I think we all have to admit it, we live on a great planet. Just look out into space and see what most of those other worlds are like. Instead of Earth we could be living on Mars or maybe Venus or one of those other harsh worlds. Of course we our bodies would have to be different because we couldn't live in these places, constructed the way we are now. It may turn out that our planet is one of the few nice places within several solar systems or even more. When astronomers talk about discovering other planets, they are not talking about beautiful planets like our Earth, they are talking about gassy giants like Jupiter or maybe cold rocky and icy planets that resemble dead worlds more than anything else, at least this is what we think. So knowing this, why wouldn't we want to do everything in our power to protect our beautiful planet? This has always puzzled me.

Dead Zone In Gulf Of Mexico
Graphic Source: NOAA

As we all know, our planet is mostly water. Would you want to turn our oceans into open sewers? I don't think so and yet there are some huge areas of our oceans that are now DEAD. There is an area off the coast of Oregon that is bigger than Rhode Island that kills anything that comes into it. Fish can not survive in it, neither can crustaceans or any other sea life. Oxygen in the water in this area is depleted and gives readings of nearly zero. What has caused this? There are some ideas that suggest that one cause is huge amounts of fertilizer and polluting materials that run into the water and go straight to the bottom, decomposing and using up the oxygen, but not everyone agrees that this is the only cause. Some think that the winds have changed their patterns and this prevents the water from circulating and the oxygen gets used up in an area. What they do know is that it seems that one dead zone has formed every year for the past five years and every year it lasts longer. This dead zone is now dissipating, but it lasted over seventeen weeks already. Last year it had lasted for about six weeks. Will there come a time when it won't go away? Winds were responsible for finally blowing the oxygen starved water out to sea and mixing it with oxygen rich water. So how many of these dead zones are there. According to a recent United Nations report, there are over 200 dead zones worldwide.

The Gulf of Mexico contains a huge dead zone. What a shame that this beautiful area of the ocean is in such bad condition. Just recently an oil leak in a pipeline was pumping 21,000 gallons of oil into the gulf. This certainly didn't do it any good and it isn't the first leak either. The company claimed it had shut down the leak, but the U.S. Coast Guard stated that even shut off, about 400 gallons per day were seeping out of the pipe. The dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico changes in size every year. At the end of the 90s it was 7,728 square miles. That is a pretty big area that nothing can live in. As with other dead zones, it has a lack of sufficient oxygen to keep sea creatures alive. One of the times that this area was at it's smallest was in a year that there was a drought. This has to lead to the conclusion that it is being caused by things being washed down into it from rivers, at least partially. If a creature is not a fish or some other swimming animal, and stays on the bottom of the ocean, it has no way to escape the dead zone and dies. Some fish can make it out, but even some of them die before they realize what is happening.

A dead zone in Narragansett Bay in 2001 killed billions of mussels. Many of them washed up on the beaches in Rhode Island and residents stated that the smell was overpowering. So how many mussels actually died? The scientific estimate is that 4.5 billion mussels met their death due to this dead zone. That is over 80% of the mussels in the area. There were nine mussel reefs in the central bay, one was completely wiped out and seven were severely depleted. A month before when all the mussels were checked, they were fine. Here is the worst part. A year later the mussel reefs were checked again and only one reef was recovering. Here is a scientific explanation of exactly what is happening. "Hypoxia can start when fertilizer or sewage spills into coastal waters, carrying nitrogen, phosphorus and other nutrients. Often fueled by warm temperatures and a lack of circulation, this nutrient rush can cause algae blooms. When the algae dies, it sinks to the bottom, where it is consumed by bacteria – along with dissolved oxygen."

When a storm hits a dead zone it apparently shrinks it. A very big storm shrinks it a lot. The water is circulated out to sea and oxygen rich water rushes in. This will turn around after the storm and the dead zone will most likely begin to expand again. Many think that as we grow more food, we harm the oceans more. More food means more fertilizer and waste. The fertilizer and waste wash down into the oceans. If we could control our waste we might be able to rejuvenate the oceans. As I said, there are over 200 dead zones in the ocean and that is up from 149 only two years ago. If things keep going this way, will our oceans be destroyed? It is beginning to seem that way. This assumes that we are going to keep on doing what we are doing.

Dead Crab In Dead Zone
Photo Source: NOAA

Oceans are not the only places that have dead zones. There are rivers that have them also. An example of this is the Pearl River Estuary and the Changjang River in China. The Aegean sea is not exempt from this horror either. What we have to do is try and find new types of fertilizer that won't have this effect. Cutting down on fertilizer usage might help. This is certainly a problem that needs scientific investigation. We might have to grow our food off world some day. As the population of the Earth increases more food is required. We are killing off one food source to increase the productivity of another. Are we really gaining anything here? It is a simple equation, more wheat = less fish. Let's hope that we find a solution and that we find it soon.