Climate change likely a factor in dead zone found in Pacific, OSU professor says

PORTLAND, Ore. — There is a dead zone growing in the Pacific Ocean.

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, dead or "hypoxic" zones are areas in the ocean with reduced oxygen. When oxygen levels drop, fish usually just move somewhere else, but not all sea life is able to move in time.

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"We were able to see in the middle of a low-oxygen zone, we could see sea stars and sea cucumbers, crabs, that actually suffocated and were just littered on the sea floor," said Francis Chan, an Associate Professor at Oregon State University. "More and more, the evidence really points strongly to climate change as being a factor."

Chan, a professor and researcher, says experts like himself are still trying to determine the long-term impacts of these dead zones.