I recently read where a team of scientists from the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium forecasted that the “dead zone” that forms every summer in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Texas and Louisiana would be the largest ever. This “dead zone” is an area where oxygen levels drop to the point where it cannot support any life that is more advanced than decomposed algae. The scientists said that this year, it could grow as large as 8,436 square miles, which is exactly the same area as the state of New Jersey. That would tie it with New Jersey as the largest such zone in the Western Hemisphere.