook Year Book.

These "dead zones" are caused by an excess of nitrogen from farm fertilizers, sewage and emissions from vehicles and factories. In what experts call a "nitrogen cascade," the chemical flows untreated into oceans and triggers the proliferation of plankton, which in turn depletes oxygen in the water.

While fish might flee this suffocation, slow moving, bottom-dwelling creatures like clams, lobsters and oysters are less able to escape.

"Humankind is engaged in a gigantic, global experiment as a result of the inefficient and often overuse of fertilizers, the discharge of untreated sewage and rising emissions from vehicles and factories," program executive director Klaus Toepfer said in a statement accompanying the report.

From small to vast zones

Toepfer noted that 146 dead zones -- most in Europe and the U.S. East Coast -- range from under a square mile to up to 45,000 square miles. "Unless urgent action is taken to tackle the sources of the problem," he said, "it is likely to escalate rapidly."

The program noted that some of the earliest recorded dead zones were in Chesapeake Bay, the Baltic Sea, Scandinavia's Kattegat Strait, the Black Sea and the northern Adriatic Sea.

The most infamous zone is in the Gulf of Mexico, where the Mississippi River dumps fertilizer runoff from the Midwest.

Others have appeared off South America, China, Japan, southeast Australia and New Zealand, the program said.

Preventive measures

The report was released in Jeju, South Korea, where governments from around the world are sending officials this week for a Global Ministerial Environment Forum.

The program noted preventive steps can be taken, citing these examples:

- European nations along the Rhine agreed to halve discharged nitrogen levels, reducing the discharge into the North Sea.

- Planting new forests and grasslands will help soak up excess nitrogen, keeping it out of waterways.

- Requiring vehicles to reduce nitrogen emissions.

- Fostering alternative energy sources that are not based on burning fossil fuels.

- Better sewage treatment would reduce nutrient discharges to coastal waters.

Global warming warning

But the report also noted new research that indicates global warming could aggravate the problem. Should humans double emissions of carbon dioxide, a key gas that many scientists fear is warming the Earth, that could change rainfall patterns, according to the research.

"In some areas, this in turn could lead to a marked increase in the levels of run-off from rivers into the seas," the U.N. program said. "They calculate that dissolved oxygen levels in the northern Gulf of Mexico, triggered by an increased discharge from the Mississippi River basin of 20 percent and a climb in temperature of up to four degrees Centigrade, could fall by 30 to 60 percent."

The U.N. report is online at:
http://www.unep.org/geo/yearbook


Informant: NHNE

Alaskan waters are among the world's most diverse, productive and complex marine ecosystems. The seafloor of the North Pacific Ocean is adorned with magnificent, yet fragile, communities of deepwater coral and sponge, which recent scientific studies show provides essential habitat to fish, crabs and other marine life. Ongoing loss of this habitat, however, places the health of these remarkable deepwater ocean ecosystems at risk.

Like clear-cutting of old growth forests, bottom trawling fishing vessels cause extensive damage to deepwater coral habitat, potentially causing long-term changes to the entire marine ecosystem. For eight years, the federal National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) has failed to protect Alaska's waters from the harmful effects of fishing, as required by law. In response to a court order, NMFS has finally drafted an Essential Fish Habitat Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the North Pacific, which includes the Gulf of Alaska, Bering Sea, and Aleutian Islands. This EIS contains several alternatives to protect habitat from ongoing destruction, but amazingly recommends taking no action to do so!

NMFS must take action to implement measures contained in the Essential Fish Habitat alternatives to:

* Establish a network of marine reserves to fully protect 20 to 30 percent of all marine habitats (Alternative 6), or
* At a minimum, significantly increase protection for sensitive habitats by requiring less damaging fishing gear and reductions in allowable catch (Alternative 5-B), and
* Augment Alternative 5-B by adding fully protected "Habitat Areas of Particular Concern", such as seamounts, pinnacles, coral gardens, and submarine canyons.

Sign this petition to submit your public comments to support protecting Alaska's marine habitats from harmful fishing practices! The public comment period ends April 15, 2004 - please sign today!

http://www.care2.com/go/z/12374