NOAA Confirms - Gulf Of Mexico Dead Zone Will Hit All-Time Record Size This Year - Reuters

[hatrack]

HOUSTON - The Gulf of Mexico's "dead zone" -- a swath of algae-laden water with oxygen levels low enough to choke out marine life -- will likely reach record size this year, and the main culprits are rising ethanol use and massive Midwest flooding, scientists said on Tuesday.

The dead zone, which recurs each year off the Texas and Louisiana coasts, could stretch to more than 8,800 square miles (22,790 sq km) this year -- about the size of New Jersey -- compared with 6,662 square miles (17,250 sq km) in 2006 and nearly double the annual average since 1990 of 4,800 square miles (12,430 sq km). Scientists from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium and Louisiana State University said the algae that lowers oxygen levels in the dead zone is being fed by farm use of fertilizers like nitrogen and phosphorus.

For fishermen who look to the Gulf of Mexico for crabs, shrimp, crawfish and other seafood, the growing dead zone means they must venture farther out into the gulf's waters to find their catch.

The record dead zone is due to soaring use of ethanol in US motor gasoline supplies and by massive flooding in the Midwest earlier this year, scientists said. "We're planting an awful lot of corn and soybeans," said Eugene Turner, a scientist at Louisiana State University. "It rinses off easily when there is a rain."

EDIT

http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/49388/story.htm



EDIT

http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/49388/story.htm

[phantom power]

1. I'm sure we can achieve the size of a much larger state if we keep trying.

[XemaSab]

2. I know. New Jersey?

Honestly. :eyes:

[hatrack]

3. We could at least go for something a little more robust - Maryland or WV at the least!

After all, we are Americans, filled with can-do spirit!

[XemaSab]

4. I'm from out West

I'm thinking more like Washington state. :shrug:

[Nihil]

7. Aha!

> After all, we are Americans, filled with can-do spirit!

So, if you dilute your can-do spirit with ethanol (like you do with
your gasoline) then you can *really* go for a serious sized dead zone!
:silly:

[NNadir]

10. I resemble that remark.

How come every time talks pollution, they refer to New Jersey?

Would there be something wrong with a Massachusetts sized dead zone?

[kestrel91316]

5. Can I rig this thing up so that I just hit a single button and it automatically

types "ANOTHER Mission Accomplished (TM)!!" for me? This is getting downright exhausting.

[XemaSab]

6. Try making a sig line that says that

:D

[Dead_Parrot]

8. Sigh...

...Bloody Texans always have to have the biggest of everything.

[Vogon_Glory]

9. I Fear For The Flower Gardens

I fear for the Flower Gardens, a set of coral reefs not too far from the Texas-Louisiana border. The Flower Gardens are a wonderfully diverse eco-system with many different species of fish, invertibrates, and corals not found in most of the Gulf of Mexico.