EDITORIAL: Dead zone needs to just die
August 07. 2007; Houma CourierThe issue: Dead zone.
We suggest: Shrink the problem.
For years now, scientists and others have known about the vast dead zone in the
Although they could clearly see that little life could exist in the oxygen-depleted waters of the dead zone, they weren’t sure what the long-term effects would be.
Now, the news appears even more grim.
Biologists are predicting that the dead zone could have dire consequences for the Gulf shrimp industry.
It is an ironic prediction given that the dead zone now is a boon for shrimpers, who set up outside its limits and load up on the shrimp as they flee from it.
In years to come, though, the oxygen problem will keep shrimp from being able to spend as much time in the Gulf, leading them to be smaller and fewer.
Each summer, the dead zone grows in the Gulf, the result of nitrogen- and phosphorous-based runoff from farms and sewage-treatment plants up and down the
The nitrogen and phosphorous flow into the Gulf and feed algae blooms that are already in the water, causing them to grow at great rates. When those blooms die, they sink to the bottom and decay, sucking the oxygen out of the water.
Although shrimp and other mobile creatures can get to more-hospitable waters, the entire process will likely have dreadful effects as the years pass.
That is why it is crucial that the
With increased pressure to grow more corn to fuel-ethanol production, farmers have ramped up their growing — resulting in 19 percent more corn planted this year than last.
Unfortunately, that production also has meant increased runoff from all those farms in
And all of it ends up in the
This year, the dead zone — at 5,200 square miles — is the third-largest in history. And it still isn’t as big as many had predicted.
Clearly, this is a serious and growing problem. But it is one that
For that, we will need the cooperation and understanding of the federal government, which can get farmers and others upstream to alter the chemical makeup of what they put into the
The
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