The “dead zone” in the Gulf of Mexico this summer is more than twice the size of last year’s oxygen-deprived area that can’t support marine life, NOAA announced Thursday.
Following a survey by a research vessel that ended last week, the agency found that there are low-oxygen conditions across 6,705 square miles. It’s the 12th-largest dead zone ever recorded.
The hypoxic area, which lacks sufficient oxygen to support fish and other marine life, is about 1,000 square miles larger than NOAA predicted it would be earlier this year.
The conditions are caused by fertilizer runoff and other nutrients that are carried downstream by the Mississippi River and its tributaries. Federal and state officials have been striving to reduce this runoff, which every summer stimulates the growth of algae that then depletes the oxygen levels in the water. Plants and animals that can’t escape are killed, while shrimp and fish swim away.
