Introduction During summers the oxygen content at the surface normally has a salinity level consistent with “more than 8 milligrams per liter”; but when the oxygen content drops to “less than 2 milligrams per liter” the water is known to be in a hypoxic state (CENR, 2000; USGS, 2006). Hypoxia is the result of oxygen levels decreasing to the point where aquatic organisms can no longer survive in the water column. Organisms such as fish, shrimp and crabs are able to evacuate the area, but wildlife that cannot move becomes stressed and/or dies. For this reason, many call the hypoxic zone the “dead zone” (Overview, 2008; USGS, 2006). Due to agricultural fertilizers, excessive amounts of nitrogen and phosphorus can be washed away and flow into rivers. From this, marine algae blooms cause the water to turn green due to chlorophyll (Reed, 2011). Eutrophication then becomes a system dilemma causing either an increase in primary production or an expansion of algae. An enormous expansion of phytoplankton is then established on the surface of the water. At the same time, the water column is also stratified, meaning that things like temperature and salinity are not synchronized from top to bottom. Seasonally warm surface water has a low density forming a saltier layer above while the colder, denser water masses near the bottom layer are isolated from the upper layer cutting off the oxygen supply from the atmosphere (Overview, 2008). HistoryHypoxia is “rapidly increasing” worldwide (Briggs, 2009). Areas in the United States included Long Island Sound, the Chesapeake Bay, and the Gulf of Mexico; off the coast of Louisiana, Mississippi, and sometimes extends to the Texas shelf (EPA, 2003). The Gulf of Mexico is also… the focus of the article… Riggs, K., Watkins, J., Shivarudrappa, S., & Hartmann, V. (2009). Effects of hypoxia on sediment properties in the northern Gulf of Mexico. 9. Stennis Space Center, MS, USA. Joyce, S. (2000). Dead zones: coastal waters starved of oxygen. Environmental Health Perspectives, 108(3), 6.Meade, R.H. (ed. 1995). Contaminants in the Mississippi River, 1987-1992. US Geological Survey Circular 1133, US Department of the Interior. Denver, CO, USA.Overview. (2008). Retrieved October 2011, from Gulf Hypoxia: www.gulfhypoxia.net/overviewReed, C. (2011, June 20). Mississippi floods increase dead zone in Gulf. Discovery News .US Geological Survey (USGS). (2006, March). Gulf of Mexico Dead Zone: The Last 150 Years. St. Petersburg, Florida, USA. United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). (2003). Hypoxia and wetland restoration. Washington, DC, United States.