June 7, 2021 — For four generations Kevin and Taunette Dixon’s families have followed the rhythm of the sea: Harvesting groundfish, such as cod and pollock, early in the year. Pink shrimp beginning in April, sometimes followed by albacore in the fall. Then, Dungeness crab, Oregon’s biggest and most lucrative fishery, just in time to bring in holiday cash.
It’s been the same for fishing families up and down the Oregon Coast.
But the ocean is changing, and with it, life in tight-knit coastal communities.
For the past six years, Oregon’s traditional Dec. 1 Dungeness opening has been significantly delayed because elevated domoic acid levels make the crab unsafe to eat.
The toxin comes from harmful algal blooms caused by marine heatwaves, which are increasing in frequency and intensity.
The warming planet can actually fill the catch with poison.
And this is only one effect of climate change.
Oregon now has a regular “hypoxia season,” when ocean oxygen levels near the sea floor plummet and some sea life flees the region or dies.
In 2017, a huge hypoxia event occurred off Washington. The next year it extended into Oregon, resulting in almost no halibut caught. Over the next two years, Oregon commercial crabbers reported pulling up pot after pot of dead, suffocated crabs.
Read the full story from the Salem Statesman Journal at USA Today