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:
Dolphins in the Louisiana Bayou Keep Dying. A Reconstruction Plan Might Make It Worse.
Rocky Kistner / HUFF POST ENVIRONMENT 5 June 2020 Freshwater diversion projects that have divided environmental advocates are intended to save the coast but may imperil dolphins. Barataria Bay is a marshy jewel in the [...]
2020 ‘Dead Zone’ May Remain Four Times Larger than the Goal Established in 2001
Alison Satake / LSU Media Relations 3 June 2020 BATON ROUGE – A recent forecast of the size of the “Dead Zone” in the northern Gulf of Mexico for late July 2020 is that it will cover [...]
Gulf of Mexico ‘Dead Zone’ Will Be Large This Summer, Scientists Predict
John Schwartz / The New York Times 3 June 2020 The low-oxygen zone can cause harm not just to marine life, but also to those who catch shrimp and fish for their livelihood. The “dead [...]
Congressman requests $100M for La. fishing industry damaged by 2019 openings of Bonnet Carre Spillway
Rachael Thomas / WAFB 27 February 2020 BATON ROUGE, La. - Congressman Garret Graves has written a letter to the National Oceanic an Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) asking them to allocated the remaining $100 million in [...]
Local groups give update on dead zone-related projects
Halle Parker / Houma Today 24 January 2020 Representatives of several environmental groups shared updates Wednesday on projects aimed at shrinking the Gulf of Mexico’s annually recurring dead zone. Led by coordinator Doug Daigle, the Louisiana [...]
LSU Professor: UN Climate Change Conference Report Foretells Oxygen Loss in the World’s Oceans
Christine Wendling / LSU News & Notes 14 January 2020 Oxygen loss in the world’s oceans, driven by climate change and nutrient pollution, is increasingly threatening fish species and disrupting ecosystems, according to a new [...]
Worldʼs Oceans Are Losing Oxygen Rapidly, Study Finds
Kendra Pierre-Louis / The New York Times 7 December 2019 The world’s oceans are gasping for breath, a report issued Saturday at the annual global climate talks in Madrid has concluded. The report represents the [...]