Hood Canal Fish Kill Worsens

Low oxygen (hypoxic) and fish kill conditions in Hood Canal have worsened. Although the south winds have relaxed, we see that the deep ocean renewal of seawater is pushing up the hypoxic waters to the surface. See http://www.hoodcanal.washington.edu/documents/document.jsp?id=1946 for explanation of this phenomenon.

At this point, any surface seawater that blew northwards yesterday has not reappeared. Oxygen concentrations around 1 mg/L comprise a large portion of the water column,  from about 60 m to the surface. The UW HCDOP ORCA buoys that are part of the NANOOS system show the morning surface oxygen at Hoodsport is 0.9 mg/L.

Wayne Palsson (WDFW) reports an extensive fish kill from south of Liliwap to Potlatch, with 1000s of spot prawns, 100s of fish several dozen species of fish, including species that normally live deep, such as Greenstriped Rockfish.

A resident 1.5 m north of Hoodsport reported thousands of dead shrimp, rockfish, and other fish on the beaches and in shallow water.

The Hoodsport and Twanoh ORCA buoy are recording every 3 h. These plots are from NANOOS NVS (http://www.nanoos.org/nvs/nvs.php?path=NVS-Assets) and the  HCDOP websites (http://www.hoodcanal.washington.edu/observations/orca_buoy.jsp).

Data from the UW ORCA buoys, funded through the Hood Canal Dissolved Oxygen Program and part of the NANOOS system, funded by NOAA IOOS.