The Size of Delaware and Rhode Island Combined

                                                                                

Can an oceanic coastal dead zone really grow to be 3,300 square miles? Absolutely. As of July 2011, the dead zone at the mouth of the Mississippi River was expected to mushroom to 9400 square miles, states Oceanography Professor Steve DiMarco, from Texas A & M University. This particular dead zone is located in the Gulf of Mexico and it is one of the largest in the world stretching from Louisiana to Texas, and as big as Rhode Island and Delaware combined.                                                                                

                                                                               

                                                                                  

The picture above shows volunteers in China cleaning up one of their beaches. If we in the United States don't start cleaning up our oceans this could very well happen to us. An oceanic dead zone is water that has low oxygen levels due to rain runoff and irrigation, dumping large amounts of fertilizer, (predominantly nitrogen and phosphorous) as well as sewage and animal waste, into our rivers and streams. The nutrients stimulate excessive growth of algae. When the algae dies it begins to decompose and sink to the bottom of the ocean, all the while annihilating every bit of oxygen and living organism in it’s path. Literally...killing lobster, fish, crab, shrimp, and any other crustacean along it’s path.

-Kelly Peters
Sources

http://tamunews.tamu.edu/2011/07/14/2011-%E2%80%98dead-zone%E2%80%99-could-be-biggest-ever/

Di Marco, Steve, 2011 “Dead Zone” Could Be Biggest Ever, Marketing & Communications News Archive, Texas A & M University, July 14, 2011, Date of Access May 3, 2012.