Gulf 'Dead Zone'

**DHF** Sat Jun 23, 2012 1:57 pm

The predicted size of this year's dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico depends on whom you ask. One forecast model predicts an unusually small area of oxygen-depleted water, while another predicts an extent in line with the recent average.

The reason for the difference: The more conservative prediction, made by researchers at the University of Michigan, only takes into account the nutrient-rich agricultural run off from the Mississippi River watershed this spring. While the other prediction, which comes from a Louisiana group, takes leftovers from the prior year's nutrient pollution into account.

These predictions are important because the loss of oxygen is bad news for the animals that live in these waters, and the dead zone threatens commercial and recreational fishing in the gulf.

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