The gulf of Mexico’s dead zone is only getting worse doing a great deal of damage to the U.S. economy.
The issue in the Gulf of Mexico is the dead zone that has started occurring since 1972 and is only increasing in size. The Gulf of Mexico supplies the U.S. with 72% of their income shrimp 66% of oysters and 16% of fish (Philpott, 2013). If the dead zone does not decrease in size fisherman and costal workers will be largely impacted economically. Nothing biotic can survive in the dead zone because of the oxygen deficiency. This will lead to thousands of lost jobs in the seafood harvest as nothing can be produced.
The dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico is vastly suggested to have a negative impact on fisheries. Joel Norman is a fisherman who receives all of his sea fish from the Gulf of Mexico. In the past 10 years of the dead zone growing larger the amount of sea fish his crew has caught has decreased by 78% (Dell'Amore, 2013). If the dead zone continues he will be out of business in less then a year. This will not just be an impact on a few fisherman industries but hundreds of fishermen will go out of business.
Another point of view on the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico is that the nutrient loading helps to improve the amount of sea fish reproduction and size. The nutrient loading in the Gulf of Mexico has been shown to improve the amount of red snappers by double the digits. This would help fisherman to gather higher numbers of fish thus being able to sell more while earning more money. This would be an economic improvement if the numbers of fish were to keep increasing not just the amount of red snappers. Another benefit of phosphorus and nitrate is that they improve fertility. Phosphorus and nitrate are both key elements to fertilizer. Phosphorus is needed for plant growth. Phosphorus makes plants grow faster and stronger. This helps farmers to