According to a release from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA), the oxygen-depleted zone will cover 5,898 square miles, a range that it has averaged over the last several years. 

“Dead zones,” or hypoxic zones, are areas uninhabitable by marine life due to low levels of oxygen. They are caused by runoff from farms that contain fertilizer and waste and can over-stimulate the growth of algae, which sink and decomposes in the water. This process takes up oxygen, depleting the supply available to the surrounding marine life. 

The lack of oxygen in the dead zone pushes marine life able to flee out of the area, but those left behind become stressed or die of suffocation.

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"Dead zones are a real threat to gulf fisheries and the communities that rely on them," assistant NOAA administrator for the National Ocean Service Russell Callender said in the release. "We'll continue to work with our partners to advance the science to reduce that threat. One way we're doing that is by using new tools and resources, like better predictive models, to provide better information to communities and businesses."

"By expanding the real-time nitrate monitoring network with partners throughout the basin, USGS (United States Geological Survey) is improving our understanding of where, when and how much nitrate is pulsing out of small streams and large rivers and ultimately emptying into the Gulf of Mexico," Deputy Assistant Secretary for Water and Science at the Department of the Interior Sarah J. Ryker said in the release. "The forecast puts these data to additional use by showing how nutrient loading fuels the hypoxic zone size."

The confirmed size of the 2016 Gulf of Mexico dead zone will be released in early August after a monitoring survey from July 24 to August 1 is completed.

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