Summary Of Feed By M. T. Anderson

I chose to look up the topic of water pollution. I discovered this topic by going through the themes of the sci-fi books we are currently reading. In the book Feed, by M.T. Anderson, one of the themes was environmental impact on humans so I based it off of that. This topic has always been something that I was curious about because I always wondered how water pollution affected fish. Not only does water pollution affect fish, but it also affects a lot of people. The water pollution of the Mississippi halts people from doing recreational activities like water skiing, tubing, and fishing. Before I started researching this topic, I knew that phosphorus runoff from fields affected the waters health. Some questions that I asked myself during my

Now it is the third most polluted river in the nation. The pollution on the Mississippi has caused a very negative effect on aquatic life. The Mississippi is home to a variety of animals including sea-lions, crabs, bass, and etc. This pollution is causing “dead zones” in the water which are areas in the water with little to no oxygen where aquatic life cannot survive. Talking about the dead zones, EPA stated, “Also known as hypoxia (dead zones), these areas are caused by algal blooms consuming oxygen as they die and decompose. Aquatic animals must leave the affected area or die. Young fish and seafloor dwellers like crabs and clams are most likely to die in hypoxic areas.”(EPA, 3) The Gulf of Mexico has the largest dead zone in the U.S. measuring 5,840 square miles. Where does this pollution come from? You guessed it, the Mississippi. Not only does the pollution of the Mississippi affect marine life, but it also effects human recreation. People that live on the Mississippi have a hard time doing activities like jet skiing or water skiing because if you fall off you could possibly suck into yourself some of the nasty polluted water and that can cause health problems. People should be realizing these problems and trying to stop them, but instead they just keep on dumping disgusting toxins into the river like it doesn’t affect anything or anyone. If I had more time to research this topic I would like to figure out how many fish die from dead zones every