Oceanic dead zones
How too much of a good thing can lead to the death of an ecosystem
The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) snapped the Mississippi River emptying into the Gulf of Mexico, producing huge swells of algal blooms
© Alamy
Fish that have died from hypoxia float to the surface of the water
© Alamy
Along coastlines around the world are stretches of water where marine life is suffocating below the surface. As the name suggests, these ‘dead zones’ are areas where few species are able to survive or thrive. However, they are far from being completely dead. Rather than being filled with a myriad of different oceanic species, these areas are teeming with one type of organism: algae.