Scientists recently returned from their annual cruise to measure hypoxia in the northern Gulf of Mexico. An area of hypoxia, often called a 'dead zone', is where oxygen levels drop under a critical threshold below which marine life cannot survive.
From July 22 - 28, they mapped an area of low oxygen that was 2,720 square miles, about the size of Delaware and smaller than predicted. This is well below the 5,770 square mile average from 2014 - 2018 and only a third the size of the largest hypoxic zone ever measured, which was 8,776 square miles in July 2017.