Interactive: The Gulf Dead Zone Through the Years

The hypoxic, or low-oxygen, mass of water in Louisiana coastal waters west of the Mississippi River is often called the dead zone because fish, shrimp and other species that can swim away do because there's too little oxygen to survive.

The size of the dead zone has been measured for years. This interactive allows you to explore the size of the dead zone and how it has changed betwee 2012 - 2018.