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Student

World Literature and Composition

6 May 2017

Could Dead Zones Destroy Our Planet?

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

causing dead zones in our oceans.

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

farmers and fishermen that they abide by.

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

species creating more dead zones in the oceans.

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

around Florida to the Gulf of Mexico.

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.

National ocean service. oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/deadzone.html.

"Oceans." Opposing Viewpoints Online Collection, Detroit, Gale, 2015. Opposing Viewpoints in

Context, link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/PC3010999288/OVIC?

u=fort64613&xid=62d30820. Accessed 24 Feb. 2017.

Scientific American. www.scientificamerican.com/article/ocean-dead-zones/.

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