Oceans Harbor 200 "dead Zones"

[mrmoshe]

Oceans harbor 200 "dead zones"

WASHINGTON — Scientists have found 200 "dead zones" — places where pollution threatens fish, other marine life and the people who depend on them — in the world's oceans .

The United Nations report yesterday showed a 34 percent jump in the number of such zones from just two years ago.

Pollution-fed algae, which deprives other marine life of oxygen, is the cause of most dead zones. Scientists chiefly blame fertilizer and other farm run-off, sewage and fossil-fuel burning.

Those contain an excess of nutrients, particularly phosphorous and nitrogen, that cause explosive blooms of tiny plants known as phytoplankton. When they die, they sink to the bottom and are eaten by bacteria that use up the water's oxygen.

U.N. officials said, "These areas are fast becoming major threats to fish stocks and thus to the people who depend upon fisheries for food and livelihoods."