Doyle Rice | USA TODAY1 August 2024For decades, an oxygen-depleted "dead zone" that is harmful to sea life has appeared in the Gulf of Mexico in a region off Louisiana and Texas. This year, it's larger than average, federal scientists announced in a report out Thursday.The 2024 zone is about 6,705 square miles, which is [...]

Mark Schleifstein | NOLA.com 1 August 2024 The annual “dead zone” in the Gulf of Mexico along Louisiana’s coast – an area where low to no oxygen in the deepest water can kill fish and other marine life – covered 6,705 square miles this summer, the 12th largest measured during 38 years of annual cruises, federal [...]

Eva Tesfaye | WWNO - New Orleans Public Radio 13 June 2024 The “dead zone” forms in the Gulf of Mexico every summer. It’s caused by nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus, largely from farm fertilizer and municipal runoff, which are carried down the Mississippi River and into the gulf. Algae feeds on those [...]

MARK SCHLEIFSTEIN | NOLA.com  13 June 2024 New data has emerged showing that the low-oxygen “dead zone” that forms along Louisiana's coast each summer could shrink dramatically this year -- but the reason may have to do with global warming and there are conflicting findings on the question. A forecast released this week by LSU scientists [...]

Kimberly Rodgers | NOAA 13 June 2024 Low oxygen conditions expected to impact 5,827 square-mile area NOAA is forecasting an above-average summer “dead zone” in the Gulf of Mexico covering approximately 5,827 square miles — an area roughly the size of Connecticut. The dead zone, or hypoxic area, is an area of low oxygen that [...]

Tyler Wittkofsky | NOAA 2 August 2023 Today, NOAA-supported scientists announced that this year’s Gulf of Mexico “dead zone”— an area of low to no oxygen that can kill fish and marine life — is approximately 3,058 square miles. That’s almost two million acres of habitat potentially unavailable to fish and bottom species — [...]

Tyler Wittkofsky | NOAA 5 June 2023 NOAA is forecasting a summer “dead zone” in the Gulf of Mexico that will cover approximately 4,155 square miles, making it below the 5,364 square mile average over the 36-year history of dead zone measurements in the region. The dead zone, or hypoxic area, is an area [...]

Atmospheric scientists noted the trend was prevalent in nearly every region of the country. Matthew Cappucci | The Washington Post 11 October 2022 When it rains, it pours. A paper published Tuesday in the journal Geophysical Research Letters finds that it’s raining harder in most of the United States. The study, written by researchers at [...]

Rachel Tucker | The Washington Post 13 March 2023 TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — Marine scientists are tracking a 5,000-mile-wide seaweed bloom that is so large, it can be seen from space. These sargassum blooms are nothing new, but scientists say this one could be the largest in history. At last check, it was heading [...]

Joshua Rosenberg | The Lens3 AUGUST 2022The so-called dead zone where the Mississippi River dumps into the Gulf of Mexico, an area of low oxygen that cannot sustain life, clocked in at 3,275 square miles this year. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced the size Wednesday, noting that it is below the recent [...]