The numbers are in. The 2019 Gulf of Mexico Hypoxic Zone, or Dead Zone, an area
of low oxygen that can kill fish and marine life near the bottom of the sea,
measures 6,952 square miles. This is the
8th largest dead zone in the Gulf since mapping of the zone began in 1985!
It begins innocently enough. Farmers use fertilizers to increase the output of
their crops so that we can have more food on our tables and more food to sell
to the rest of the world. But it is this agricultural runoff combined with urban
runoff that brings excessive amounts of nutrients into waterways that feed the
Mississippi River and starts a chain of events in the Gulf that turns deadly.
These nutrients fuel large algal blooms that then sink, decompose,
and deplete the water of oxygen.
This is hypoxia -
when oxygen in the water is so low it can no longer sustain marine life
in bottom or near bottom waters - literally a dead zone.
When the water reaches this hypoxic state,
fish and shrimp leave the area and anything that can't
escape like crabs, worms, and clams die.
So, the very fertilizers that are helping our crops are
disrupting the food chain and devastating our food sources in the
ocean when applied in excess.
If the amount of fertilizer, sewage, and urban runoff
dumping into the Gulf isn't reduced, the dead zone will continue
to wreak havoc on the ecosystem and threaten some of the most productive
fisheries in the world.