Goal is to shrink Gulf dead zone, but that’s not happening

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is forecasting an average oxygen-depleted “dead zone” in the Gulf of Mexico this summer. But that average is still nearly triple a goal for reducing the area where there’s too little oxygen each summer for marine animals to survive. NOAA said in a news release Thursday that combining models developed by five universities resulted in a forecast of about 5,364 square miles. That’s a hair lower than the five-year average measured size of 5,380 square miles. Last year’s was about 6,334 square miles. A federal-state task force has set a long-term goal of reducing the dead zone to 1,900 square miles.