A 'dead zone' off the Gulf coast is larger than NOAA predicted. The massive area poses danger to marine life, and recovery could take decades.

For decades, an oxygen-depleted dead zone that is harmful to sea life has appeared in the Gulf of Mexico in a region off the coasts of Louisiana and Texas. This year, it’s larger than average, federal scientists announced in a report Thursday.

This year, the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico entered into the top third of largest dead zones in records that go back 38 years, (…)

The 2024 zone in the Gulf is about 6,705 square miles, which is an area roughly the size of New Jersey.

The latest measurement is about 1,000 square miles larger than NOAA’s prediction in June, calculated using discharge from the Mississippi River and nutrient runoff data from the U.S. Geological Survey.

  • Em Adespoton@lemmy.ca
    7·
    3 months ago

    I thought that dead zone was due to river pollution? This seems to imply it’s a convection issue….

    • NegativeInf@lemmy.world
      16·
      3 months ago

      It is generally. But usually mitigated by current to churn it up. Make it light. And frothy.

      I’m from that area of Texas. People only go to beaches around there to show off their jeeps and get arrested for throwing beer bottles at each other. The water is like jellyfish and dead seaweed soup.

      And just this week we were warned of higher than normal levels of flesh eating bacteria!

    • Gamma@beehaw.orgEnglish
      3·
      3 months ago

      I see plenty of talk about pollution

      A dead zone occurs at the bottom of a body of water when there isn’t enough oxygen in the water to support marine life. Also known as hypoxia, it’s created by nutrient runoff, mostly from over-application of fertilizer on agricultural fields during the spring.
      […]
      Nutrients such as nitrogen can feed the growth of algae, and when the algae die, their decay consumes oxygen faster than it can be brought down from the surface, NOAA said. As a result, fish, shrimp and crabs can suffocate.