HUMAN IMPACTS ON COASTAL AND ESTUARINE ENVIRONMENTS IN MISSISSIPPI

Abstract

ABSTRACT Although Mississippi’s toehold on the Gulf of Mexico extends less than 110 km from border to border as the crow flies, human modification of the coastal zone has been extensive. Two of the three major subcomponents of the state’s terrestrial coastal environment–the mainland shoreline, the estuarine embayments, and the barrier islands–have been substantially modified by human activity. Almost half of the 130 km long mainland shoreline has been altered by seawall construction and artificial beach nourishment. The wetland-fringed estuarine embayments of St. Louis Bay and Back Bay of Biloxi became popular loci of recreational development in the boom years of the 1950s and 1960s, and dredge-and-fill activity was widespread. Likewise, industrial development proceeded rapidly during that period, and not until passage of the Mississippi Wetlands Protection Law of 1973 did wetland modification become significantly reduced. Only the barrier islands have escaped extensive human alteration, although development plans have been (and still are) proposed from time to time. The erosion and destruction of the casino resort of Isle of Caprice (presently the Dog Keys shoals) in the 1930s effectively halted offshore resort development plans for several decades, and today three of Mississippi’s four barrier islands are included in the Gulf Islands National Seashore.