Russian scientists are researching the cause of a massive die-off of marine life off the coast of Kamchatka in October.
Thousands of starfish, sea urchins and other marine life, including seals and seabirds, were found dead along more than 400 kilometers of coastline at Avacha Bay. Meanwhile, surfers complained of eye irritation and more serious problems, including loss of vision, as well as skin rashes and intestinal maladies.
Social media was rife with all sorts of theories and offered contradictory explanations involving spills of oil, toxic military waste, and even rocket fuel. Various government agencies, NGOs, and media outlets dispatched specialists to the region to gather samples and determine what happened.
The verdict so far, though not final, is that the causes were “natural”: a huge so-called “red tide” of blooming toxic algae whose poison can accumulate in organisms all the way up the food chain. Sealife on the ocean floor also died off due to a lack of oxygen caused by decomposing dead organic matter.
Alexei Ozerov, head of the Russian Volcanology and Seismology Institute, was put in charge of a high-profile investigation and urged members of the public to trust this scientific verdict. An expedition is planned for 2021 to determine the cause of the red tide and whether it would be possible to head off future such disasters.
Worldwide, red tides are believed to be exacerbated by climate change: in places like Florida, they are decimating marine life.
Many Russians, however, still suspect a government coverup and are suspicious of the red tide theory. Environmentalist Dmitry Lisitsyn argues that a red tide would not kill organisms instantly, while others questioned why fish weren’t affected.
Сейчас, зная как роскошно выглядели рифы раньше, немного охватывает печаль. От прежней красоты мало что осталось. Количество ежа сократилось раза в три, а тот что выжил весь в залысинах от выпавших иголок и амбулакральных ножек. Морских звезд почти не осталось, крупных нет совсем. Актинии попрятались или погибли. Исчезли мшанки, форониды, мягкие кораллы альционарии. На рифах Авачинской бухты всегда можно было увидеть пять и более видов голожаберных моллюсков, а сейчас встречаются только два. Погибли двустворчатые моллюски мии и сердцевидки. Здоровые, они живут под грунтом на глубине от 20см, а сейчас лежат в донных наносных ямах в угнетенном состоянии. Их бы съели крабы и амфиподы, но и их стало мало.
“Knowing now how luxurious the reefs looked before, I am a bit overcome by sadness. Little remains of the previous beauty. The number of sea anemones is about a third of what it was, and those that remain are covered with bald patches from their fallen needles and ambulacral appendages. The starfish are almost all gone, the large ones are gone entirely. The anemones have gone into hiding or have died. The bryozoa, phoronids, and soft alcyonaria corals have all disappeared. On the Avacha Bay reefs, one could always see five or more species of nudibranch molluscs, but now there are only two. The bivalve molluscs, myia and cordata, have all died. When they are healthy, they live about 20 cm under the seabed, but now they lie damaged at the bottom of alluvial pits. They are normally eaten by crabs and amphipods, but those too have become scarce.”
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