The Gulf of Mexico waters touch the shores of the United States, Mexico, and Cuba. The Gulf of Mexico has an area of approximately 580,000 square miles, contains an approximate 584,000 cubic miles of water, and has an average depth of 5,299 feet (Nipper et al., 2008). The U.S. portion of the Gulf of Mexico region extends from the Florida Keys westward to the southern tip of Texas, following the coastline of five states. The combined coastline of these states, Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas totals over 47,000 miles.