Environmental News Network - NOAA Forecasts Below-Average Summer ‘Dead Zone’ in Gulf of Mexico

Details: By NOAA; 13.Jun

A team of scientists including a University of Michigan aquatic ecologist is forecasting a summer “dead zone” in the Gulf of Mexico that will cover an estimated 4,155 square miles, which is below the 5,364-square-mile average over the 36-year history of dead zone measurements in the region.

Julie Swatson

A team of scientists including a University of Michigan aquatic ecologist is forecasting a summer “dead zone” in the Gulf of Mexico that will cover an estimated 4,155 square miles, which is below the 5,364-square-mile average over the 36-year history of dead zone measurements in the region.

The 2023 Gulf of Mexico hypoxia forecast was released today by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which funds the work.

“The action plan to reduce the size of the Gulf of Mexico dead zone has been in place for over two decades, but each year the size of the dead zone varies around the long-term average. That average is almost three times the goal set in 2001,” said U-M’s Don Scavia, who leads one of several research teams partnering with the federal government on the annual forecast.

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NOAA Forecasts Below-Average Summer ‘Dead Zone’ in Gulf of Mexico