From: Mike Lorrey (mlorrey@datamann.com)
Date: Tue Jul 17 2001 - 14:49:47 MDT
The deep offshore ocean (depending on how 'offshore' you are talking
about) is actually quite deserted, not due to human action, but due to
an overall lack of nutrients to feed plankton. Asking about the 'overall
health' of the oceans is kinda like asking how high is up....
Brian Atkins wrote:
>
> Thanks for the bits of information, but I'm pretty sure my friend meant
> deep offshore ocean, not localized areas near the shore. I'm curious about
> the overall "health" of the oceans. Can anyone point me to some real
> facts and figures showing perhaps the last 30 years or more?
>
> CurtAdams@aol.com wrote:
> >
> > In a message dated 7/17/01 11:00:35 AM, mlorrey@datamann.com writes:
> >
> > >> The ecologists have concerns with the amount of fertilizer we're dumping
> > >> in the oceans. While not exactly pollution, it tends to eutrophize the
> > >> water (ie make it full of algae) and this could zap a lot of coastal
> > >> communities. Jeremy Jackson claims, based on sediment cores,
> > >> that our concept of bays a eutrophic is wrong; they weren't that
> > >> way before farming.
> > >
> > >Sure, but how far back? Back to the introduction of chemical
> > >fertilizers? Back to the beginning of organized farming (~3500 BC)?
> > >
> > The data he cited was from Chesapeake bay, and he claimed a noticeable
> > effect from European farming in the 1700's, becoming more extreme
> > since. If he were looking at, say, some European lagoon it would be
> > hard for him to claim it wasn't some ongoing silting-up process over
> > the many thousands of years. (It's boggling to see how much the
> > Hwang Ho has filled in over 2500 years)
>
> --
> Brian Atkins
> Director, Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence
> http://www.singinst.org/
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