Talk:Gulf of Mexico
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
This article has been selected for Version 0.5 and the next release version of Wikipedia. This Geography article has been rated Start-Class on the assessment scale. |
Hope I am doing everything right. Still quite new to Wikipedia.
I hope many others will add to this article. My initial stab at it was just to give the most basic overview. I grew up on the Gulf Coast, by the way, and intend to live there again one day, thus my interest in this topic.
- Steve
I realize there are many items within my article that could/should become links. Hope to work on that later. Others welcomed to do it!
Contents |
[edit] ==================================================================================
Dear Wikipedia== Regarding your statement that there is a great "dead zone" in the Gulf that does not support Sea Life and is turning the Gulf into a "Dead Sea", is not true. The Gulf off the Louisiana Coast supports the most productive sea food fishery on the North American Coast, except for Alaska. It has been termed "The Fertile Crescent" of sea food production. This is not an opinion, it is a fact supported by fifty or more years of records of monthly and annual "landings" of sea food by the commercial fishing boats of the Gulf. These records, available to anyone who uses the internet, are maintained by the U.S. Government and also the Government of Louisiana. Those records show that there has been an increase in the productivity over the years and even until the present. Even with many Louisiana shrimpers not working their boats and nets in 2004, due to the flood of cheap shrimp from Asia, 2004 was still the third best year on record. This productivity is not only wonderful for shrimp but also for fin-fish, such as menhaden, and game fish, but also for crabs. Trucks loaded with crabs for the East Coast are a large and growing business. The nutrients discharged by the Mississippi River and other coastal rivers are carried and distributed by the ocean currents which flow West along the Louisiana and Texas coast and down the coast of Mexico to rejoin the Gulf Stream coming up through the Yucatan Channel and then North East to where it divides South of the Missippi River Delta, the main current proceeding toward Florida, the lesser Current driving West along Louisiana, Texas and Mexico in the same giant eddy.
There exists an organization which wishes to stop the use of fertilizer by the Farmers in the great central river drainage of the Uniteds States, waters from the Mississippi, the Ohio, the Missouri and all of their tributaries. That group are the ones who have originated and distrbuted the "Dead Zone" myth. Regardless of their occasional trips out into the Gulf to lower bottles and take samples, the wonderful and growing productivity of the "dead zone" gives the lie to their agenda. Lucas James
Dear Lucas: You are partially correct. The wetlands of Louisiana have historically contributed to making the area one of the most biologically productive areas in the world. However, the wetlands and nearshore environments are different areas from the hypoxic zone. The hypoxic zone is very large and further offshore. Furthermore, suggesting that all of the researchers involved in documenting the existence of the hypoxic zone would collaborate in a hoax is ludicrous. The hypoxic zone does exist. It has been scientifically documented and verified for several years by many well respected and independent scientists. You should personally contact them to prove to yourself that they are honest people. LUMCON in Chauvin, Louisiana is a great place to start. Look up http://www.lumcon.edu/. I am sure you will find LUMCON much more credible than the mystery “organization which wishes to stop the use of fertilizer.” Kendal
Dear Kendal, To up-date the data on the productivity of marine life in the off-shore waters of the Gulf along the Louisiana coast, the "landings" of shrimp, as recorded and compiled by the Louisiana Department of Fish and Wildlife shows that 2003 was another record year for tonnage landed. 2004 was nearly a record year, slightly under the catch for 2003, but then 2005 has again been a another record year, surpassing even 2003. These record catches of shrimp were made by a fleet of shrimpers reduced in size and trips by the diminished price per pound, due to the influx of farm raised shrimp from Asia and other foreign sources. The National Marine Fisheries Service, division of the NOAA, shows an 18% increase of the Louisiana "landings" of Menhaden for 2005 over 2004.
The shrimp and Menhaden commercial fishery is not in the coastal marshes but in the offshore Gulf waters. My point is very straightforward; the records of the commercial fishery of the Louisiana portion of the Gulf of Mexico over the past fifty years of record keeping have shown a steady upward trend in the annual catch. There are up years and down years, as the fishery is affected by hurricanes and occasional exceptionaly cold weather in rare winters. But recent years including 2005 to date have shown all-time record catches, inspite of foreign imports. Therefore, it should be plainly evident to any reasonable person that "Hypoxia from pollution" has not damaged the fishery. On the contrary, it would appear that if the enrichment of nitrate compounds in the Mississippi River run-off has had any effect upon the coastal waters of Louisiana it has been to improve the productivity of this great fishery.
Regarding the segment of our society which is working to curtail the use of fertilizers and of animal feed-lots throughout the drainage basin of the Mississippi River, anybody who does not know of this ongoing effort either overlooks or ignores the frequent publishing of articles written by those who are advancing that agenda. The very experts who are publicizing the alleged 'Dead Zone' attribute the "Hypoxia" to the "pollution" of the Mississippi River by the commercial fertilizers and the animal wastes from feed-lots.
In this country we have the most productive agricultural industry in the World. We produce more food at less cost than anyewhere else, feed our own population and much of the world from our abundant and low cost agriculture. At the same time, the fertile "pollution" of the runoff from that agriculture is feeding the most productive fishing gounds in North America, except Alaska. If the "Annually increasing dead zone" was detrimental to our fishery, it would have shown as an annual decrease of productivity, not the increase which still brings us record catches. Take your head out of the sand. The only way to reduce the flow of nitrate "pollution" into the Gulf is by drying up the source of that "pollution". Then, when our agricultural production begins to fail, food scarcity and increased cost will bring hunger to people who have not known it. Less than one percent of our workforce grows the food and fiber for all the rest of us. Don't tinker with that wonderfully efficient industry!
[edit] Project templates
I see the template for WikiProject Texas has been added to this page. I would like to point out that there are Wikiprojects for Florida and Mexico, and if Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama get wikiprojects, we could end up with 6 project templates on this talk page. I think it would be better if no state or country wikiproject puts their template on this talk page. -- Donald Albury(Talk) 01:01, 28 July 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Part of the Atlantic?
Is the Gulf considered part of the Atlantic Ocean, like the Mediterannean Sea?
[edit] Image of the "Watershed"
That's an image of just the Mississippi watershed. What about the others?
- This EPA image shows the Gulf of Mexico watershed in the US, but omits Canada, Cuba and Mexico. I suspect we will not be able to find a free map that shows all of the watershed. Maybe someone can produce one for us. -- Donald Albury 23:28, 25 January 2007 (UTC)
