… Jennifer Bright is the Chief Philanthropy Director and the COO of the Nature Collective. The non-profit has been caring for the lagoon for nearly four decades. “The lagoon has been closed since the beginning of July, and with that, you don’t have an influx of water, so the water that is in there isn’t sustaining itself, and it’s not getting fresh water in from the Pacific Ocean nor does it have the ability to take any runoff that is coming from upstream out and that creates a scenario where we have reduced oxygen levels for the lagoon,” said Bright. … “Every year, we go out and open the inlet. This year we had to open it twice, and we were finding the rate of sand accumulation was higher than it ever has been in the past, and we were unable to keep up with that,” said Bright. The recent heat wave also contributed to the lagoon system becoming hypoxic, which killed fish and other marine life.