If nutrient and organic loading can be controlled and reduced, systems will recover from hypoxia. For example, a hypoxic event in 1976 that affected an area of about 1 000 km2 along the coast of New York and New Jersey displaced demersal Fishes and also blocked the migration of pelagic bluefish (Pomatomus saltatrix). Northward migrating bluefish that encountered the hypoxic zone did not pass through or around it, but stayed to the south waiting for it to dissipate and then continued their migration north (Azarovitz etal., Hypoxia also alters spatial patterns of human use by influencing the spatial distribution of fisheries resources (Selberg etal., Most negative effects tend to occur locally, within the region of the water body in which oxygen concentrations are reduced, but much wider ranging consequences can be mediated through the indirect effects of altered distributions and abundances (Breitburg et al., The frequency and magnitude of fish kills have increased as nutrient-related hypoxia has worsened.