Firstly, yeah I haven’t posted in a few weeks. I was vacationing with my family in Canada. This post is about Canada and rivers. Read it or don’t!
Oh Canada. Let me set the scene for you. You’re standing on a dirt driveway. To your right a fiery sunset, to your left a purple sky with the moon rising. All around you are freshly cut fields, and a small brook is near by. Just down the driveway, a tattered cottage painted white with green trim. Years ago it was accompanied by a barn and a shed, I watched them both sag into the ground and disappear. All that’s left is a rusty detached garage roof that’s sheltering some junk. In the side yard reside a few apple trees that have gotten better with age, between two of them swings a netted hammock. All you hear are sounds of nature, the occasional cow orgasm, cars flying by on the road that was paved just 20 years ago and sometimes the wind carries friendly neighborhood chatter. Through out my life our family cottage in Canada has been a staple of my learning, growing and socializing experience. Now it represents a getaway spot.
I’ve been making the trip up there since I was a baby. I started remembering things like fire, animals, neighbors and family experiences. What does this have to do with marine biology?! I’ll get there. Just enjoy the ride!
La Plage or the beach is where I handled a great deal of questions. This was no ocean fronted beach. This was a naturally accumulated pile of rocks in the middle of a river. You have to drive through the woods, past the blue rubber hosing used for tapping maple trees, then walk down an often slick muddy rocky hill before crossing a portion of the river to get to la plage.
Super relaxing, eh? La Plage is where I asked questions about geology, fluid mechanics, phycology, botany, mycology, all of the ologies were involved. This past week I revisited la Plage and understood the ecology aka the interactions between the biotic and abiotic worlds.
The portion of the river we hang out at is slow during the summer weeks. There is a rocky section the water cuts through before it opens up into “the pool”. The water cuts around it on either side so it’s “the island”. It is composed of several rock types common to the north east of the continent like shale and granite. These rocks have eroded into small enough bits for us to lay on (uncomfortably but still). I learned about geology through play. You can have all sorts of fun playing with the rocks. You can skip them, crack them open, throw them, draw on them using other rocks as pencils, throw them at your siblings while they nap or use them for hot rock therapy! Through play I began to understand which ones were stronger, which ones broke easily and how the river processes them. Rivers are one avenue for minerals (from the rocks I played with) enter the ocean. It’s what makes the ocean “salty”.
The ocean is the driving factor of the water cycle. Rivers play an enormous role in moving, distributing and filtering water. Rivers typically start high in mountains. As snow and rain fall the water collects and runs through earth. Small tributaries join into the main river and the main river eventually meets a lake or ocean. Rivers are a massive part of a healthy ocean ecosystem.
The Mississippi River, for example, runs through North American farmland and empties into the Gulf. As the Mississippi runs through the farmlands, the excess nutrients used to grow crops and the waste from livestock is carried tot he ocean. When those nutrients accumulate, it fertilizes the ocean and creates algae blooms. Huge, harmful algae blooms can cause so many problems. The reason the Gulf is at risk is because these blooms are happening more often and they’re getting bigger. As the algae blooms, it grows lives and then dies quickly. When it dies it creates a dead zone. Sucking the oxygen from the water. This leaves fish with out any oxygen, often killing them in apocalyptic amounts. The air above the water is compromised. Marine mammals and humans close to the bloom have difficulty breathing. Mammals who are unable to travel to clean air become sick and die.
Rivers are the veins and arteries to the heart ocean. If we care for the ocean, the rivers need attention. Being in Canada, for vacation at la Plage reminded me how thankful for rivers we should be. We should be protecting them from dumping, nutrient offloading and pollution.
Being land locked in Denver has me feeling dried up with out the ocean. That’s why I visit rivers as much as possible. The cold water shocks my body. It reminds me how water connects us all.
I made memories from water. Every type of water has shaped me into a scientist and protector of water. Water is life. Where there’s life, I’ve got questions, and I wanna know answers. It’s always nice to look at and to be in nature and water. I urge you to take your relationship with water to the next level. Ask questions, look deeper. Find the connections, and protect your water.
Want to learn more about some river issues? Here’s a few links
http://action.healthygulf.org/our-work/protecting-water/dead-zone-and-mississippi-river
https://www.nrdc.org/stories/columbia-snake-river-basin-salmon-are-losing-their-way
Top 21 Most Polluted Rivers Around the World in 2023
Mile High Marine Biologist 