Ocean Conservation & Tidalpunk

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A community to discuss news about our oceans & seas, marine conservation, sustainable aquatic tech, and anything related to Tidalpunk - the ocean-centric subgenre of Solarpunk.

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A 'dead zone' is growing in the Gulf of Mexico. It's now the size of New Jersey (eu.statesman.com)

submitted 4 months ago by solo to c/tidalpunk

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For decades, an oxygen-depleted dead zone that is harmful to sea life has appeared in the Gulf of Mexico in a region off the coasts of Louisiana and Texas. This year, it's larger than average, federal scientists announced in a report Thursday.

This year, the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico entered into the top third of largest dead zones in records that go back 38 years, (..)

The 2024 zone in the Gulf is about 6,705 square miles, which is an area roughly the size of New Jersey.

The latest measurement is about 1,000 square miles larger than NOAA's prediction in June, calculated using discharge from the Mississippi River and nutrient runoff data from the U.S. Geological Survey.

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[–] GammaGames@beehaw.org 3 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

I see plenty of talk about pollution

A dead zone occurs at the bottom of a body of water when there isn't enough oxygen in the water to support marine life. Also known as hypoxia, it's created by nutrient runoff, mostly from over-application of fertilizer on agricultural fields during the spring.
[…]
Nutrients such as nitrogen can feed the growth of algae, and when the algae die, their decay consumes oxygen faster than it can be brought down from the surface, NOAA said. As a result, fish, shrimp and crabs can suffocate.