Thriving Oceans

With the decline of the economy an unlikely community is now facing starvation in the greater San Francisco Bay Area from Oakland, Marin County, San Mateo, to San Francisco.  If only these residents could pick up the art of panhandling from their gull-winged neighbors they would not be suffering from a bout of starvation.  Brandt’s cormorants and other sea birds have been washing up in the hundreds with signs of emaciation due to what experts believe is a lack of ocean available food.

“Because young rockfish were scarcer in the ocean during the warmer years of 2005, 2006 and 2007, species such as seabirds and humpback whales may have switched to anchovies, said biologist Bill Sydeman, director of the Farallon Institute of Advanced Ecosystem Research in Petaluma.”

I guess I could draw parallels to human influence on climate and oceans, such as overfishing, but instead of straining to generate some pithy comments just give the article a read.  It does a great job and even the quoted biologists points out how the environment is composed of interdependent communities.

And humans and their activities are not excluded by the way!

Hundreds of dead birds on Bay Area beaches (S.F. Chronicle, May 2, 2009)