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NOAA Forecast Predicts Large Gulf Dead Zone this Summer |
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Jul 02, 2009 at 08:36 AM |
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A team of NOAA-supported scientists is forecasting that this summer's "dead
zone" off the coast of Louisiana and Texas could be one of the largest on
record. The dead zone is an area in the Gulf of Mexico where seasonal oxygen
levels drop too low to support most life in bottom and near-bottom waters.
Scientists are predicting that the area could measure between 7,450 and 8,456
square miles, or an area roughly the size of New Jersey.
Dead zones are caused by nutrient runoff, principally from agricultural
activity, which stimulates an overgrowth of algae that sinks, decomposes, and
consumes most of the life-giving oxygen supply in the water. This area of low
oxygen is of particular concern because it threatens valuable commercial and
recreational Gulf fisheries by destroying critical habitat. NOAA's Southeast
Area Monitoring and Assessment Program is currently providing near real-time data on the hypoxic zone during a five-week
fish survey in the northern Gulf of Mexico (June 8 through July 18).
For more information, read the NOAA news release.
Submitted by Tom Herrington.
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Conservation & Environment 