Scientists, the fishing industry and the media in this country have reported extensively on the huge dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico. In 2006, it covered almost 6, 700 square miles. Last year, it reached nearly 8, 000 square miles, one of the largest in history. This year, researchers say it could grow to 10, 084 - the largest in almost a quarter-century.
A federal-state task force created to address the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico originally pledged to reduce it to a quarter of its size by 2015. There has been no reduction. It is still growing.
The zone is created primarily by soil erosion, fertilizer runoff from farms along the Mississippi River and its tributaries, urban runoff and dumping of sewage into the river. These elements create hypoxia, a lack of oxygen in the water. In the oxygen-depleted zones, fish flee and bottom-feeding marine life is killed. Now we learn that there are also dead zones in South America, Africa and parts of Asia. It is time to take the search for a solution to the deadzone problem worldwide. There could be new information and new approaches if a global task force brings together global expertise. - The Advertiser Lafayette, La.
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