​Life forms in the gulf are losing the battle of having access to the totality of their environments to chemical pollution. The growing agricultural chemical use has established a growing dead zone in which species are no longer able to interact in (1998:21). Chemical pollutants impact animal life and function in the gulf by making it difficult for species to recover from harm caused by pollutant matter. Following exposure to oil from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill affected deep-sea corals have been struggling to recover, and the vulnerability of deep-water corals has accentuated the problem (Girard & Fisher 2018). Vulnerable animal population are consistently threatened by the growth of the dead zone and exposure to chemical pollutants because attempts to recover or move can negatively impact the species; if the dead zones produced by agricultural chemicals were to expand beyond certain area it could cause populations to die off if the species functions within a limited location.