Troubled Waters

Troubled Waters

Source: earthobservatory

9/25/2021

It was once a source of great abundance—particularly fossil fuels and fish—for the people of Venezuela. Now Lake Maracaibo is mostly abundant with pollution from leaking oil and excess nutrients.

Spanning 13,000 square kilometers (5,000 square miles) in northwestern Venezuela, Lake Maracaibo is one of South America’s largest lakes and one of the oldest in the world. Though it was filled with freshwater thousands of year ago, Maracaibo is now an estuarine lake connected to the Gulf of Venezuela and the Caribbean Sea by a narrow strait. That strait was significantly expanded in the 1930–50s by dredging for ship traffic. Now the north end of the lake is brackish, while the south end is mostly fresh due to abundant flows from nearby rivers.

In satellite images acquired in September 2021, Lake Maracaibo was swirling with shades of green, tan, and gray that traced the flow of currents and eddies. The sources of those colors were algae, river sediment outflows, and crude oil leaks. The image at the top of this page was acquired by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite on September 25. The Operational Land Imager (OLI) on Landsat 8 observed the scene below on September 10.

Continue...

News Id		Source	Stamp	country
3501	Two drone sailboats set sail on Lake Michigan to collect data on fish	woodtv	2021-07-28	CA
3502	From hake to skate: Behind the push to bring 'unknown' fish to New England's dinner table	providencejournal	2021-07-29	US
3503	Seven-foot-long fish is 'largest ever seen in Manchester'	telegraph	2016-12-13	UK
3504	Eel not be right: Mass fish deaths at lake under investigation	stuff	2016-12-16	NZ
3505	New species of fish in Hawaii waters named after Obama	hawaii news now	2016-12-21	US
3506	This Russian fisherman has been showing off the nightmarish fish he finds	irish examiner	2016-12-21	RU
3507	Holy carp: how fish farming saved a Polish nunnery	the guardian	2016-12-24	UK
3508	Caviar, climate change and a Great Lakes fish	michigan radio	2016-12-16	US
3509	Pollution and climate change threaten fish in Ecuador’s Amazon region	Latin America News	2021-07-31	BR
3510	Fish managers say salmon runs ‘could have been worse,’ after underwater video shows heat-stressed salmon	NWNews	2021-07-28	US
3511	Massive and mysterious, a 100-pound fish washed ashore in Oregon. Scientists hope to learn its secrets	The Washington Post	2021-07-18	US
3512	'Largest' recorded chum salmon run: 2 million fish overload nets, burden boats	CBC News	2016-11-04	CA
3513	North Carolina man hooks massive 112-pound catfish while fishing	cbsnews	2016-12-02	US
3514	New England fish believed to be spotted feeding in Nova Scotia's Clyde River	CBC News	2021-07-23	CA
3515	St. Louis teen breaks dad’s state record fish; Reels in 7th record for 2021	wsiltv	2021-07-20	US
3516	Angler smashes British record when he takes 15 minutes, two broken nets and one maggot to land 34lb fish	dailymail	2016-10-26	UK
3517	7,800 lake sturgeon, a 'culturally significant fish species,' released into Michigan waters	mlive	2019-01-19	US
3518	Вылов лосося в России в 2021 году вырос на 14%	tass	2021-08-17	RU
3519	350-pound fish shocks anglers when it leaps out of the water	foxnews	2021-07-23	CA
3520	How Scientists Are Bringing Back Sturgeons, Fish That Once Swam With Dinosaurs	discovermagazine	2021-07-23	CA
3521	Montana’s Famed Trout Under Threat as Drought Intensifies	dnyuz	2021-07-23	US
3522	Climate crisis threatens access to nutrients in fish, study finds	theguardian	2021-07-20	UK
3523	Britain's rarest freshwater fish flourishing in southern Scotland	itv	2016-10-21	UK
3524	Dam Operator Accused of Killing Thousands of Fish in Maine	mainepublic	2016-10-19	US
3525	Danish anglers enlisted to catch rainbow trout accidentally released from fish farm	abc	2016-10-12	DM

140 of [218 - pages.]