Amazon deforestation linked to hurricanes, fish flight?

Illegal deforestation for soy production, in the North of State of Mato Grosso (Photo: Greenpeace)

Bridgetown, Barbados July 24, 2006 – As deforestation continues in the Amazon there is a warning that this could create an atmospheric/oceanic imbalance which would have dire consequences for the Caribbean.

According to president of Counterpart International, Lelei LeLaulu, it will disrupt the flow of warm air in the atmosphere, leading to increased hurricane activity in the Caribbean and the Gulf states of America and Mexico.

"Climate scientists, however, have compiled studies which conclude the vast Amazonia is more the 'heart of the planet' for its role in pumping moisture and rain to South America and beyond. Basically, the scientists are telling us forest destruction of the Amazon leads to a failure of forest transpiration, the forest pumps, leaving heat in the southern north Atlantic which in turn gives birth to more extreme hurricanes in the Caribbean,"  said Mr LeLaulu.

He further said that the studies have now provided information that probably explains why sea temperature of the southern north Atlantic has been rising, giving birth to "more extreme hurricanes which ravage the Caribbean and North America".

LeLaulu said the description of the Amazon as "the lungs of the planet" may not be totally accurate as the region re-absorbs some 80-percent of the oxygen it generates.

Meantime Barbadian fishermen have been reporting an unusual phenomenon. They say that large schools of sprats have been sighted swimming towards the island and coming very close to shore. So thick are the schools and so close to shore that one could easily just scoop them up. Reports on the south west coast say that they have been swimming into onshore water canals. Scientists here suggest that this could be linked to logging in the Amazon rainforest. Sprats, a pelagic fish, is very sensitive to changes in ocean temperatures and prefer to live in bodies of water which are very warm.

Activities in the Amazon and other large rivers in South America are known to affect the Caribbean. In 1999 there was a massive die off of reef fish around Grenada, Tobago and Barbados. The fish were infected with a fresh water bacterium, streptococcus iniae, which to that point in time was found predominantly in fresh water dolphins in the Amazon River. That years rain-laden tropical waves dumped several feet of rain on South America swelling the rivers and washing out trillions of gallons of water infested with algae in which the bacteria was found. The bacteria infected the fish killing them by the thousands and putting a million dollar dent on the fishing industries of the three countries.