Inside the dark depths of aquatic wonder lie

an errie, cloudy & intimidating place. A place like

no other on this planet, a place void of life.

A silent killer lurks within, roaming, floating,

growing, suffocating, leaving behind

only trails of carnage.

What is this place you ask?

Throughout my presentation you will see, learn

and even ask about this murderous place.

So....

without further adieu

by

V a n e s s a R a m i r e z

Mass Murder

A L I F E L E S S O C E A N

“Dead zones are unwittingmass murderers and darn

good ones.”

A dead zone starts when too many nutrients spur the growth of thick algae –

A natural force called gravity pretty much determines where our waste goes.

What kind of waste? Sewage, fertilizer runoff, carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxide

from fossil fuels, and you only need to make a gruesome guess at what else.

All of this waste from us runs off into the bays and coasts of our oceans.

Clear waters begin to cloud and underneath the heavy green slime, the oxygen

vanishes and a quiet carnage ensues. This process is called Hypoxia which

then causes eutrophication (Algae bloom, death and then decay).

All of this runoff from fertilizer and waste is chemically engineered which is like

filling the troughs for certain bacteria and algae, which would feast greedily

then die, floating to the depths, decaying. This material floats lazily to the bot-

tom, blocking sunlight, and killing off natural growth. The material slowly falls to

rest on coral reefs then deadly forms of bacteria murder the inhabitants of a

coral reef and degrade the coral itself until centuries of work are removed.

Fish and crabs die en masse. In fact, most sea life suffocates, except bacteria

and jellyfish. What's left is eerie – a murky, lifeless abyss.

The Abyss

“Dead zones are silentlykilling parts of theworld’s oceans.”

In 2008, the world had 406 dead zones, covering 95,000 square miles of the

seas - an area more than half the size of California.The number of those areas

has nearly doubled every decade since the 1960s.

Many oceanic scientists believe dead zones are among the world's most press-

ing environmental problems.

The largest dead zone in the United States is located in the Gulf of Mexico, at

22,126 square km (8,543 mi), it grows to about the size of New Jersey every

summer.

The Mississippi drains about a third of the United States into the Gulf, mainly

because it includes the heart of U.S. agribusiness in the Midwest.

The largest dead zone in the WORLD is in the Baltic Sea. Ten of the largest ma-

rine dead zones are located in the Baltic Sea, which condition brings it closer

and closer to an environmental crisis that will affect all of the countries sur-

rounding it.

The eutrophication came as a result of history of nitrogen and phosphorus ef-

fluent from the farms in many of the countries that make up the shores of the

Sea. Though the Baltic is relatively small, its large catchment area is home to

some 85 million people. Sources of nutrient pollution include poorly treated

sewage and runoff from over-fertilized farmland.

A M U L T I P L Y I N G M Y S T E R Y

What can

we do?

“Are Dead ZonesReversable?”

YES!!Dead Zones are reversible. Nature has a way to take care of herself, given the

opportunity.

It has been shown that if the nitrogen dumps into a particular area are stopped,

the trend tends to reverse itself, or shrink itself.

One of the most notable reversals was in the Black Sea. The Black Sea dead

zone, previously the largest dead zone in the world, largely disappeared be-

tween 1991 and 2001 after fertilizers became too costly to use following the

collapse of the Soviet Union and the demise of centrally planned economies in

Eastern and Central Europe. Fishing has again become a major economic ac-

tivity in the region. But as agricultural activity intensifies, the dead zone could

creep back in.

Healthy oceans need healthy waste management, and even though we may

learn all we can about how we can help reduce our carbon footprint, ultimately,

it may take revolutions in agriculture and transportation, along with the energy

of hurricanes to bring life back to dead zones.

DO O M E D ?

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