The Gulf of Oman, also known as the Sea of Oman, is a gulf that connects the Arabian Sea to the Strait of Hormuz, which then runs to the Persian Gulf. It is bounded on the north by Iran and Pakistan, on the south by Oman, and on the west by the United Arab Emirates. The western side of the gulf connects to the Strait of Hormuz, a critical route via which one-third of the world’s liquefied natural gas and 20% of global oil consumption flows from Middle Eastern exporters. In 2018, scientists revealed that the Gulf of Oman includes one of the world’s largest marine dead zones, where the ocean contains little or no oxygen and marine animals cannot thrive. The dead zone covers nearly the whole 165,000-square-kilometer Gulf of Oman, which is roughly the size of Florida in the United States of America. The cause is a mix of rising ocean temperatures and increased nitrogen and phosphorus discharge from fertilizers.
