Oregon State University scholar Francis Chan’s started his profession as a postdoctoral specialist preparing for his first examination, but a sudden call sent him on a unique scientific voyage.

Beginning of strange happenings:

Fishermen begun pulling out tons of dead crabs from the ocean. An octopus crawls up the fisherman’s rope to avoid something that wasn’t clear to their sight. The Oregon Department of wildlife requested Chan to go and find out what was happening.

Chan dropped underwater sensors into the area of water and found the level of dissolved oxygen decreased severely in some areas. As a consequence, all the sea creatures had to find an escape while many had already died. After examining these low oxygen zones, Chan discovered that it had never happened before and is known as “hypoxic zones”.

Existence of Hypoxic zones:

A report in the Washington post states that dangerous waves extended across 7,700 square miles during 2021 creating a hypoxic zone along the Oregon shoreline.

According to Chan, there are two causes for hypoxic zones:

1. Warm water isn’t capable of containing dissolved gas as much as cold water can. Chan explains how water arrives at the west coast of the U.S.A having started around Japan.

2. The other cause is due to the changing flow of wind. A hypoxic zone begins when the up-surging wind blows the water away from the shore, and combines with the area of lower-oxygen water.

Chan considered climate change as the sole reason for these two causes. He further said that oceans will be more prone to hypoxic zone in the future.

There are several eye-witnesses, including Chan’s colleagues and fishers who notified Chan about the death of crabs and lobsters in South Africa due to suffocation, or more precisely, due to the lack of oxygen.

The emergence of Dead zones:

According to Chan the progression of “dead zones” across the pacific coast is likely to be more drastic and severe in the future.  Similar to the Portland conditions, the scientists have already indicated unusual regions of low oxygen in California.

The tracking sensors are expensive and can’t be placed everywhere in the ocean. For this purpose, the assistance from the Government fishers and commercial agencies is needed.