Dead zones are increasing in the world's coastal waters.Scientists warn that dead zones are increasing in the world's coastal waters. The biggest culprit is fertilizer pollution, which causes decreases in the oxygen of bottom water and creates low-oxygen, or hypoxic hypoxic a state of hypoxia. hypoxic cell sensitizers compounds that selectively sensitize hypoxic tumor cells to the effects of radiation. , zones. Most sea life can't survive under these conditions: fish and other creatures swim away, while other aquatic life, like shellfish, suffocate suf·fo·cate v. 1. To impair the respiration of; asphyxiate. 2. To suffer from lack of oxygen; to be unable to breathe. suf . Forty-three of the world's 146 dead zones occur in U.S. coastal waters, the second largest of which is in the Gulf of Mexico Noun 1. Gulf of Mexico - an arm of the Atlantic to the south of the United States and to the east of Mexico Golfo de Mexico Atlantic, Atlantic Ocean - the 2nd largest ocean; separates North and South America on the west from Europe and Africa on the east (as much as 21,000 square kilometers). The world's largest dead zone is in the Baltic Sea Baltic Sea, arm of the Atlantic Ocean, c.163,000 sq mi (422,170 sq km), including the Kattegat strait, its northwestern extension. The Øresund, Store Bælt, and Lille Bælt connect the Baltic Sea with the Kattegat and Skagerrak straits, which lead to the , spanning up to 70,000 square kilometers. |
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