Dead zone may 2010. It is now bigger.

The “Dead Zone”, the low-oxygen area in the Gulf of Mexico, which has been recorded this year, might just be the largest on record and it overlaps areas which were affected by the oil spill courtesy of our Eco-friendly oil conglomerate BP.

The areas afflicted with low levels of oxygen, also known as hypoxia, cover an area estimated to be over 7,000 square miles of the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico and extended as far as to actually enter Texas waters. This astonishing discovery was made by researchers at the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium, after performing a survey of the waters.

The area covered is expected to have included a section off of Galveston, Texas, as well, however poor weather conditions forced the researchers to cut their surveying trip short.

“The total area probably would have been the largest if we had enough time to completely map the western part,” said the consortium’s executive director, Nancy Rabalais.

The largest dead zone that was ever measured in a survey, which started on a regular basis in 1985, was slightly more than 8,000 square miles, and was recorded in 2001.

This annual summer “dead zone” in the Gulf of Mexico is generally attributed to chemicals used by farmers, and which make their way to the Gulf by means of the Mississippi and Atchafalaya rivers.
The phosphorous and nitrogen contained in agricultural runoffs provide a food source which allows algae to prosper in the Gulf.

When bits of algae die off, or are excreted by sea animals which eat them settle onto the bottom of the water, they decompose and the bacteria consume the oxygen in the water.

The end result, the scientists explained, is that this causes oxygen depletion in the water, which forces many marine animals including fish, shrimp and crabs to either vacate their homes, or suffocate.

The marine life which makes its home in the sediments can survive with relatively little oxygen, however they will begin to die off as the oxygen level approaches zero.

To be considered as part of this “Dead Zone”, the oxygen levels in bottom waters in the Gulf of Mexico need to be at a level of 2 parts per million or less.

By the end of July this year, large areas of the norther part of the Gulf of Mexico had already reached that level, including one part close to Galveston Bay.

The area which the BP oil spill overlaps in some areas in the “Dead Zone”, Rabalais explained, and microbes which would be used to help clean up the spill can deplete oxygen levels in the water.

Be that as it may, scientists could not say that there is a definite link between the devastating oil spill, and the size of the “Dead Zone”.

“It would be difficult to link conditions seen this summer with oil from the BP spill in either a positive or negative way,” Rabalais explained.

Dubai‘s largest reef, consisting of over 1,100 coral-encrusted rocks, has been moved to a new location to protect it from future development. Details of the relocation have been kept secret for more than a year to ensure its success, and the transfer was therefore not announced until today, on World Environment Day.

not the reef in the article!

Oddly enough, no one seems to have known about the existence of the reef until Dubai real estate development company Nakheel conducted an environmental assessment of Dubai Dry Docks’ breakwater.

“What we found [in the initial assessment] was the biggest coral reef in Dubai and an area of extreme importance, said marine biologist John Burt, Assistant Professor at Zayed University, who was brought on board as an independent expert. “Because of the conditions in the Gulf – where the water temperature can reach 35C and drop to 15C – coral has difficulty establishing itself. However, it has learned to adapt and we believed it was important to do everything we could to protect this reef.”

Moving 1,129 rocks

Traditional methods of moving corals were quickly dismissed, since they typically result in the death of up to 30 percent of the corals. Instead, Nakheel and their team of engineers and scientists decided to remove, lift and transport the corals by barge without ever taking them out of the water.

“Traditionally, when coral is moved it is chiselled or drilled from rocks, placed in baskets and shipped to a new location,” said Brendan Jack, Head of Sustainability and Environment for Nakheel Northern Projects. “That wasn’t open to us because each of the rocks was encased in coral, so we went back to the drawing board to find an engineering solution. Nothing like this has ever been attempted before and we are very pleased with the outcome.”

The project took five weeks to complete and involved engineers and divers drilling an iron bolt into each and every one of the rocks and attaching it to a sling. After being hoisted from its resting place, each rock had its sling fastened to one of several mountings welded to the deck of a 90-metre barge. Thanks to this new method, the coral rocks could be moved to their new home at The World’s breakwater without ever leaving the water.

With no more than 20 rocks being transported to The World at a time; it took 50 days to move the 1,129 rocks – each of them weighing about five tonnes. Sadly enough, some rocks had to be left behind since they could not be reached by the marine crane.

“We could not take all of the coral,” said Burt. “In some places the water was too shallow for the crane so the rocks had to be left. I believe once development around the Dry Docks breakwater begins the remaining coral has no chance of survival.”

The result

Initial studies of the relocated coral have been very promising and so far the project seems to have been successful. As mentioned above, up to 30 percent of the coral usually give up the ghost when traditional relocation methods are used but in the case of the Dubai reef only 7 percent of the corals have died. Independent scientific study of the coral is continuing and a scientific peer-reviewed research paper will be published once the study is complete in the coming months.

The future

The World, where the coral reef is now residing, is a man made archipelago of 300 islands constructed in the shape of a world map and located 4 km off the coast of Dubai. The total area now covered by coral at The World is 6,560 square metres and this number may increase as corals begin to colonize nearby surfaces.

“A number of the dominant corals, now at The World, are ‘broadcast spawners’ and their reproductive activities could result in the development of coral on nearby rocks”, said a Nakheel spokesman.

The exact location of the relocated reef is still being kept secrete to avoid attracting commercial and recreational fishermen. However, once the new coral colony is firmly established it may be opened up for scuba diving and similar activities.