"U.S. Working Group Fights Toxic Algae"

"WASHINGTON, DC – In-depth scientific research and broad-based communications are both needed to get control of harmful algal blooms and low-oxygen conditions called hypoxia in U.S. waters, advises a new report to Congress.

From extended shellfish closures on the west coast in 2015, to a larger-than-predicted hypoxic zone in the Gulf of Mexico, to blue-green algae in Lake Erie, harmful algal blooms and hypoxia ruin resources across thousands of miles of U.S. coastal and inland waters.

No part of the country or the world is immune. The largest dead zone in the world encompasses the entire bottom of the Baltic Sea. The second largest dead zone in the world is located in U.S. waters – in the northern Gulf of Mexico.

These events may threaten the safety of seafood, drinking water and air quality and create large low-oxygen aquatic zones, called dead zones, where nothing can survive."

Environment News Service had the story April 10, 2016.