Now that we all understand that whole Coriolis curving-in-a-straight-line-spinning thing, we can talk about upwelling. Upwelling is life. It is the reason that Oregon is rich in, well, pretty much everything of a marine nature. Ok, so we don't have a lot of penguins. Or polar bears. Clearly there just isn't enough Coke here. A complete aside, the whole penguin-polar bear Coke commercials drive me NUTS!!! Has no one pointed out to those advertisement goofballs that penguins live at the South Pole and polar bears live at the North Pole?!? I mean, come on people. Only like...you know, 12,436 miles in between there.
So, upwelling...here's the story. During the summer months, the west coast of the US gets wind blowing from north to south right along shore. This pushes the water out towards the open ocean. If you just did a mental double take, it's ok. Yes, a wind to the south blows the water west (well, south-west technically). That whole Coriolis thing is screwing with the natural order of things. The wind starts to move the water south, but because the earth is spinning, it all starts to curve to the right.
The water actually moves southwest, away from the shore line, leaving a "gap" behind. Clearly there aren't actually any gaps in the ocean. The "space" that is created as the water is blown away from shore is filled by water being pulled up along the bottom from WAY the heck down off the continental shelf. (Think several kilometers deep). This is upwelling. That water carries high concentrations of nutrients that have been collecting in the deep ocean. Nutrients + sunlight = LOTS of algae growth. The growing algae provides an abundant food source for a wealth of marine critters. This is what has always given Oregon such a rich fishery. We have salmon, rockfish, lingcod, crab, shrimp, clams...nomnomnom. Unfortunately we don't have large quantities of some of these things anymore, but that's a rant that'll have to wait for another day.
There's another very important thing to know about upwelling in Oregon. You do NOT want to swim in our ocean during the summer for extended periods of time without a wet suit. I'd recommend October or November for that. Our water is colder during the summer than during the winter thanks to all the deep water getting pulled up to shore.
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"We have salmon, rockfish, lingcod, crab, shrimp, clams...nomnomnom." - Jas! We have free license to eat shrimp, salmon and crab again! I have no idea what lingcod is, but if it's anywhere near as good as the other stuff listed, there won't be much left for long.
Re: Upwelling - This whole upwelling phenomenon obviously provides an endless supply of nutrients for us to fish, crab, and pull as much out of the ocean that we want because these magic nutrients will always be there.
I was so worried about what I was going to eat in twenty years. Rachel, thank you for abating my fears and assuring me that we'll always be able to pull more from the ocean!
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