Deterioration and restoration of the Grande Batture Islands, Mississippi

Meyer-Arendt, Klaus J. (author)
Kramer, Karen A. (author)

Mississippi Geology

0275-8555

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1991

The remnant shoals of the Grande Batture Islands comprise the seaward margins of a late Pleistocene/Holocene delta lobe of the Pascagoula-Escatawpa fluvial system. Sediment discharge into Mississippi Sound via the Bayou Cum best distributary initiated phases of aggradation and progradation. As fluvial inputs decreased, wave action and longshore drift processes reworked the deltaic headland and produced the Grande Batture Islands. Historically, these islands sheltered the extensive nutrient-rich intertidal marshes as well as productive oyster beds in Pt. aux Chenes Bay and Grand Bay. An 1853 survey delineated about 450 acres of barrier island complex extending over 5 miles in length, yet by the 1950s it had been reduced to shoals. Shoreline erosion rates have averaged 15 ft/yr since 1853, and the remaining headland is presently retreating at even higher rates. Proposed nourishment of the Grande Batture shoals with 6,000,000 cubic yards of dredged material would not only restore the former barrier chain, but would also slow rates of bayshore erosion and marsh deterioration. Optimal salinity regimes for oyster production might also be re-established. Preliminary indications are that the costs of island restoration and periodic renourishment would be offset by the benefits derived.

Mississippi geology
Grande Batture Islands

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