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
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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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