Have you ever wondered if there will be a day when our oceans are filled with death and lifelessness? If you haven’t, well, we’ll be seeing it sooner than you think. As the days pass, the number of ocean dead zones keeps increasing, popping out in different regions of the world, seizing all the life and joy in the oceans. What was once beautiful and bright will turn out to be dark and devoid of aquatic biodiversity. It is no longer an issue that we can ignore. We must act at once.
Dead zones are vast tracts of oceans that do not sustain life because of hypoxia or a lack of oxygen. Climate change is the main suspect of the changes that trigger dead zones in ocean activity. Dead zone numbers have been rising alarmingly, with over 500 known to exist, and the numbers will surely increase. Some are even as large as Connecticut. As a result, economic instability has started to rise due to the overwhelming costs of diminishing tourism and fishing yield.
It begins innocently enough. According to National Geographic, after the 1970s, dead zones became more widespread, almost doubling each decade since the 1960s. A 2008 study found that 400 dead zones exist worldwide—anywhere excess nutrients travel downstream and into a body of water. Fertilizers used to help plants grow, slowly destroys the ocean as it brings excessive amounts of nutrients into waterways encouraging the growth of algal blooms that then sink, decompose, and deplete the waters of oxygen - Hypoxia.
Once this phenomenon occurs, living organisms such as shrimp and fish flee the oceans in hopes of survival, while those who are unfortunate are left to die. Besides, genetic mutations may occur as a result of hypoxia. For example, a study found that female Atlantic croaker fish developed reproductive organs more similar to testes than ovaries when living in hypoxic conditions. Some organisms are unable to grow into their supposed length, inflating prices for consumers. However, some fishermen have reported that they have captured larger fish in the higher water columns - probably one of the only advantages of dead zones. Therefore, if excessive amounts of fertilizer, sewage, and urban run-off dumping are unregulated, dead zones will continue devastating the ecosystem and risk the very existence of our healthy-living oceans.
On the brighter side of things, it is safe to say that dead zones can be forecasted. Although nutrient run-off is one of the primary factors affecting the creation of dead zones, there are other factors such as wind direction and strength. Some countries, for instance, the United States of America, have started to use nitrate sensors, stream gauges, and long term sites to predict the different sizes and volume of hypoxic waters. Through this, the possibility of sooner awareness and intervention in the forming of dead zones.
Some probable solutions are to encourage better farm management by limiting the use of fertilizers emphasizing environmental protection and further research and develop technology for advanced studies on hypoxia levels and other possible solutions. According to Bill Northey, a USDA member of the task force, at the rate that we are improving, the process of reducing nutrient loading will take up much time. However, some momentum has occurred. Much more progress has been made compared to earlier years. It is only a matter of time before it will no longer be an issue.
References
US Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. “Happening Now: Dead Zone in the Gulf 2020.” Oceantoday.Noaa.Gov, oceantoday.noaa.gov/happenowdeadzone/.
“Dead Zones, Explained.” Nationalgeographic.Com, 2 Aug. 2019, www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/oceans/dead-zones/.
California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, and Twitter Twitter. “The Ocean Has Issues: 7 Biggest Problems Facing Our Seas, and How to Fix Them.” Treehugger, www.treehugger.com/the-ocean-has-issues-biggest-problems-facing-our-seas-and-how-to-fix-them-4858760.
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