Slow moving species that live on the ocean floor cannot escape a dead zone and often die. In areas that are repeatedly in the dead zone footprint, the diversity and number of species found on the ocean floor may be reduced. Other species, such as crabs, shrimp and fish, leave the dead zone in order to survive but there is evidence that dead zones may harm growth rates. Ultimately, these shifts can ripple to the top of the food chain, with top predators needing to look elsewhere for their dinner.
What Causes The Dead Zone?
So far 2019 has been the wettest year ever measured in the Mississippi River’s drainage basin. Some areas experienced rain and snowfall that were two and a half times more than normal. Fields and forests were drenched while streams and rivers swelled out of their banks into communities and farms. Normally, the sediment, fresh water, and nutrients carried by the river are essential to build and sustain deltaic wetlands, fuel our estuaries and feed Gulf seafood and wildlife. These are unquestionably good things – but too much of any one thing can have unwanted consequences.
The same way that these fertilizers spur the growth of corn in a field, they spur the growth of microscopic algae in the Gulf’s surface waters. Algae is the base of a complex food web where it is consumed by small animals, that in turn are consumed by larger creatures such as shrimp and jellyfish, and so on right up the food chain to sea turtles, bluefin tuna, sperm whales and humans. So far, so good. But in the still, hot summer, the dense salty waters on Louisiana’s continental shelf become isolated from the fresh, oxygen-rich waters on the surface and trouble begins.
As the short-lived algae die, they sink to the bottom. There, another part of the food web kicks in, this one dominated by bacteria. In the process of consuming the dead algae raining down from above, the bacteria also consume all of the available oxygen in the deep water. In the absence of storms and intense waves to mix the oxygen-depleted deep waters and the oxygen-rich surface water, a low-oxygen “Dead Zone” develops along the bottom just off the coast of Louisiana and sometimes as far west as Texas.
This hypoxic zone may persist until fall’s weather fronts move through the area, mixing the water column, bringing oxygen to the seafloor.
Dead zones are expanding throughout the world. The dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico is the second largest in the world. This year, given the length of the flood on the Mississippi River and the volume of nutrient-laden water, the hypoxic area in the Gulf of Mexico covers an area of almost 7,000 square miles.
Reducing The Dead Zone:
The good news is that a mix of forest and riparian habitat restoration and agricultural practices can help prevent future dead zones by stopping fertilizer from reaching the Gulf. Here are five ways the National Wildlife Federation is working for wildlife:
1) DEFENDING THE CLEAN WATER ACT: The best way to improve water quality is to prevent pollution at its source. We work to protect and defend the Clean Water Act against a multitude of attacks from Congress and the Trump administration. Currently, the administration is attempting to remove important safeguards that have protected our nation’s wetlands and streams since the 1970s. The Clean Water Act serves as our first line of defense against water pollution, but it cannot do so if streams and wetlands aren’t legally covered under its protections.
2) WORKING WITH FARMERS: We work on-the-ground with farmers and landowners to promote responsible conservation practices, like planting cover crops and protecting prairie potholes and other marginal farmland important to wildlife. By conserving these soil and wildlife-friendly working lands, farmers can help ensure more excess fertilizer is absorbed and does not reach the Gulf.
We are also fighting unwise federal policies, like the ethanol mandate. This EPA policy leads to the destruction of vital wildlife habitat on working lands and a drop in soil health by creating high demand for corn crops. This starts a vicious cycle: as soil health plummets, more fertilizer is required. With the soil less able to absorb fertilizer, more ends up in the Gulf, exacerbating the Dead Zone.
3) MAINTAINING CONNECTIONS BETWEEN RIVERS AND FLOOD PLAINS: We work to prevent the construction of water projects that would sever the connection between the river and its floodplain and destroy wetland habitat. In Missouri, we preserved the New Madrid Floodway a vital connection between the river and its floodplain that provide important fish and wildlife habitat and critical flood protection.
4) RESTORING THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER DELTA In Louisiana, we work to reconnect the Mississippi River with its delta by supporting the construction of sediment and freshwater diversions, designed to mimic the natural spring flood interrupted by levees. This restored coastal wetlands are vital fish and wildlife habitat and absorb nutrients before they are pushed out into the Gulf.
5) STOPPING CLIMATE CHANGE: Climate change shifts agricultural patterns and threatens the stability of aging flood control infrastructure like levees, dams, reservoirs, sewage treatment plants and more. The increasing frequency and intensity of weather events like hurricanes along the Gulf could make today’s several thousand square mile dead zone seem like a minor problem.
- In less than a century, land the size of Delaware has eroded and sunk off the coast of Louisiana into the Gulf of Mexico.
- Eight years ago, Hurricane Katrina crashed ashore, devastating entire communities.
- Three years ago, the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded spewing crude oil for 87 days.
- For over three years, Gulf bottlenose dolphins have been dying in record numbers.
- And this year, experts say the Gulf will experience it’s largest hypoxic dead zone in history. Predictions suggest an area the size of New Jersey will be entirely devoid of oxygen and sea-life.
To say the Gulf is in trouble is an understatement. Decades of misuse have left the Gulf’s natural bounty vulnerable. But we can act. We must. And fast. Here’s why:
- Every year, like clockwork, hurricane season comes to the Gulf Coast. For residents, this means more than stocking up a storm kit with new batteries and fresh water. It means wondering, “Will this be a big one?” In an era of changing ocean temperatures, rising seas, and increasingly severe storms, all-too-often, the answer is “Yes.”
- Every day, Americans fill their cars with oil—much of which is produced offshore underneath Gulf waters. There the rigs sit precariously perched tapping into a resource that is flammable, explosive and toxic.
- Every spring, rainfall washes nitrogen from agricultural fields along the Mississippi River surging into the Gulf. The mega-fertilizer leads to algae blooms that die and send oxygen levels plummeting. The result? A vast lifeless area, thousands of square miles wide.
Wise investment in restoring the Gulf environment can lessen the damage caused by hurricanes, oil extraction, and hypoxia on the Gulf Coast. The RESTORE Act provides a unique opportunity to do just that. This summer, as Gulf residents brace for the largest dead zone yet and another active hurricane season, let’s add a bright spot to the forecast: use BP oil disaster dollars to strengthen the Gulf environment, protect its people, and benefit its wildlife.
DOE Panel Calls for Action to Address Natural Gas Drilling Impacts
August 11 – The Secretary of Energy Advisory Board Natural Gas Subcommittee recently called for better enforcement, oversight and transparency for the natural gas industry, including full disclosure of the chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing, or ‘fracking.’
“The chemicals used to extract natural gas through fracking are often a mystery for local communities and state and federal regulators, so we applaud the panel for recommending the public disclosure of fracking chemicals,” said Kate Zimmerman, senior policy advisor on public lands for the National Wildlife Federation.
First-Ever Heavy Duty Rules Deliver Truckload of Savings
August 9 – President Obama unveiled the first-ever fuel efficiency standards for medium and heavy duty pickup trucks, vocational trucks, and combination tractors/semis. The proposed National Heavy Duty Program will save Americans $35 billion in fuel costs, cut 98 million barrels of oil consumption annually by 2030, and clear 246 million metric tons of carbon dioxide pollution from our skies.
“These standards will provide welcome fuel savings, budget relief, and pollution reduction to those who rely on heavy trucks to move America’s goods and people, haul equipment on the job, or tow a boat to the lake,” said Larry Schweiger, president and CEO of the National Wildlife Federation.
Gulf “Dead Zone” Projected to be One of the Largest on Record
August 8 – As of mid-July, researchers from Texas A&M University had measured the “dead zone” in the Gulf of Mexico to be more than 3,300 square miles. Fertilizer runoff from farms combined with the historically higher waters in the Mississippi River could make it grow to more than 9,400 square miles, making it the largest on record.
Nancy Rabalais, Ph. D., executive director and professor at the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium, said the “dead zone” in the Gulf is caused by nutrients from agricultural runoff.
And here are highlights from NWF in the News:
- The Detroit News: Auto Industry Home to 151,000 ‘Green’ Jobs
- The Denver Post: Deer and antelope in Colorado’s northern mountains declining, study warns
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Jeff Barnard for Associated Press vis The World reports:
“The ocean dead zone that formed this summer off Oregon was less severe than in years past, but it looks like the phenomenon apparently linked to global warming is here to stay. Oregon State University scientists said Thursday that winds that are a factor in the severity of the phenomenon abated in July, allowing the low-oxygen waters to dissipate before they got too deadly to marine life.
‘It really feels like this is the new normal,’ said OSU research scientist Francis Chan. ‘We have shifted into a set of conditions where the likelihood of seeing this is high every year.’
While most dead zones around the world are formed by pollutants washing down rivers, the one off Oregon appears to be linked to global warming. It has shown up for eight straight years.”