re: 2017 Gulf dead zone is largest ever, size of New Jersey

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But isn't the bottom the most important part of the ecosystem?

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Again, yes and no, as the same reason this happens is because most of this area is covered in river silt. A lot of the shelf is just featureless desert with mud bottom. There are rock humps and reefs that provide bottom relief that the bottom dwelling species will be congregated on that doesn't silt over and is high enough to be out of the hypoxic zone.

And this is 1 of the reasons why we have oil & gas reserves in the GOM. This has been occurring for millennia. Organic debris deposition under hypoxic conditions is how the whole oil generation process gets started.

The weather that was out there yesterday ought to add a little oxygen. 6-8's with the occasional 10 thrown in.