Dead Zones in the Gulf of Mexico

A dead zone area in the Gulf of Mexico along the coast of Louisiana and Texas is causing the marine life that call that place home to flee or perish due to uninhabitable levels of oxygen in the water. Dissolved oxygen near the bottom of that area only accounts for .000002% of the water composition--rendering aquatic life in that area non-existent or extremely futile. A surplus of nutrients being deposited via the Mississippi River is largely to blame, creating superfluous amounts of algae and zooplankton. These organisms then defecate, and the remnants then fall to the ocean floor and deplete oxygen levels--thus causing hypoxia or a dead zone.