Shrimp industry at risk from dead zone

HOUSTON, Oct. 30 (UPI) -- A dead zone in the northern Gulf of Mexico could have a catastrophic effect on the $500-million-a-year U.S. shrimping industry, scientists said.

The oxygen-starved zone is of such concern that scientists from Florida State University, Duke University and the National Marine Fisheries Services are teaming to study its environmental and economic impact on shrimping.

The four-year study is being funded with a $702,969 grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Dead zones are caused by algae blooms, which deplete oxygen from water, rendering it unable to sustain animal life. The Gulf's dead zone forms in the summer off Louisiana and Texas, covering an area the size of New Jersey, said Florida State marine ecologist Kevin Craig, a lead investigator of the study.

Much of the nutrient pollution that feeds the algae bloom seems to come from fertilizer runoff draining into the Mississippi River from Midwest farming states, Craig said.