Researcher: This Year's Gulf of Mexico Dead Zone Could Be Biggest Ever Recorded

Published: Wednesday, June 11, 2008 at 3:00 p.m. Last Modified: Wednesday, June 11, 2008 at 12:17 p.m. HOUMA -- Louisiana researchers are predicting that this year’s dead zone, the area of low-to-no oxygen that forms annually in the Gulf of Mexico, will be the largest ever recorded. Scientists expect the dead zone, which earned its nickname by killing or driving away marine life from thousands of miles of oxygen-deprived Gulf waters, to grow to about 10,084 square miles -- an area about the size of the state of Massachusetts that will reach as far as the Texas coastline. Researchers say the largest dead zone measured was 8,894 square miles in 2002. It was about 7,900 square miles last year. "Low-oxygen conditions have been present off Terrebonne and Barataria bays since March, and the number of stations that are hypoxic (or... [read full story]