Researchers Find Dead Zones in the Atlantic Ocean

"Dead zones" were found by researchers in the Atlantic Ocean. These are places where any form of life will not exist as they have very limited to no oxygen.

Researchers have reported in a published paper in Biogeosciences that such dead zones existed in the Atlantic Ocean. What is more alarming is that these dead zones are said to be 100 miles long of oxygen-starved waters that can kill any fish or living organism that crosses it.

What researchers are quite surprised about is that these dead zones are nowhere near inhabited coastlines or industrial areas, where water is typically polluted due to waste. According to researchers, these lifeless places in the Atlantic Ocean may be a result of global warming, which can be blamed for the rising temperatures in the ocean.

The research group, led by Johannes Karstensen said, "The eddies propagate westward, at about four to five kilometres per day, from their generation region off the west African coast into the open ocean."

"It is not unlikely that an open-ocean dead zone will hit the islands at some point. This could cause the coast to be flooded with low-oxygen water, which may put severe stress on the coastal ecosystems and may even provoke fish kills and the die-off of other marine life," Karstensen explained.

According to the researchers, the eddies' fast swirling movement in the Atlantic Ocean makes sure that the water cannot escape, which means that any existing oxygen gets used up fast. This makes the exchange of oxygen across the surrounding ocean and rotating current almost impossible.

The dead zones often act like eddies-which are large underwater cyclones that can twist uninterrupted for a few months. Any marine life that encounters it can get sucked in, and since there is no oxygen present, it is most likely to die.

Karstensen and his team stressed that these dead zones can cause environmental and economic damage. Fisheries around the Baltic Sea and surrounding areas have already reported significant losses in commercial fishing due to these oxygen deprived waters in the Atlantic Ocean.