COCODRIE (AP) — Researchers in Louisiana and other states are getting more than $2.4 million this year to study the annual dead zone of oxygen-starved waters in the Gulf of Mexico, with up to $12 million planned over five years.A team of scientists from the LUMCON marine-research center in Cocodrie and the University of Michigan are to get $766,600 this year and $4 million over the entire period to create computer models that can forecast the size and location of the “hypoxic” area.Other teams will study the dead zone’s effects on important Gulf fish populations including shrimp, Atlantic croaker, Gulf menhaden, bay anchovy, Atlantic bumper and Spanish bumper. NOAA estimates that the Gulf dead zone threatens commercial and recreational fisheries that generate about $2.8 billion annually.Contact The Daily Reveille’s news staff at [email protected]