Report: Oxygen-depleted 'dead zone' growing in Gulf

I've been following this event for a few years now. It just keeps getting bigger and bigger.


" NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (AP) -- Researchers predict that the recurring oxygen-depleted "dead zone" off the Louisiana coast will grow this summer to 8,543 square miles -- its largest in at least 22 years.

The forecast, released Monday by the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium, is based on a federal estimate of nitrogen from the Mississippi River watershed to the Gulf of Mexico. It discounts the effect storms might have.

The "dead zone" in the northern Gulf, at the end of the Mississippi River system, is one of the largest areas of oxygen-depleted coastal waters in the world. Low oxygen, or hypoxia, can be caused by pollution from farm fertilizer, soil erosion and discharge from sewage treatment plants, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

The pollution is carried downstream by the Mississippi and comes from throughout the United States.

Excess nutrients can spur the growth of algae, and when the algae die, their decay consumes oxygen faster than it can be brought down from the surface. As a result, fish, shrimp and crabs can be forced to move or die, the consortium Web site says."

Report: Oxygen-depleted 'dead zone' growing in Gulf - CNN.com

 

Very bad news indeed. There must be a tipping point where all these man-made disasters (killing off rain forests, polluting, etc.) come together and do us all in. Feels like it is getting closer by the day.

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Seems I not long ago read a Clive Cussler book ("Sahara"?) about the same thing happening off the coast of Africa. Being caused by hazardous waste runoff.

In this case of course, Dirk Pitt was around to fix it.

Where is he now?

 

thats funny.i just watched the movie they made that book into.