This year's dead zone, measured from July 27 to August 2, is smaller than the five-year average of 5,550 square miles, and well under 2002's record 8,481 square miles.
oysters are very good at performing certain ecosystem services by filtration, but they can not process all those nutrients that are found in most fertilizers. The problem is upstream with ag runoff. We now farm fencerow to fencerow with no strips in between the fields to the water. There was a push to start using buffer strips (10' wide native grass and forb strips) along field borders near waterways but as usual people said no, we aren't conforming to what big bad gov't is trying to get us to do
where you see the largest dead zones are right where one would expect - at the mouths of the rivers and waterways (because they carry fertilizer with them). People farm all up and down the MS River and on up the Calcasieu. There has been a dead zone for decades.