How Veganism Can Contribute to the Reduction of Ocean Dead Zones?

Imagine a world where the vibrant, teeming life beneath the ocean’s surface slowly starts to fade.

This is not a far-off dystopian future – it’s happening now in the so-called ocean dead zones. You might wonder how you can help.

One effective way is through your diet. By adopting a vegan lifestyle, you can contribute to reducing these ocean dead zones.

These zones are primarily caused by excess nutrients from agricultural runoff – a consequence of our growing demand for animal products.

Let’s explore how going vegan can play a role in reviving the health of our oceans!

Key Takeaways

• Ocean dead zones are areas in the ocean where oxygen levels are too low for most marine life to survive. These zones are primarily caused by nutrient pollution, which is largely a result of agricultural runoff from livestock farming.
• Nutrient pollution is an environmental issue that stems from an overload of nitrogen and phosphorus in our waterways. When it rains, these nutrients are washed into rivers, lakes, and eventually the ocean. This leads to algal blooms, which further deplete oxygen levels and create dead zones.
• Livestock farming contributes significantly to nutrient pollution because of the vast amounts of animal waste it produces. This waste often contains high levels of nitrogen and phosphorus, which can end up in our waterways.
• By switching to a plant-based diet, we can help reduce ocean dead zones by decreasing the demand for animal products. This leads to less need for large-scale livestock farming and fertilizer use, therefore reducing the amount of nutrient pollution.

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What Are Ocean Dead Zones?

An ocean dead zone is an area in the sea where the level of oxygen is so low that most marine life can’t survive – hence the name ‘dead zone’.

You may wonder how these zones come to exist. The truth is, while some can occur naturally, human activities are the biggest contributors to their creation and expansion.

It’s in these conditions that most marine life struggles to survive, leading to a decrease in biodiversity and a disruption to the food chain.

According to a 2014 study by the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, the number of recorded dead zones has doubled every decade since the 1960s.

Today, there are more than 400 identified dead zones worldwide, covering a combined area larger than the United Kingdom.

Taken from: https://www.si.edu/newsdesk/releases/dead-zones-likely-expand-coastal-waters-warm

One of the most prominent examples of this worrying phenomenon is the Gulf of Mexico dead zone. This hypoxic area fluctuates in size from year to year, but the region exhibiting less than 2ppm frequently expands to 7000 square miles or more.

According to the data from National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science, in 2017, the zone reached an unprecedented 8,776 square miles – approximately the same size as New Jersey.

To give you a more complete picture, here’s how massive that dead zone was:

Taken from: https://coastalscience.noaa.gov/news/gulf-mexico-dead-zone-largest-ever-measured/

Ocean Dead Zones – In-Depth Look

Now that we have the basic definition covered let’s take a more in-depth look at how these dead zones develop.

The creation of dead zones begins with the so-called nutrient pollution – also known as eutrophication. That in turn, triggers an explosive growth of algae, a process referred to as an algal bloom.

Nutrient Pollution

Nutrient pollution is a widespread and challenging environmental issue that stems from an overload of certain substances in our waterways.

The primary culprits are nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus, which are essential for plant and animal growth. While these nutrients occur naturally, human activities have significantly increased their concentrations in many environments.

When rain falls, it washes over land surfaces, picking up these excess nutrients along the way and depositing them into rivers, lakes, and ultimately the ocean.

This process is known as runoff.

In addition, nutrients can enter water bodies through industrial discharges or from wastewater treatment plants that don’t effectively remove them.

Here’s a simple infographic showcasing how the runoff process works and what it leads to:

Taken from: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2020.00670/full

Excessive amounts of these nutrients can create an environment that creates a phenomenon known as algal blooms.

Algal Blooms

Algal blooms can be defined as rapid growths of algae fueled by excessive nutrients, particularly nitrogen and phosphorus.

They block sunlight, stifling underwater plant life, and lead to decreased oxygen levels, making survival tough for various organisms.

Harmful algal blooms (HABs) escalate the situation further by producing toxins harmful to aquatic life, birds, mammals, and even humans. This disrupts the food chain – for instance, seals and herons relying on fish may starve due to declining fish stocks.

The end results are always the same – the regional biodiversity takes a severe hit, and the ecosystem balance is disrupted.

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How Can Veganism Help Reduce Dead Ocean Zones?

The connection between veganism and the reduction of ocean dead zones might not be immediately clear, but it’s surprisingly direct.

Simply put, adopting a vegan diet can significantly reduce the demand for animal products. This, in turn, can decrease the need for large-scale animal farming which is one of the primary sources of nutrient pollution.

The Role of Industrial Farming in Nutrient Pollution

Industrial farming, specifically livestock farming, is a major contributor to nutrient pollution due to the vast amounts of animal waste it produces.

Consider the following:

• It is estimated that confined animals in the United States generate 40 times more raw waste than the entire human population of the country. This waste often contains high levels of nitrogen and phosphorus, which, when poorly managed, can end up in our waterways.
• To add insult to injury, more than 81% of all agricultural emissions (including those from livestock farming) are in the form of ammonia. This further escalates the problem of nutrient pollution and consequently contributes to creating dead zones.

At this point, you’re probably already seeing the connection between your vegan lifestyle and the health of our oceans. 

Veganism Helps Minimize the Risk of Eutrophication

The key to limiting the severity of eutrophication lies in minimizing the demand for animal products, therefore diminishing the need for such large-scale livestock farming operations.

Reducing livestock production would result in less animal waste and, consequently, fewer nutrients being washed into our waterways. This could halt or even reverse the growth of ocean dead zones, offering marine life a chance to recover.

The impact of individual dietary choices is powerful. FAO estimated that in 2021, as much as 77% of all agricultural land was used for livestock farming, including grazing and producing feed crops.

If everyone were to adopt a vegan diet, this amount of land devoted to livestock farming could be drastically reduced – from 4.1 billion hectares to just 1 billion hectares.

In other words, we would need four times less fertilizer to grow crops, dramatically decreasing the chances for anthropogenic algal blooms to occur.

Conclusion

The health of our oceans is crucial for the survival of countless species, including our own. Making ethical choices about what we put on our plates can lead to significant changes in our environment.

By embracing a vegan diet, we can play a part in reducing nutrient pollution, mitigating the risk of algal blooms, and ultimately reducing the number of ocean dead zones.

So next time you sit down for a meal, remember: your diet matters. Together, we can work towards a future where ocean dead zones are a thing of the past, one vegan meal at a time!

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