From China Daily:
The Yangtze River and Pearl River estuaries have been listed as newly registered “dead zones,” according to a study released by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).
Dead zones, or low oxygenated areas in the world’s seas and oceans, are places where nutrients from fertilizer runoff, sewage, animal waste and the burning of fossil fuels trigger algae blooms.
The major pollutants affecting seawater off China were inorganic nitrogen and active phosphate in 2005, according to a report on pollution of the marine environment released this week by the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA). [Full Text]
Technorati Tags: pollution, water pollution
– Also see BBC’s ‘Dead Zones’ Threaten Fish:
Sea areas starved of oxygen will soon damage fish stocks even more than unsustainable catches, the United Nations believes.
