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.

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News Id		Source	Stamp	country
4426	The freshwater fish fight	theguardian	2011-01-17	UK
4427	Closed-pen salmon farm launches in B.C.	CBC News	2011-01-17	CA
4428	Meet the robotic ghost knifefish, the cyberfish who will tame the roiling seas	gizmodo	2011-01-19	US
4429	Chef creates meals featuring invasive Asian carp	Milwaukee Journal Sentinel	2011-01-23	CA
4430	Bass Angler Christiana Bradley Has Learning Experience In Florida	underwatertimes	2011-01-25	US
4431	Монстр из Ахтубы	yandex	2020-09-11	RU
4432	Young Islander builds ice fishing shack, hopes for winter catches	CBC News	2021-02-21	CA
4433	Monduran monster's a world record	news-mail	2010-12-23	AU
4434	Wild Salmon Decline Was Not Caused By Sea Lice From Farm Salmon	underwatertimes	2010-12-13	US
4435	Angler's 405.2-pound yellowfin tuna is largest ever caught	petethomasoutdoors	2010-12-06	US
4436	Angler lands world's biggest carp... the day after best friend caught another huge fish on same lake	dailymail	2010-12-06	FR
4437	Washington fish hatchery research shows circular tanks result in buff salmon and steelhead	oregonlive	2010-01-10	US
4438	Freshwater fish are in "catastrophic" decline with one-third facing extinction, report finds	cbsnews	2021-02-23	GR
4439	Waves of fish mortalities attributed to cold weather	kristv	2021-02-19	US
4440	Fish farms stir emotions	castanet	2021-02-20	CA
4441	The feeding of the 5,000? Not quite, but pensioner lands record-breaking halibut	daily mail	2010-11-23	UK
4442	Fish Are More Intelligent Than Previously Thought	Underwatertimes	2010-11-16	US
4443	The amazing sight of a salmon leaping up the River Derwent spotted for the first time in 200 years	daily mail	2010-11-12	UK
4444	Goldfish join security team for G20 summit as water testers	metro	2010-11-09	KR
4445	Fish Courtship More Complex Than Thought; Ugly Becomes Attractive If Females Are Few And Far Between	Underwatertimes	2010-11-10	AU
4446	Ecologists Get Fish Eye View Of Sexual Signals; 'New Insights Into How Females May Use Color To Choose The Best Mates'	Underwatertimes	2010-11-09	US
4447	Virginia fisherman stop in Alabama while attempting to ‘Fish All 50’	WSFA	2021-02-22	US
4448	'Moderate livelihood' fishermen must operate during commercial season, DFO says	CBC News	2021-03-03	CA
4449	Why Scientists Just Ran Numbers on All The Fish Poop in The World's Oceans	sciencealert	2021-02-19	CA
4450	Volga River Towns Fade Along With Prized Sturgeon	npr	2010-11-05	RU

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