Dead Zones in the ocean
By: Zoe Beck
Dead zone major issues:
Dead zones form areas in the ocean that are not suitable for ocean life to live in, mainly due to the low levels of oxygen, many fish get caught in a dead zone and trying to escape but they suffocate and die before they can get out. In Chesapeake Bay dead zones are linked to disease outbreak, such as mycobacteriosis.
Areas near north america that deal with dead zones
The Gulf of Mexico is not only the biggest dead zone near North America, it is one of the biggest dead zones in the world occurring every spring. The Gulfs dead zone varies, but it estimates up to about 6,000-7,000 square miles. The dead zone is between the inner and mid-continental shelf in the Northern part of the Gulf of Mexico.
some pictures of dead zones!
Wildlife?
Low oxygen levels can affect animals such as fish and mobile invertebrates{animals like shrimp and crab} can migrate out in time if lucky, but plants along with slow moving animals or attached to the bottom {seagrass, worms, and clams} cannot escape and will die.
The dead sea
The dead sea, "sea of salt" is not a dead zone, although it is not survivable for animals because of the large amounts of salt that contaminate the water. It has a 34.2% salinity, which makes it one of the saltiest bodies of water in the world. It is 9.6 times as salty as the ocean. and in my opinion it should be counted as a dead zone due to the lac of life there.
pictures of the dead sea
FUN FACT
The black sea is not an ocean dead zone, but it is the largest dead zone on the planet!
How do dead zones occur?
When nutrients wash into rivers and flow into large bodies of water they cause large plankton blooms, when the plankton die they take the oxygen out of the water, which kills the animals due to oxygen deprivation.
The solution!
Some of the solutions people have come up with are :
- Using less fertilizer
- Better ways to discard chemicals
- alternative methods for sewage systems
ZOE BECKS* DEAD ZONE SOLUTION
I think the solutions that have already been made up are good but i feel if people were just more careful with their fertilizer use, and sewage the ocean would be okay.