From Providence Journal -
Quote:
'Perfect recipe' for fish kill
Carcieri wants report on how to prevent another incident
01:00 AM EDT on Friday, August 22, 2003
BY BARBARA POLICHETTI
Journal Staff Writer
WARWICK -- The air was sour with the stench of rotten eggs yesterday morning as state biologist Arthur Ganz maneuvered his skiff through Apponaug Cove to view the aftermath of Wednesday's massive fish kill caused by polluted, oxygen-depleted water.
"See that," Ganz said pointing to an oily sheen that covered most of the cove. "Menhaden are a very oily fish and that is caused as they decompose."
Although there was no wind yesterday morning, the cove water seemed to flutter, and Ganz said that the motion was caused by thousands of tiny silverside fish swarming just below the surface.
"They're coming up to the top in an attempt to find oxygen," Ganz said. Unfortunately the meter readings that he and his assistant -- University of Rhode Island graduate student Julie St. Andre -- were taking yesterday showed that there is little oxygen to be found in the bay water, with levels yesterday only slightly higher than Wednesday.
Ganz and other environmentalists estimated that more than a million fish -- mostly small, juvenile menhaden -- were killed Wednesday as the oxygen levels in Greenwich Bay dropped to near zero due to an algae bloom fed by pollutants.
|
The rest of the story id here:
http://www.projo.com/news/content/pr...ish.84c2c.html
First, as a resident of the Bay area and pretty close to this area I'm pissed and nervous that like many things Rhode Island, this will continue for years to come. To give you an example about this state, they need to build a 40 million dollar bridge 'cause they were too cheap to do the 10K dollar anual maintenance... Anyway, I'm not confident on how quickly this will be properly addressed...
Secondly and secondary to the main problem, they say there may have been a million Juvy Menhaden killed in this Cove and that other fish kills due to blooms are possible at anytime in many places in the Bay. How many more are going to die and how many less forage fish will there be for the annual massive schools of fish to feed on? Will these massive schools come to the upper reaches of the bay with these lousy conditions? Will the fishing be way offd this year?
Threaded Mode