Northern Gulf of Mexico (nGOM) Ecosystem: Is It Really the "Dead Zone" or the "Fertile Fisheries Crescent"?

The nGOM has been plagued by eutrophication and a large hypoxic zone for decades.  However, the so-called "dead zone" is anything but dead.  Described as the "fertile fisheries crescent", this area has produced high yields of fish and shellfish for > 50 years.  Because of the impacts low oxygen can have on living resources, hypoxia (bottom waters <2.0 mg/l) is viewed as a threat to sustained fisheries production in this region. Rather than ask what impacts low oxygen can have on nGOM fisheries production, we ask: How has this ecosystem sustained high productivity for decades in spite of many serious ecological impacts (eutrophication, hypoxia, fishing, harmful algal blooms, Deepwater Horizon oil spill)?  We previously reviewed factors related to fish habitat and production that affect the system and hypothesized that the effects of hypoxia on the nekton may be buffered by characteristics of the basin, the fauna and the ecosystem.  Since that time additional pressures on ecosystem integrity emerged that have significantly affected the system. We revisit our previous evaluation of the system's productivity to determine if the system is at greater risk for collapse or remains resilient. We will propose new hypotheses on how the system sustains high production.