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  UNEP 19 Oct 06
Further Rise in Number of Marine 'Dead Zones'

Yahoo News 20 Oct 06
U.N.: Number of ocean 'dead zones' rise
By John Heilprin, Associated Press

Yahoo News 19 Oct 06
U.N. says number of ocean "dead zones" rising fast
By Daniel Wallis

NAIROBI (Reuters) - The number of "dead zones" in the world's oceans may have increased by a third in just two years, threatening fish stocks and the people who depend on them, the U.N. Environment Program said on Thursday.

Fertilizers, sewage, fossil fuel burning and other pollutants have led to a doubling in the number of oxygen-deficient coastal areas every decade since the 1960s.

Now experts estimate there are 200 so-called ocean dead zones, compared with 150 two years ago.

"Some successes are being scored but in other areas -- like sewage, nutrients from fertilizer run off, animal wastes and atmospheric pollution; sediment mobilization and marine litter -- the problems are intensifying," UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner said in a statement.

The first "dead zones" -- where pollution-fed algae remove oxygen from the water -- were found in northern latitudes like the Chesapeake Bay on the U.S. East Coast and the Scandinavian fjords.

Today, the best known is in the Gulf of Mexico, where fertilizers and other algae-multiplying nutrients are dumped by the Mississippi River. Others have been appearing off South America, Ghana, China, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Portugal and Britain.

The UNEP said in a statement that experts warn "these areas are fast becoming major threats to fish stocks and thus to the people who depend upon fisheries for food and livelihoods."

The full list is expected to be published early next year, but the preliminary findings were released on Thursday at an international marine pollution conference in Beijing, China, which gathered delegates from more than 100 nations.

The meeting also heard some good news from scientists studying the recovery rates of coral reefs damaged by bleaching in the late 1990s by high sea temperatures.

Coral reefs get bleached when warm water forces out tiny algae that live in the coral, providing nutrients and giving reefs their vivid colors. Without the algae, corals whiten and eventually die.

"The new studies indicate healthy ecosystems exposed to minimal contamination are likely to recover and survive better than those stressed by pollution, dredging and other human-made impacts," Steiner said.

UNEP said the overall findings were given even more urgency by new modeling that shows up to 90 percent of the world's tropical coasts may be developed by 2030.

"Climate change, and the need to build resilience into habitats and ecosystems so they can cope with the anticipated increase in temperatures likely to come, now represents a further urgent reason to act," Steiner added Thursday's meeting came just over two weeks before the start of global warming talks under the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change due to begin in Nairobi, Kenya on November 6.

Yahoo News 20 Oct 06
U.N.: Number of ocean 'dead zones' rise
By John Heilprin, Associated Press

WASHINGTON - Scientists have found 200 "dead zones" in the world's oceans--places where pollution threatens fish, other marine life and the people who depend on them.

The United Nations report Thursday showed a 34 percent jump in the number of such zones from just two years ago.

Pollution-fed algae, which deprives other living marine life of oxygen, is the cause of most of the world's dead zones that cover tens of thousands of square miles of waterways.

Scientists chiefly blame fertilizer and other farm run-off, sewage and fossil-fuel burning. Those contain an excess of nutrients, particularly phosphorous and nitrogen, that cause explosive blooms of tiny plants known as phytoplankton. When they die, they sink to the bottom, where they are eaten by bacteria that use up the oxygen in the water.

"The low levels of oxygen in the water make it difficult for fish, oysters and other marine creatures to survive as well as important habitats such as sea grass beds," U.N. officials said.

"These areas are fast becoming major threats to fish stocks and thus to the people who depend upon fisheries for food and livelihoods."

By 2030, the world's rivers will pump 14 percent more nitrogen into seas and oceans than that found in the mid-1990s, according to new U.N. research released at a meeting in Beijing.

Researchers led by Robert Diaz, a marine scientist at Virginia's College of William and Mary, said they found new dead zones at the Archipelago Sea in Finland; Fosu Lagoon in Ghana; Pearl River estuary and Changjiang River in China; and Mersey River estuary in Britain. Other new zones found were at the Elefsis Bay and Aegean Sea in Greece; Paracas Bay in Peru; Mondego River in Portugal; Montevideo Bay in Uruguay; and in the western Indian Ocean.

The United Nations marine experts said the number and size of oxygen-deprived zones has grown each decade since the 1970s.

Not all the dead zones persist year-round; some return seasonally, depending on winds that bring nutrient-rich water to the surface.

"It seems like a big jump in two years," said Nancy Rabalais, executive director of the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium, who was not part of the U.N. research.

She said an important factor has been the huge increase in pollution from fast-developing countries. Rabalais, who has studied the Gulf of Mexico's massive dead zone that is now the size of New Jersey, said marine creatures that swim fast enough can usually escape. "The things that are left behind are the ones that usually can't survive," she said.

"When you consider the size of some of these areas, it's removing what's considered the essential habitat for fishes and crustaceans."

Other U.N. scientific findings released Thursday, however, raised hopes for the recovery of damaged coral reefs, which serve as the ocean's nurseries. It found that reefs bleached in the late 1990s by high surface sea temperatures are affected by how polluted the waters are.

"Coral reefs recovering faster are generally those living in marine protected areas and coastal waters where the levels of pollution, dredging and other kinds of human-induced disturbance are considered low," the U.N. said.

UNEP 19 Oct 06
Further Rise in Number of Marine 'Dead Zones'
Global Programme Action Global (GPA) for the Protection of the Marine Environment from Land-Based Sources-2nd Intergovernmental Review

Beijing/Nairobi, 19 October 2006 - The number of 'dead zones' or low oxygenated areas in the world's seas and oceans may now be as high as 200 according to new scientific estimates released at an international marine pollution meeting in Beijing.

De-oxygenated zones are areas where algal blooms, triggered by nutrients from sources including fertilizer run off, sewage, animal wastes and atmospheric deposition from the burning of fossil fuels, can remove oxygen from the water. The low levels of oxygen in the water make it difficult for fish, oysters and other marine creatures to survive as well as important habitats such as sea grass beds.

Experts claim that the number and size of deoxygenated areas is on the rise with the total number detected rising every decade since the 1970s.

They are warning that these areas are fast becoming major threats to fish stocks and thus to the people who depend upon fisheries for food and livelihoods.

Some dead zones are fleeting whereas others can persist for large sections of the year. In 2004, UNEP reported in its Global Environment Outlook Year Book, an estimated 149 sites known to have experienced or be suffering 'dead zones'.

Some of the earliest recorded dead zones were in places like Chesapeake Bay in the United States, the Baltic Sea, the Kattegat, the Black Sea and the northern Adriatic Sea. Others have been reported in Scandinavian fjords. The most well known area of depleted oxygen is in the Gulf of Mexico. Its occurrence is directly linked to nutrients or fertilizers brought to the Gulf by the Mississippi River. Others have been appearing off South America, China, Japan, south east Australia and New Zealand.

Research by a team led by Professor Robert Diaz at the College of William and Mary, Virginia Institute of Marine Science in Gloucester Point, Virginia, whose work contributed to the GEO Year Book, now estimate that the number has climbed to 200 sites.

Professor Diaz told UNEP in advance of the Global Programme Action Global (GPA) for the Protection of the Marine Environment from Land-Based Sources (GPA) meeting in Beijing that the full list of new or newly-registered sites would be available in early 2007.

But he said among them were ones in the Archipelago Sea, Finland; the Fosu Lagoon, Ghana; the Pearl River Estuary and the Changjiang River, China; the Mersey Estuary, United Kingdom; the Elefsis Bay, Aegean Sea, Greece; Paracas Bay, Peru; Mondego River, Portugal; Montevideo Bay, Uruguay and the Western Indian Shelf.

Professor Diaz appealed for more information and sightings from the Pacific Ocean where there are gaps in intelligence gathering.

The GPA's State of the Marine Environment report launched in advance of the Beijing meeting also identified nutrients as a key issue. Nitrogen exports to the marine environment from rivers are expected to rise globally by 14 per cent by 2030 when compared with the mid 1990s, says the report.

Notes to Editors

Details and documents on the Inter Governmental Review-2 of the Global Programme of Action can be accessed at http://www.gpa.unep.org/bin/php/igr/igr2/home.php The State of the Marine Environment report can be found at http://www.gpa.unep.org/bin/php/igr/igr2/supporting.php
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