Extreme plankton bloom creates 'dead zone' off Thailand

Bangkok Post Group

An unusually dense plankton bloom off the eastern coast of Thailand is creating an aquatic "dead zone," threatening the livelihood of local fishermen who farm mussels in the waters. - REUTERS

Transcript

00:00 This patch of ocean off the eastern coast of Thailand has been dubbed a dead zone.

00:07 According to scientists, no animals can survive here due to the growth of plankton.

00:13 While normal amounts of the plant can be beneficial, the overwhelming bloom has reached harmful levels,

00:20 depriving marine life of food and oxygen and turning the seawater green for as far as the eye can see.

00:26 We see that the area with hypoxia or anoxia has spread to a large scale.

00:33 The dead zone where there's no oxygen is extensive.

00:36 This is the single reason to explain the massive fish kill that were stranded.

00:40 Taras Pong Pokawani is a marine scientist from KSAS University.

00:48 He and a team of scientists have been collecting water samples to see what type of plankton has been growing.

00:55 The water is dense and slimy as a pungent smell of grass and dead fish permeates the air.

01:01 Plankton covers a quarter of the Gulf of Thailand.

01:04 Half of it is green where the plant is thriving,

01:07 while the other half, closer to the shore, has turned brown or even darker with pollution and dead plankton.

01:14 The plankton in the water eats up all the nutrients or they will die due to lack of light.

01:24 Their carcasses will then sink to the seabed and decompose by bacteria.

01:28 The bacterial decomposition depletes oxygen in the water.

01:32 This, known as the process of eutrophication, is occurring and causes vast numbers of fish to die.

01:38 For local fishermen, the loss of marine life is a threat to their livelihoods.

01:52 There are more than 260 mussel farming plots along this coastline.

01:56 More than 80% have been severely impacted by the plankton, according to the Chonburi Fisheries Association.

02:04 Suchabawa is one of those to have been affected.

02:07 In the business for more than 20 years, he owns about 10 farming plots

02:12 and says he's seen losses of more than $14,000 since the start of the year.

02:18 The damage appears to be 100%. See, they just fall off when you shake it.

02:23 There are no live ones left. They're all dead, including the oysters.

02:27 Normally, they would cling on here as well.

02:30 Back in the lab, Tanis Bong's team has discovered the current plankton bloom is of the Noctiluca species.

02:37 That's the same species that bloomed in 2020, the last time the region saw the El Niño effect.

02:43 The climate pattern causes, amongst other things, warmer sea temperatures in the eastern Pacific Ocean.

02:49 Tanis Bong wants to study whether the two are linked.

02:53 In August, the global ocean saw the warmest daily surface temperature on record

03:00 and had its warmest month overall.

03:02 Everyone now agrees that El Niño that occurred somewhere in the distance in the Pacific Ocean

03:09 now has chain effects on Thailand.

03:12 El Niño causes drought and higher sea temperatures.

03:15 El Niño is predicted to have severe impacts this year

03:18 and people have been drawing conclusions that there may be links

03:21 as it coincides with the significant amount of plankton bloom.

03:24 However, from a scientific perspective, we have not reached a clear conclusion.

03:28 We only see that both events occurred at the same time.

03:32 While the cause of the intense plankton bloom remains unclear,

03:37 scientists believe pollution and the intense heat caused by climate change are to blame.

03:42 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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