The UN Greenies imaginations are getting the better of them, you wonder what other reports are utter BS:
'Dead zones' off NZ coast mystery
31 March 2004
By MATT O'SULLIVAN
Marine areas starved of oxygen and labelled "dead zones" are appearing off New Zealand's coast, United Nations scientists warn.
The claim is made in the UN Environment Programme's Global Environment Outlook Year Book 2003, which says the zones have recently been appearing off New Zealand, southeast Australia, Japan, China and South America.
But New Zealand experts say they are mystified by the report and question where the UN agency got its information.
Dead zones in the seas and oceans are caused by an excess of nutrients – mainly nitrogen – from agricultural fertilisers, vehicle and factory emissions and wastes.
Low levels of oxygen in the water make it difficult for fish, oysters and other marine creatures to survive.
Dr Janet Grieve, a biological oceanographer with the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, said she was not aware of any oxygen-starved zones off New Zealand that would fall into the "shock-horror" category, and believed the report was somewhat misleading.
The Fisheries Ministry says New Zealand's fish stocks are in a healthy shape and are not threatened by oxygen-starved zones. "It would be an enormous concern if the waters around New Zealand were called a dead zone," a spokeswoman said. "We do not consider this a dead zone."
Occasionally, fish were killed by algae blooms that remained for several weeks but nothing like that outlined by the UN agency, she said.
In their report, UN scientists identified nearly 150 oxygen-starved zones around the world, which they say pose major threats to fish stocks.
They did not give details of where New Zealand's "dead zones" were.
