Gulf of Mexico Dead Zone

Dave Ruigh, Mother Earth News Editorial Intern
August/September 2006

dead zone, Gulf of Mexico dead zone,dead zone usa, hypoxia
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Nitrogen from fertilizer runoff causes huge dead zones in the oceans where fish and other marine life can't survive.
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In the Gulf of Mexico, several miles off the Louisiana coast, lies one of the world's largest 'dead zones' ? oxygen-deprived areas devoid of all marine life. Researchers predict that this summer, the dead zone will grow to cover nearly

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6,700 square miles, an area roughly half the size of Maryland, and far larger than its size in recent years of 4,800 square miles.

Worst of all, the dead zone is human-made: runoff from farms in the Midwest adds as much as 7.8 million pounds of nitrate fertilizer to the Mississippi River and its tributaries each day during peak loading periods, which then runs downriver and empties into the Gulf. As it does with plants grown on land, the nitrogen causes algae and plankton in the area to flourish, using all available oxygen in the water. The result is hypoxia, an oxygen depleted dead zone in which fish and other marine life simply cannot survive.

According to a study done by the Environmental Working Group, much of the fertilizer runoff comes from heavily subsidized farms in the Corn Belt, an area that includes Iowa, Illinois and Indiana. Corn requires the highest fertilizer input of any major crop, and about 45 percent of all commodity support payments in that area go to its production. The money typically spent on taxpayer-funded farm subsidies in the area dwarfs the amount spent on efforts to protect water quality and conservation by a ratio of more than 500 to 1.

To learn more about the dead zone, visit the Science Museum of Minnesota's interactive site, or the Mississippi River Basin Alliance.





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Archived Comments

  • MIKE withheld 11/9/2006 12:00:00 AM

    I found this story to be both eye opening, and yet, sadly,
    redundant. While I applaud your efforts to get this information
    "out there", I can tell you one thing for certain, Mid-westerners
    aren't hearing it. I live in rural southern Minnesota, and really
    wish I had better news but I just don't see it getting better. And
    now, with Ethanol on the horizon? I'm not a farmer, but living in
    rural Minnesota you get quite an agricultural education, like it or
    not! This fall has seen more sludge and hog waste being dumped on
    these fields out here than I've ever seen. Looks like they're
    preparing for big time production next year. Wish I had better
    news.

  • L Sart 8/14/2006 12:00:00 AM

    I no longer live on the Gulf Coast due to the hurricane but I
    will say that just about all the dead fish looked to be saltwater
    catfish type and other bottom feeder type , also the wind blows
    from the south and blows the filth wash up on the shores all along
    the Gulf Coast shores of Texas & Louisiana , that seems to be a
    holding stop place of all the filth and garbage thats dumped out in
    the ocean. It took a tractor with a front loader to remove and pile
    up all the dead fish. The Gulf can really have warm water , when
    you add the trash filth and waste thats dumped into the water along
    with all the dead fish... it's a perfect breeding ground for
    bacteria !!!!

  • AARON Kibbie 8/14/2006 12:00:00 AM

    Sorry to hear you lost your home to the hurricane. I hope things
    are going well for you now. It is so sad to hear of the negative
    impact of our society when there is so much we could be doing for
    good. Best wishes to you.

  • AARON Kibbie 8/13/2006 12:00:00 AM

    I don't know if that issue has anything to do with The Dead
    Zone. However, the problem is the same, MAN. Chemical fertilizers
    are what is causing TDZ which are manufactured and distributed by
    man. What caused the issue on the Louisiana side may or not be
    related, usually fish stay away from TDZ entirely would you be
    willing to find out and post the information you
    discover?

  • L Sart 8/13/2006 12:00:00 AM

    I dont know why this happens to the fish but I have seen the
    Gulf Beach on the Louisiana side , there was so many dead stinking
    fish on the beach that ,I could not walk along it. There was
    garbage and trash everywhere, like hospital waste stuff that had
    washed ashore along with the dead fish . The biggest problem I saw
    was "MAN" and not fertilizer as I wonder how a fish could swim with
    all that garbage in their water.

  • AARON Kibbie 8/12/2006 12:00:00 AM

    Something to note about the record high is that it came with the
    flooding of the states contributing to the fertilizer run off.
    Hurricanes by nature do not travel inland very far. Such being the
    case they would not create additional run off in the areas which
    supply the fertilizer. The states that contribute to The Dead Zone
    are Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, and southern Minnesota. Katrina
    didn't go there it went over MS and TN.

  • AARON Kibbie 8/12/2006 12:00:00 AM

    The storm surge wouldn’t affect the Dead Zone because the water
    is too deep in that region. All in all I would say Katrina is a
    moot point in relationship to The Dead Zone. NOAA’s solution to the
    problem is to reduce the fertilizers getting in to the
    gulf.

  • AARON Kibbie 8/12/2006 12:00:00 AM

    In my opinion crop rotation, and natural fertilzers/compost is
    the way to go. It is true it will take a major change in the way
    our country does 'business' to repair the damage done. The best we
    can do is make our opinons known and vote in a manner consistent
    with our beliefs. Sorry about the broked up post but there is a 500
    word limit and thanks for the conversation! Happy voting! -
    Aaron

  • mike noland 8/12/2006 12:00:00 AM

    I agree that the root cause is from fertilizer run off. But why
    the increase in size that the author makes note of? At 6,700 square
    miles we are almost matching the historical 7K that has been stated
    as the past recorded high.It is goining to take a drastic change in
    America's political climate before our environmental crises is
    properly addressed.I am still very curios about the impact of
    Catrinia on the Gulf's water quality. Given the massive flooding
    surely there had to be a significant back flush into the Gulf of
    Mexico?m noland

  • AARON Kibbie 8/11/2006 12:00:00 AM

    In response comment 1: The Dead Zone is not caused by the alge
    and phytoplankton blooms, it is caused by their decomposition. As
    the blooms die, they drop to the ocean floor and decompose, using
    up the oxygen of the deeper water. The stratification of the water
    that occurs during the summer in the Gulf prevents the deepest
    water from becoming re-oxygenated. The Dead Zone has been as large
    as 7,000 square miles in the past.In response to commment 2: The
    Dead Zone does not have enough nutrients in it to support oxygen
    producing alge or phytoplankton, that is why it dies and sinks
    there. What we need to do is stop using chemical
    fertilizers.

  • mike noland 8/10/2006 12:00:00 AM

    I wonder if the run off pollution from hurricane Catrinia, had
    any impact on the increase of dead zone size. I am 'surprised' that
    there has not been anything in the news.....This is a dramatic
    increase that I would guess had something to do with the hurricane.
    We haven't grown a notable increase in corn, have we?M
    Noland

  • Douglas Wolferman 8/8/2006 12:00:00 AM

    I was always under the assumption that algae produced oxygen,
    not deplete it. If the case may be, then we have an over-abundance
    of CO2 in the water. Why not try to plant some CO2 loving plants
    that would benefit from the nitrogen and also produce O2?

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