NGOM-Hypoxia-2023

These research cruises are the baseline measures for the size of the low-oxygen zone (hypoxic zone) for the Mississippi River Nutrient/Hypoxia Task Force, a federal/state interagency working group. The goal of the Task Force is to reduce nutrients within the Mississippi River watershed so that the problems of hypoxia are diminished. In order to establish improvement in the Mississippi River nutrient delivery to the northern Gulf of Mexico, there is a need to determine the size of the hypoxic area each summer. The bottom area size of the summer hypoxic area is directly related to the nutrient flux (nitrogen) from the Mississippi River in May. Efforts are underway for the states along the Mississippi River to reduce nutrients by 20% by 2025. The ultimate goal is to diminish the size of hypoxia to less than 2,000 square miles by 2035. Without a summer mapping cruise, the ability to determine progress toward the size goal cannot be made