Master Plan Success: Biloxi Marsh Living Shoreline
Project Highlight: Biloxi Marsh Living
Shoreline
This living shoreline project is estimated to generate approximately 47,000 feet of oyster barrier reef along the eastern shore of Biloxi Marsh, providing a habitat for oysters, reducing wave erosion, and preventing further marsh degradation. This enhanced marsh area serves as an important storm buffer for the greater New Orleans region.
Voice for Restoration
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“The Biloxi Marsh Living Shoreline Project provides much-needed storm protection for St. Bernard communities. It is a great example of how we can work with nature to reduce erosion, enhance oyster production and improve water quality. This and other projects detailed in the Coastal Master Plan are crucial to protecting our livelihoods and culture, which depend on a healthy coast.” – Meaghan McCormack CEO, St. Bernard Economic Development Foundation |
What is the Biloxi Marsh Living Shoreline project?
The Biloxi Marsh Living Shoreline project will create living oyster reefs and shoreline protection along a shoreline of Eloi Bay, near the mouth of Bayou la Loutre. The project will use hardened materials (which could include concrete, steel, rock or oyster shell) to create a breakwater that will provide protection against wave erosion and provide hard substrate where oysters can settle and grow. When complete, this project will provide 9 to 11 miles of shoreline protection for degrading marsh.
Oyster reefs provide a wide suite of benefits besides being suitable for harvest. Oysters filter water, improving water quality; they provide habitat for fish and invertebrates; and they can help protect shorelines from erosion. This project is directly adjacent to the state’s public oyster seed grounds, so any oyster recruitment will also benefit oysters there. This project is expected to prevent the loss of 120-146 acres of land over its 20-year lifetime.
Learn more about this project.
Louisiana Supports the Master Plan
There remains overwhelming bipartisan support for action to address Louisiana’s urgent land loss crisis through sediment diversions and other science-based restoration efforts. A new poll of coastal Louisiana voters by Global Strategy Group (GSG) shows widespread support for coastal restoration projects consistent with prior polls in recent years.
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Learn more about the 2023 Coastal Issues Poll
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Add Your Supports for the Master Plan
Louisiana is losing a football field of land every 100 minutes, and the science says it isn’t getting better. But for the 4th time in 16 years, Louisiana has a robust science-based, publicly informed comprehensive plan to address this challenge. In a recent poll, 92% of Louisianians said it was important for the state to have a science-based based plan.
Please add your voice to the map below so, together, we can show our support for coastal restoration and the Coastal Master Plan.
The new 2023 Coastal Master Plan is the state’s science-based blueprint for large-scale restoration and protection of Louisiana’s critical coastal areas. Without additional action on restoration and protection projects from the state’s Coastal Master Plan, Louisiana could lose 4,000 square miles of land over the next 50 years.
Everyone who cares about our coast has a role to play to make sure our state prioritizes coastal protection and restoration now and into the future.
Please show your support for the 2023 Coastal Master Plan!