HOOD CANAL, Washington (23 Sep 2006) -- Georgia Arrow can't suppress her memory of the distress she witnessed Sunday in Hood Canal, when she saw hundreds of dead and dying fish, octopus and sea cucumbers, many struggling to breathe. Arrow, a recreational scuba diver from Portland, was at Sund Rock, a popular scuba diving spot north of Hoodsport, about midday Sunday when she dropped about 70 feet below the surface. "It was very disturbing. Even now, days later, every time I think about it my stomach hurts," said Arrow, whose report of the fish kill was among the first passed on to state Department of Fish and Wildlife officials. Arrow, 51, of Portland, works as a theatrical stage hand, and has been diving four years. Experienced enough to readily identify most of the critters she encounters, Arrow described what she saw Sunday as a marine habitat utterly unhinged. She found creatures acting strangely disoriented, many outside their normal, deep-water confines. California sea cucumbers "had vomited their guts and died." Coon-striped shrimp scuttled around in shallow water "like cockroaches in a New York City apartment." A huge octopus, a species that normally hides in caves, hung out about 24 feet below the surface. On the bottom, Arrow saw hundreds of dead black-eyed gobies. | | Low dissolved oxygen levels have plagued Hood Canal for decades but in recent years, the problem has worsened. In 2003, more than 50,000 perch suffocated because much of Hood Canal was completely depleted of oxygen. "This is just wrong," she recalled thinking and wondered what sort of cataclysmic event caused the upheaval. She quickly shared her upsetting observations with fellow divers, who relayed her e-mail message to state officials. SOURCE - The News Tribune |
