Chesapeake Bay oyster reefs covered more than 200,000 acres in the 1700s. Roughly what area remains?

1. Start from the historical figure of more than 200,000 acres of reef in the 1700s. 2. The present figure is about 36,000 acres. 3. That is a fall of roughly four fifths of the original reef area. 4. Fertilizer runoff and the resulting dead zones drove part of that decline. 5. Overharvesting drove the rest, with the harvest falling 88 percent between 1982 and 2007. 6. Oysters are filter feeders, so losing them also cost the bay its natural cleaning. 7. In the 1700s the population could filter the whole bay in a few days. 8. Today the same job would take the remaining population close to a year. _Source: OpenStax Biology 1e (CC BY 4.0), Chs 44 and 46, section 46.3 Biogeochemical Cycles_