UPDATE ON THIS STORY — The oyxgen content of waters in southern Hood Canal had improved by this morning (Wednesday), easing pressure on fish and shrimp.
Oxygen levels of about 5 parts per million were measured down to about 30 feet at Hoodsport, according to a monitoring buoy there, according to the Kitsap Sun newspaper.
This is not not as deep as many of the fish species would like to be, but it’s better than the 6-foot depth to which they were confined on Tuesday, Wayne Palsson, a state Department of Fish and Wildlife biologist, told the Sun.
Palsson said this morning that he saw a few scattered dead fish and spot prawns that apparently died overnight, but nothing like the hundreds of fish and thousands of prawns he observed Tuesday.
Birds were still feasting on Tuesday’s remains, he told the Sun.
Read more at http://www.kitsapsun.com/news/2010/sep/22/fish-southern-hood-canal-get-more-room-breathe/#ixzz10HOTDSPd
Also, from the Puget Sound Partnership:
Hood Canal fish kill underscores urgency in cleaning up Puget Sound, http://www.psp.wa.gov/pressreleases/partnership_release.php?id=167
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Peninsula Daily News
new services
HOODSPORT — Scientists who have been monitoring low oxygen levels in southern Hood Canal said hundreds of dead fish and thousands of dead shrimp were washed up on the waterway’s beaches on Tuesday.
Wayne Palsson, a biologist with the state Department of Fish and Wildlife, said in addition to thousands of dead spot prawns on the beaches, many thousands more were struggling to survive in 6 inches of water along the shoreline.
Ron Figlar-Barnes, a biologist with the Skokomish tribe, walked the beaches in the Hoodsport and Potlatch areas, finding hundreds of dead fish scattered throughout that area at low tide.
Seagulls were having a feeding frenzy, he said.
Palsson called Tuesday’s observations an “extensive fish kill geographically “ but not yet the massive fish kills seen in previous years.
At Sund Rock, a marine preserve, large numbers of copper rockfish were seen schooling in less than 20 feet of water, compared to normal depths of 30 to 80 feet, said Palsson.
Scuba divers observed wolf eels uncharacteristically halfway out of their dens and breathing rapidly.
Large lingcod appeared to be struggling to get enough oxygen.
Octopuses were seen breathing rapidly and their bodies in an odd, stress-related coloration.
“We have hypoxic (low oxygen) conditions all the way to the surface,” said Jan Newton, an oceanographer who heads the Hood Canal Dissolved Oxygen Program.
“There is less than 1 milligram per liter (oxygen) at Hoodsport, and lots of residents are reporting dead fish on the beaches.”
Earlier this month, Newton warned that the oxygen level in the south end of the canal was at a record low.
She said conditions are similar to 2006 when thousands of fish died.
For more information, and background, click on http://www.hoodcanal.washington.edu, the Hood Canal Dissolved Oxygen Program website.
