Gulf of Mexico plagued by record ”dead zones”

HOUSTON (Reuters) – Researchers have found 9,650 square miles of “dead zones,” or oxygen-depleted water, in the Gulf of Mexico this summer, the biggest area since tracking of the annual phenomenon began.

They say humans are mostly to blame for the dead waters, and that increased planting of corn to make ethanol is adding to the problem.

The dead zones, which have been appearing each summer since at least 1970, threaten marine life and over time have altered the gulf’s ecology, scientists say.
Usually researchers, who began measuring the dead zones in 1985, find only one large zone each year, just off the Louisiana coast where the Mississippi River empties into the gulf.

But this summer, for the first time, a separate zone has developed off Texas, Texas A&M University oceanographer Steve DiMarco said this week.

Recent measurements taken in separate studies show the Louisiana dead zone covered about 7,900 square miles (20,461 sq km), while the Texas zone was 1,750 square miles, for a total of 9,650.

Reuters