Dead Zones

Student Jorddy Gonzalez and Dr. Cassandra Glaspie retrieve the CTD (conductivity, temperature, depth) sensor package after measuring dissolved oxygen at a stop on the Gulf hypoxia cruise.

Annual cruise to study Gulf ‘dead zone’ celebrates 40 years amid cuts that threaten to ground it

Now, after its 40th year, the cruise faces challenges to stay afloat, potentially undermining decades of research and future plans to get the dead zone under control.

Shrimper Thomas Olander inspects one of the nets on his boat. Olander says the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico makes shrimping tougher.

Coastal Desk

Midwestern Farm Runoff Creates Headache For Louisiana Shrimpers

Travis Lux

It’s only midmorning, but shrimper Thomas Olander is already calling it quits for the day in a small bayou in St. Mary Parish, on the central Louisiana...

Farms along the Missouri River contribute fertilizer runoff to the Mississippi River.

Coastal Desk

Missouri Farmers Try To Reduce Runoff, But Cleaning Gulf Dead Zone May Take Decades

Eli Chen

When corn and soybean farmer Kenny Reichard stopped plowing some of his fields in northern Missouri in 1982, other farmers told him that it was a...