Researchers
say this year's dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico could be one of the
largest on record and continue to threaten the over half billion
dollar gulf coast seafood industry.
Scientists
are predicting the area could measure between 8,000 and 10,000 square
miles, or an area roughly the size of Vermont.
The
largest hypoxic zone measured to date occurred in 2002 and
encompassed more than 8,400 square miles.
The
Gulf dead zone forms each spring and summer off the Louisiana and
Texas coast when oxygen levels drop too low to support most life in
bottom and near-bottom waters.
The
zone is caused by nitrates and nitrogen from fertilizer and urban
runoff flowing down the Mississippi River.
The
amount of nitrogen entering the Gulf of Mexico each spring has
increased by about 300 percent since the 1960s, mainly due to
increased agricultural runoff.
High
water in the Mississippi River and higher-than-average nitrogen
concentrations in the waterway this spring are driving the estimate
upward.
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