Dead zone (ecology)

Imagine a person who is sleeping and not responding to anything around them. This is what is happening to an area in the ocean called a dead zone.

Normally, the ocean has a lot of different types of creatures like fish, crabs, and shrimp. These creatures need oxygen to survive, just like humans. However, in a dead zone, the amount of oxygen in the water becomes so low that these creatures are not able to get enough oxygen to breathe.

The reason this happens is because of pollution. When people use chemicals like fertilizers on their farms and lawns, some of that stuff gets washed away into rivers and eventually ends up in the ocean. This pollution causes tiny plants called algae to grow really fast. When the algae die, they sink to the bottom of the ocean and start to decay. This process uses up a lot of oxygen, and as a result, causes the dead zone to form.

So, just like how a person sleeping is not aware of what's going on around them, the dead zone is an area in the ocean that is unable to support life due to low levels of oxygen caused by pollution.