Gulf dead zone is oxygen starved and it is smaller than predicted for this year — 3,000 square miles — it also is closer to the surface than usual. Local fishermen are facing problems due to this. It is told that the dead zone’s oxygen-deprivation, known as hypoxia, forms below the mouth of the Mississippi River. It creates a large area of unproductive waters each summer where marine life is hard-pressed to survive. Bottom-dwelling creatures like shrimp tend to flee for more oxygen rich waters.
Edward Chesney, a marine researcher with LUMCON, informed that the dead zone doesn’t sit in one place. He added that the low-oxygen waters are pushed around as winds and currents change, much to the frustration of shrimpers. Dean Blanchard, owner of Grand Isle Seafood, opined that the trouble with the dead zone is that it will shut you down. He told that the dead waters will often catch shrimpers unaware, and they’ll trawl for hours in a normally productive spot only to come up with empty nets.
According to Blanchard a guy will be catching 100,000 pounds a day of product and then nothing at all. It is very difficult to predict when it’s coming. Shrimpers lose out on productive fishing hours and burn up expensive fuel travelling farther to find unaffected waters, Blanchard added.
Nancy Rabalais, a top dead zone researcher and director of LUMCON, said that the dead zone normally only affects bottom waters, and the animals that live there or feed on bottom-dwellers. He opined that this year’s dead zone is encompassing more habitat and seems to be affecting animals that live and feed in middle ocean waters.
