Gulf's "Dead Zone" Could Be Largest Yet Recorded
The Gulf of Mexico experiences an annual "dead zone" of oxygen-depleted waters as summer storms in the Mississippi River watershed carry a surge of agricultural fertilizer runoff, animal waste, municipal sewage, and other contaminants downstream to the river's mouth. Once the contaminant-laden runoff flows into the warm environment of the Gulf, marine phytoplankton, or algae, respond to the sudden influx of nutrients with large blooms of excessive growth. The algae themselves consume oxygen, and they also create large amounts of organic matter that eventually sink deep into the water column and to the sea floor. There, bacteria break down the organic matter in a process that further absorbs oxygen. The end result: low oxygen levels in the surrounding waters, which can suffocate fish and other marine animals and force others to escape by abandoning their habitat. So, while tiny phytoplankton form a critical component of the ocean food chain, their runaway growth in response to agricultural and municipal runoff can create a hypoxic wasteland in the marine environment along the Gulf Coast and up to 60 miles out to sea.
This year, scientists predict that the dead zone may be the largest yet recorded, at between 8,500 and 9,400 square miles, or approximately the size of Lake Erie. This is due to enhanced runoff from the rain-drenched and flooded Mississippi River watershed.
According to Dr. Nancy Rabalais, of the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium, the 2011 dead zone likely will exceed the 2002 zone, the largest known to date, by some five to ten percent. Dr. Rabalais has studied the dead zone effect since 1985 and is considered a leading expert on the phenomenon.
In media interviews, Dr. Rabalais noted that the impending dead zone would have serious implications for Gulf shrimpers, who will have to move outside the hypoxic area in order to make their catches. Thus shrimpers face added time, fuel and effort expended for possibly reduced takes. Clint Guidry, president of the Louisiana Shrimp Association, was quoted in a New York Times article as describing the expected largest-ever dead zone as "a disaster in the making" for the industry.
Rabalais noted, as well, that the chronic environmental stressor of the Gulf dead zone could interfere with the Gulf's ongoing recovery from 2010's enormous oil spill after the catastrophic loss of the BP Deepwater Horizon oil rig. In addition to killing and injuring crew members, the accident resulted in the largest-ever domestic maritime oil spill, which in turn wreaked havoc on environmental and economic interests throughout the Gulf.
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