25 July 2006Free Speech Radio News
Scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and Louisiana State University are predicting that the so-called "dead zone" in the Gulf of Mexico along the coasts of Texas and Louisiana will reach an area of 6700 square miles this summer. That's nearly 2000 square miles above the summer average since 1990. Dead zones are areas of very low oxygen in the water at or near the ocean floor. Nitrate and phosphorus loads carried into the Gulf by the Mississippi and Atchafalaya rivers can cause excessive algae production in the summer months. The algae that sinks to the bottom consumes more oxygen than required to sustain other marine life in the same area. According to the Center for Sponsored Coastal Ocean Research, dead zones can cause "habitat loss, stress and even death to marine organisms; affecting commercial harvests and the health of impacted ecosystems". Researchers have found that nitrogen loads into the Gulf have tripled in the past 50 years.
