AQUATIC “dead zones” are a tragic illustration of human beings' negative impact on the world's oceans. They are areas so overloaded with pollutants that they have difficulty sustaining any life. The flow of fertilizers, sewage and industrial pollutants into rivers and seas has overloaded some coastal marine areas with nutrient waste such as nitrogen and phosphorus. This stimulates excessive growth of plants and algae, which use up oxygen dissolved in the water and kill off other marine life that depend on it. Globally, their numbers are increasing, with more than 530 aquatic dead zones around the world, encompassing more than 95,000 square miles, according to the World Resources Institute (WRI). Some scientists believe climate change may also be making the situation worse. But help may be at hand thanks to the development of a number of technological solutions that aim to bring the dead zones back to life. Scientists in Sweden are testing an idea to pump oxygen into the Baltic Sea -- which separates Scandinavia from mainland Europe and is the world's largest man-made dead zone -- in an attempt to revive its dying ecosystem. The Baltic region has suffered badly over the past 60 years from a rising flow of human and industrial waste. What's more, because the Baltic Sea is largely enclosed, such harmful pollutants take longer to be washed out than in open waters. “As with all marine issues you do not see what is down there and sea bottoms are mostly neglected because in general people think there is no life,” said Inger Naslund, from environmental group WWF Sweden. Attempts to reduce the waste being dumped into the Baltic have so far failed to stop the growth of the dead zone, now equivalent to around one and half times the size of Denmark. The lack of progress has led a number of Baltic countries to consider technological interventions, or so-called “geoengineering” ideas (large-scale solutions to environmental problems), such as pumping oxygen into the water, and using chemicals to bind pollutants in sediments, in a bid to save the Baltic. The Swedish government is funding research into the feasibility of using a wind-turbine driven oxygen pump in the Baltic, following studies carried out last year by the University of Gothenburg, which looked at the effect of pumping oxygen-rich surface water to the bottom of two Swedish fjords. Scientists in Sweden are also testing the use of a chloride, used in treating drinking water, to try to bind phosphorus pollutants in sediments. But writing in science journal Nature, Conley was also skeptical of the idea of using chemicals to bind pollutants. Conley says it is not yet known how long the pollutants can remain buried within sediments or whether it would even be legal to add large quantities of chemicals to the Baltic Sea. — Agencies
