The Gulf of Mexico dead zone is huge!
Although it has shrunk this year, the Gulf of Mexico dead zone is still the size of Connecticut! Unbelievable!
The dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico is the second largest after the dead zone in the Baltic Sea. It measures an amazing 5,052 square miles, which is about the size of Connecticut! WOW!
What is a dead zone?
Nutrients and other fetilizers on farms can trigger dead zones. It is actually a place providing an all-you-can eat buffet for phytoplankton, creating huge blooms (much bigger than that which lead to a drinking water ban in Toledo and region).
This video shows how such algae blooms lead to water dead zones:
- The phytoplankton die or are consumed by other creatures.
- Bacteria decompose the waste and the phytoplankton’s microscopic remains. AND USE THE WATER OXYGEN!
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The dead zone is the resulting low oxygen area.
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Without oxygen, marine creatures have to either move to other areas of the ocean, or die, thus sometimes leading to mass die-offs.
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