Dead Zones

• Dead zones are hypoxic (low-oxygen) areas in the world's oceans and large lakes, caused by excessive nutrient pollution from human activities coupled with other factors that deplete the oxygen required to support most marine life in bottom and near-bottom water.
• Dead Zones are areas inside the ocean that lack oxygen and cannot support the complex life systems that allow marine life to flourish - most marine life either dies, or, if they are mobile such as fish, leave the area - forming a biological desert.

• There are many physical, chemical, and biological factors that create dead zones, but nutrient pollution is the primary cause of those zones created by humans.

• Dead zones are well-known off the western coasts of North and South America, Namibia and India in the Arabian Sea.
• Recently a dead zone has been found in Bay of Bengal, India.