Tens of thousands of fish have washed ashore along the Gulf Coast of Texas, United States, since Friday, June 9. According to scientists, the animals died due to a lack of oxygen.
The Earth is burning in Canada, Cuba is under water and the Sea is suffocating in the United States. This month of June is turning into veritable ecocide in North America, as seen in these hardly sustainable images of tens of thousands of fish stranded along the Gulf Coast of Texas near Lake Jackson in Brazoria County.
According le « New York Times », an oil spill of dead fish was observed between Friday May 9 and Sunday May 11 on the beaches of this southern state of the United States. They would, according to Bryan Frazier, director of the Brazoria County Parks Department, died of “hypoxia”, a lack of oxygen.
A recurring phenomenon
Bryan Frazier explains that this disaster resulted from a “perfect storm” of bad conditions.
Due to the high heat that Texas is currently experiencing – it was 33 degrees on June 9 – the water in the Gulf of Mexico has warmed up, which has lowered the level of available oxygen.
A phenomenon that was accentuated by a “calm” sea (without waves) and by a cloudy sky, which reduced the ability of microscopic organisms to produce oxygen by photosynthesis.
Small or large, the fish could not survive the lack of oxygen felt in the Gulf of Mexico on Friday June 9.
Brazoria County Parks Department
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© Patty Brinkmeyer
The bad news is that the Gulf of Mexico is seeing “an increase in water temperatures [et] this could certainly lead to more of these events occurring, especially in shallow, near-shore or coastal environments,” said Katie St. Clair, marine life facility manager for the area.
A very sad prospect when we know that these fish play a “critical role” in the local ecosystem and that this massive stranding in early June could already have “cascading impacts”.
2023-06-13 09:04:17
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