As previously reported on Conduit Street, the Chesapeake Bay’s oxygen “dead zone” has been shrinking for the last several years.  However, an August 25 Baltimore Sun article reported that after hitting a record-low in June, the zone has significantly expanded.  From the article:

The Maryland Department of Natural Resources reports that the volume of bay water with too little oxygen in it for fish to breathe — also known as the “dead zone” — rebounded in early August to its 8th largest size.  …

With the dead zone back to above-average, the volume of low-oxygen water in the main bay was estimated last week to be 1.32 cubic miles.  That’s about what government and University of Maryland scientists had predicted early in the summer, based on high river flows resulting from a wetter spring this year than in 2013.