Earned Media
A More Diverse Bite Delights Along Restored Marshes | Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership
There isn’t an area I have fished in South Louisiana that’s the same as it was 20 years ago. We’ve lost 2,000 square miles of coastal wetlands in a century. Most of those changes have meant less habitat and fewer opportunities to catch fish. Change is the only constant in this highly dynamic place.
More change is coming. As diversions from the Mississippi River are constructed to rebuild those vanishing wetlands and marsh creation projects further limit saltwater intrusion, there will certainly be seasonal changes to our fisheries. More habitat will mean more opportunity for hunters and anglers.
But in the short term, and while diversions are operating, some brackish species like speckled trout will move. It’s a return to the natural cycle that built our coast before levees prevented annual floods from spilling over the river’s banks. The fish, both freshwater and saltwater species, that inhabit this delta are equipped to deal with it. They wouldn’t live here otherwise.
Undoubtedly, some sportsmen and women will shake their heads and complain, focusing on the short-term impacts of freshwater and sediment rather than the long-term benefits of growing wetlands and expanding habitat.
SEA-LEVEL RISE: How Mississippi mud might stop La. from disappearing
Features Steve Cochran, MRD and EDF: "We're racing against time, and the clock is running on two things," said Steve Cochran, campaign director for Restore the Mississippi River Delta and associate vice president for coastal resilience at the Environmental Defense Fund. "One is our ability to get projects like the Barataria sediment diversion in place. The other is addressing the emissions that are making the impacts on our ecosystem more dire."
News
Coastal authority backs proposal to boost Louisiana's share of offshore oil, gas revenue
A planned U.S. Senate bill to increase the amount of federal offshore oil revenue shared with to Louisiana and other Gulf Coast states, and to set up a similar revenue sharing program for wind energy generated in federal waters, got a vote of support from the Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority.
$2B project could restore wetlands, but concerns over impacts
A proposed $2 billion project could protect and restore thousands of acres of Louisiana wetlands, but there will be work to do to mitigate the potential downsides, officials said Wednesday.
Corps report predicts ‘major, adverse, permanent’ impact on shrimp, oysters from Mid-Barataria diversion | National Fisherman
A Corps of Engineers environmental impact statement for the planned $1.4 billion Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion project acknowledges it will drastically alter the south Louisiana shrimp and oyster fisheries.
“Moderate to major, adverse, permanent direct and indirect impacts are anticipated on shrimp fisheries in the Project area due to expected negligible to minor, permanent, beneficial impacts on white shrimp, and major, permanent, adverse impacts on brown shrimp abundance,” states an executive summary of the report issued March 5.