Blue Legacy – Louisiana: Downstream dead zone
By Blue Legacy’s Expedition: Blue PlanetSunday, April 26, 2009
Wilma Subra, southern Louisiana’s own activist-grandmother extraordinaire, was one of the first people to identify the Dead Zone. A chemist, she’d been conducting tests off of oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico when she noticed a strange dearth of dissolved oxygen. She and other scientists launched an investigation, and now understand how the Dead Zone works.
Wilma explains, “Nitrogen and phosphorous from fertilizers travel down the Mississippi River and into the Gulf of Mexico. This makes algae blossom like crazy. As the algae grow, they use up all the oxygen. When they die off, they sink to the bottom of the ocean and use up more oxygen there, too. So there’s this layer of water in the Gulf that is void of oxygen—that means nothing can live there." READ MORE
–from Alexandra Cousteau‘s Mississippi River blog/Expedition: Blue Planet
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More from the Mississippi River Expedition on MNN:
• Blue Legacy – St. Louis: Upstream America
• Blue Legacy – How farmers may hurt the fishermen
• Blue Legacy – Louisiana: Life on the edge
• Blue Legacy – An interview with Louisiana musician Tab Benoit
Related stories on MNN:
• What is the Gulf of Mexico dead zone?
• U.S. "dead zone" smaller but more severe
About:
Expedition: Blue Planet is part of Alexandra Cousteau’s Blue Legacy. It is a 100-day journey across 5 continents exploring the most critical water issues of our time. This Expedition is not just about oceans: it’s about people, our connection to water issues around the world, and a recognition that we all have the power to protect and replenish our most important life support system.