Mark Schleifstein / NOLA.com 7 June 2020 The summertime low-oxygen “dead zone” in the Gulf of Mexico is expected to cover at least 6,700 square miles along the Louisiana and eastern Texas coasts at the end of July, according to a federal forecast based on estimates developed by five research teams studying the effects [...]

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 heart of the vast Louisiana bayou. Its unparalleled natural ecosystem was once a hideout for smugglers and malcontents like [...]

Rocky Kistner / HuffPost 5 June 2020 Barataria Bay is a marshy jewel in the heart of the vast Louisiana bayou. Its unparalleled natural ecosystem was once a hideout for smugglers and malcontents like Jean Lafitte, who ruled the labyrinth of marshlands and estuaries. By the early 20th century, oil and gas had taken [...]

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 7,769 square-miles of the bottom of the continental shelf off Louisiana and Texas. The coronavirus pandemic has had no [...]

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 zone” in the Gulf of Mexico will be larger than usual this summer, scientists from the National Oceanic and [...]

Union of Concerned Scientists 1 June 2020 Dead Zone Compounds Crushing Pandemic Impact on Gulf Fishing Economy WASHINGTON (June 1, 2020)—With federal scientists expected to forecast, within days, the size of this year’s “dead zone” in the Gulf of Mexico, a new study shows that one of the dead zone’s biggest causes—nitrogen that flows [...]

Mark Schleifstein / NOLA.com 10 April 2020 Several blooms of greenish algae have been spotted along both the north and south shores of Lake Pontchartrain, just a week after the Bonnet Carre Spillway was opened by the Army Corps of Engineers to reduce the threat to the New Orleans area from high water in the river. Geologist [...]

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 fisheries disaster assistance to Louisiana to go towards mitigating the impacts of the recent openings of the Bonnet Carre [...]

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 Hypoxia Working Group provides a monthly forum for people to stay up-to-date on the efforts to reduce the amount of [...]

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 report from the International Union for Conservation of Nature, or IUCN, released in December 2019 at the UN Climate [...]