Oregon Coast 'dead zone' comes back to life

Keeley Chalmers, KGW.com 17 Oct 08;

PORTLAND - Two years ago scientists made a shocking discovery just off the Oregon Coast. They found a area referred to as a dead zone.

Underwater video showed shocking images of dead crabs and fish. Marine animal carcasses littered the ocean floor. A once breathtaking reef had turned into an underwater graveyard.

Oregon's dead zone had reached record proportions. The water was totally oxygen depleted.

“In 2006 it actually hit bottom we had zero oxygen values,” explained Dr. Francis Chan, a Zoology Researcher at OSU.

Chan studied the dead zone back in 2006 and has been ever since. Said Chan, “We’ve been keeping a really close eye on what oxygen levels.”

Chan and his research team recently returned to the dead zone to answer the looming question: had it come back to life?

Underwater video taken by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife showed the area had started to come back to life, or at least some of it had.

“Things seem to be moving back into an area that was basically void of this large marine life,” said Chan.

But because oxygen levels are still low, Chan says recovery is happening painfully slow and not all creatures are bouncing back. Chan says the once abundant sea cucumber hasn’t been seen in the system since 2006.

The dead zone sits less than a mile off the Oregon coast between Newport and Florence. And Chan says new research shows another dead zone has emerged off the Washington coast. The low oxygen areas are the result, he believes, of global warming.

“When you warn the surface ocean you tend to decrease the amount of oxygen you have,” said Chan.

Which leaves scientists to wonder, as our climate continues to change, will our ocean ever be able to fully recover?

Chan says that’s a hard question to answer, but he and his fellow researchers plan to head back out to sea to try.