Every winter, millions of birds fly down the Mississippi and Central flyways, on their way to warmer temperatures across the Gulf of Mexico. Ducks, geese, and other waterfowl rely on the Delta’s food-rich habitats, whether it be preparing for the 600-mile journey across the Gulf in the fall or recuperating after the flight back north in the spring. Therefore, the destruction of the Delta doesn’t only affect its yearlong residents; waterfowl hunters as far north as Canada feel the effects of the Paradise’s degradation. The entire North American duck hunting community relies on the Mississippi River Delta, as it vanishes before our blind eyes.
The spotted sea trout, commonly known as the speckled trout, is arguably the most widely sought after aquatic species that inhabits the Delta. Even though the speckled trout is a migrating species, they crowd the warm, shallow channels during the spring and summer, feeding on anything from shrimp to mullet. The National Wildlife Federation (NWF) defines the maximum length of speckled trout at 25 inches, but I’ve witnessed three over 30 inches. All three were released, purely out of respect.
Due to decades of mismanagement, along with damaging hurricanes and the 2010 Gulf oil spill, coastal Louisiana is disappearing at a rate of one football field every 100 minutes. In the past 100 years, Louisiana has lost over 1,900 square miles, roughly the size of Delaware. Several major factors contribute to this land loss.
First off, the delta’s wetlands are, and always will be, sustained by the rich sediments delivered by the Mississippi River, but huge levees built to protect communities and other resources have in turn cut the tie between the delta and its lifeline, completely wasting the sediments that keep the marshes replenished. Even without these levees, the amount of sediment left in the lower Mississippi most likely wouldn’t sustain the regrowth of the marshland already lost. Given the number of dams and locks built upriver on the Missouri, Mississippi, and Ohio Rivers, the amount of sediment in the lower Mississippi has decreased by more than 70 percent since 1850.
