Scientists at William & Mary’s Batten School & VIMS, FlowWest and the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science announced Tuesday that the Chesapeake Bay’s annual “dead zone” is expected to be relatively mild this summer. According to the forecast, the severity of the dead zone is predicted to rank among the lowest 10 percent of years since extensive monitoring began in 1985 and will be about 31 percent below the long-term average. “This year’s forecast suggests that the Chesapeake Bay may experience one of its milder dead zones in recent decades,” said Aaron Bever, senior managing scientist with FlowWest. “Lower nitrogen loads entering the bay this spring are expected to translate into better oxygen conditions for fish, crabs, oysters and other bay life this summer.” Dead zones in the Chesapeake Bay are areas of low-oxygen conditions where blue crabs, fish and other marine life struggle to survive. Hypoxia occurs when excess nutrients like nitrogen trigger large ...