2018 Shelfwide Cruise – Completed
The bottom area of low oxygen in Louisiana coastal waters west of the Mississippi River, commonly known as the ‘Dead Zone,’ was mapped at a smaller-than-average size this summer. The area was 2,720 square miles (7,040 square kilometers), slightly larger than the state of Delaware and well below the projected estimate of 6,570 square miles (17,000 square kilometers). Click here for the full Press Release.
Cruise Dedication
The 2018 shelf-wide cruise to determine the extent of low oxygen bottom waters on the Louisiana-Texas continental shelf is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Wesley J. Tunnell, Jr. who passed away on Saturday, July 14, 2018, after a long successful and not successful battle with cancer.
What is hypoxia?
Hypoxia, or low oxygen, is an environmental phenomenon where the concentration of dissolved oxygen in the water column decreases to a level that can no longer support living aquatic organisms. Hypoxic areas, or “Dead Zones,” have increased in duration and frequency across our planet’s oceans since first being noted in the 1970s.
The largest hypoxic zone currently affecting the United States, and the second largest hypoxic zone worldwide, is the northern Gulf of Mexico adjacent to the Mississippi River.
Gulf hypoxia in the news:
TREADING WATER | Unfocused and underfunded, goal of cleaner water falters
Erin Jordan / The Gazette 3 December 2018 Chapter 1: America’s Midwest faces worsening trouble with undrinkable well water, recreational lakes choked with toxic algae and water treatment plants requiring budget-busting upgrades to remove pollution [...]
‘Dead zone’ worsens troubles for Louisiana shrimpers
Erin Jordan / The Gazette2 December 2018 'They need to say it's against the law to pollute downstream' Tommy Olander Jr. on Aug. 9 drives his family's shrimping boat in Vermillion Bay off the Louisiana [...]
Interactive: The Gulf Dead Zone Through the Years
Max Freund / The Gazette 2 December 2018 The hypoxic, or low-oxygen, mass of water in Louisiana coastal waters west of the Mississippi River is often called the dead zone because fish, shrimp and other [...]
Guest column: La. can learn from red tide
Matt Rota / The Advocate 8 October 2018 There is an environmental crisis in Florida right now. The red tide has spread to the Atlantic coast, and it’s affecting some of the most popular beaches [...]
The Strangest Deep-Sea Creatures Washed Ashore by Hurricanes
It’s not easy to push an alligator around, but hurricanes have been known to move them miles from home. Shown here is a resident of Everglades National Park, Florida. Photograph by Keith Ladzinski, National [...]
Another reason Florida’s Red Tide is so bad this year: Pollution from the Mississippi River
Craig Pittman / Tampa Bay Times 20 September 2018 Red Tide influenced by Mississippi River: Scientists say pollution flowing into the Gulf of Mexico is fueling the Red Tide algae bloom, and making it resemble [...]
Covering extreme weather: What to avoid and how to get it right
(Pixabay) Chloe Reichel / Journalist’s Resource 30 August 2018 When extreme weather occurs, questions of whether and how climate change contributed to the event loom large. According to Rick Weiss, director of SciLine and past [...]