Mapping the "Dead Zone" 2007
The Issue:
The scientific word for the commonly named "Dead Zone" is hypoxia,
or low oxygen. The second largest human-caused zone of hypoxia in the world's coastal
waters is found in the Gulf of Mexico adjacent to the Mississippi River system. Important commercial and recreational fisheries are impacted as reduced oxygen levels force fish, shrimp and crabs from the area. Animals that cannot move away die. Freshwater and nutrients from the Mississippi lead to the annual formation of the hypoxic waters, and increasing nutrient loads beginning in the 1950s are responsible for worsening oxygen conditions since then.
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| Mississippi River plume meets Gulf of Mexico at Southwest Pass
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