Massive 8,000-mile 'dead zone' could be one of the gulf's largest

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Just off the coast of Louisiana and Texas where the Mississippi River empties, the ocean is dying. The cyclical event known as the dead zone occurs every year, but scientists predict that this year's could be one of the largest in recorded history.

Annual spring rains wash the nutrients used in fertilizers and sewage into the Mississippi. That fresh water, less dense than ocean water, sits on top of the ocean, preventing oxygen from mixing through the water column. Eventually those freshwater nutrients can spur a burst of algal growth, which consumes oxygen as the plants decompose.

The resulting patch of low-oxygen waters leads to a condition called hypoxia, where animals in the area suffocate and die. Scientists estimate that this year the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico will spread for just over or just under 8,000 square miles across the continental shelf situated off the coast.

Choking an ecosystem

“When the oxygen is below two parts per million, any shrimp, crabs, and fish that can swim away, will swim away,” says Louisiana State University ocean ecologist Nancy Rabalais. “The animals in the sediment [that can't swim away] can be close to annihilated.”

https://www.msn.com/en-us/weather/topstories/massive-8000-mile-dead-zone-could-be-one-of-the-gulfs-largest/ar-AACFFkp?li=BBnbfcL

[gtar100]

2. And the kicker? Money matters more than life itself

(according to far too many in these states), therefore, too bad so sad nothing will be done by the older generations currently squatting in the halls of government and corporate board rooms. Young people ought to read this, look at their parents and grandparents generations and scream, "What the fuck have you done? You *knew* this was happening long ago." Killing off humans and other beautiful species for nightly meat and fish on our plates and a nostalgia for gas-powered engines.