This year’s dead zone is the eighth largest on record in the Gulf of Mexico, though it’s size could have been impacted by Hurricane Barry last month.
The dead zone is an area of hypoxic, or low-oxygen, conditions that forms at the bottom of the Gulf every year. Fertilizers, which wash off of Midwestern agricultural fields and down the Mississippi River, fuel algae blooms in the Gulf of Mexico. As the algae dies the water loses oxygen, killing fish and other sea creatures.
This year, the dead zone measured almost 6,952 square miles -- a little smaller than the size of New Jersey. The total is smaller than the 7,829 square miles forecasted in June, but still ranks as the eighth largest dead zone on record.
Dr. Nancy Rabalais, professor at LSU and the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium (LUMCON) led the study. She says this year’s dead zone might have been bigger if Hurricane Barry hadn’t churned up the water last month -- which happened to be just before the research was done.
“I would predict that one week from now the area will be larger than it is right now,” said Rabalais, “but we can only spend so much time on the water [taking measurements].”
This year’s dead zone is more than three times the federal goal, which is to reduce the size of the dead zone to 1,900 square miles.
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