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6 May 2017
Could we be the problem to this disaster? Dead zones come from a lack of oxygen levels
in the oceans. They can come from natural disasters such as hurricanes, tsunamis and floods. The
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says that created or enhanced by human
activity, provides food for billions of people. There are already 405 dead zones across the world
up from only 49 in the 1960s A single low oxygen event (known scientifically as hypoxia) off
the coast of New York and New Jersey in 1976 covering a mere 385 square miles (1,000
kilometers) of seabed ended up costing commercial and recreational fisheries in the region more
than $500 million dollars. says David Biello a Scientific American. By this happening you can
tell dead zones are a bigger problem than just biodiversity. They are spreading like crazy and if
we dont do anything about it they will double in size in the next ten years. Farmers should
reduce the fertilizer they use and fisherman need to lower how much they catch, because it is
There are several opposing views on what is causing the problem and how to go about
fixing it. Farmers and fisheries do not believe they are the problem of dead zones. Their belief is
that natural disasters cause the dead zones. Farmers have said they are trying to use less
fertilizer. Local farmers claim they are already using as little fertilizer as possible. The farmers
believe they have done everything they can do up to this point. The pesticides are what help to
make the crops grow bigger and faster and free of the bugs that destroy the plants. Fisherman are
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not purposely trying to create dead zones. Both farmers and fishermen are getting frustrated with
government agencies blaming them when in fact the government created the farm bills that both
Natural disasters aren't the only thing that cause dead zones. This big of an issue can't just
be from on problem, there is multiple. Runoffs are a main case for dead zones. The chemicals
from the products go into water streams and soak into the soil. Those water streams then flow
into the ocean. This causes the sea to lose oxygen. Farmers have to make changes to how much
fertilizer they use or else 403 dead zones will increase. Fishermen use a tool called trawling. This
tool is a huge piece of equipment that scrapes the ocean floor and destroys everything it touches.
It picks up coral and fish. If fishing like this is continued, over fishing will wipe out entire
Statistically in the spring every year a large dead zone forms in the Gulf of Mexico. This
coincides with springtime crop planting. Marine life is negatively impacted and some areas never
recover. These areas lose oxygen causing plants to die off and sea life to die or migrate to other
areas of the ocean. Unfortunately, every area in the world is susceptible to this happening to
them. According to National Geographic There are ten of the worlds largest dead zones in the
Baltic Sea. Almost the entire seaboard of the United States of America is a dead zone stretching
We must start making changes to these things because if we don't these awful dead zones
will destroy our planet. Natural disasters are a huge part of why we have them but farmers and
fishers needs to take responsibility for their actions and change them. This situation will not get
better if the farmers and fisheries continue to farm using the same old practices and use the least
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amount of fertilizer and pesticides and fishing practices. The fisheries should change their
equipment so it doesnt do any more damage to our earth. We can't afford to have any more dead
zones because we will lose food to eat. Soon there will be no earth.
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Works Cited
Driscoll, Sally and Tom Warhol. "Overfishing: An Overview." Points of View: Overfishing,
3/1/2016, p. 1. EBSCOhost,
search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=pwh&AN=23760914&site=pov-live.
ewg.org. www.ewg.org/agmag/2015/08/how-stop-farm-runoff-spreading-dead-zones.
journals.law. journals.law.stanford.edu/stanford-environmental-law-journal-
elj/blog/leading-cause-everything-one-industry-destroying-our-planet-and-our-ability-
thrive-it.
"Oceans." Opposing Viewpoints Online Collection, Detroit, Gale, 2015. Opposing Viewpoints in
Context, link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/PC3010999288/OVIC?