We’ve all heard of the many types of pollution in the world today, but there is a rapidly growing problem that hasn’t received much attention lately. A problem that could have “severe consequences for our ecosystems”. The problem is pollution-fed algae and like a disease that slowly takes over your body, it is slowly creating “dead zones” with too little oxygen too support life in the earth’s oceans.

“It is a global problem, and it has severe consequences for ecosystems,” said Robert J. Diaz of the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, adding, “It’s getting to be a problem of such a magnitude that it is starting to affect the resources that we pull out of the sea to feed ourselves.”

Diaz has reported that there are more than 400 dead zones around the world, which is double what the U.N. reported just two years ago.

“If we screw up the energy flow within our systems, we could end up with no crabs, no shrimp, no fish. That is where these dead zones are heading unless we stop their growth,” Diaz said.

But what’s causing this phenomenon? Scientists mainly blame fertilizer and other farm runoff, sewage and fossil-fuel burning. 

“Farmers aren’t doing this on purpose,” Diaz said. “The farmers would certainly prefer to have their [fertilizer] on the land rather than floating down the river.”

While Diaz believes that it would be unrealistic to try to go back to pre-industrial levels of runoff, he hopes we can make adjustments such as seriously looking at ways to retain fertilizer on the land.