Bay's oxygen-deprived dead zone largest in 20 years

The Chesapeake Bay had its largest oxygen-deprived "dead zone" in 20 years this summer, a condition that threatens fish, crabs and other aquatic life.

The average size of the dead zone - 5 percent of the bay's main stem - was even worse than predicted. This spring, scientists working with the Chesapeake Bay Program predicted the dead zone might be the fourth-worst since it has been measured.

"May's ecological forecast warned us that the large amounts of pollution washing into the bay this spring was going to lead to a bad summer for oxygen levels in the bay," Dave Jasinski, University of Maryland Center for Environmental...