Ecological Disasters on the Louisiana's Coastal Ecosystems

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Recommended: British Petroleum oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico

Ecological disasters have plagued Louisiana’s coastal ecosystems for many years. It can be seen through the massive loss of coastal wetlands thus destroying habitat for fish populations. Saltwater estuaries are the life support for a variety of fish and crustacean species. With these marshlands disappearing at such a fast rate, it makes sense that the fish populations are going to disappear along with it. If we don’t make change to this dire to situation soon, there might not be this wonderful coastal ecosystem in Southern Louisiana for future generations to enjoy.
Recent natural disasters are hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The USGS (United States Geological Survey) suggests that the hurricanes caused erosion levels to exceed to levels not expected until 2050. Those two hurricanes also caused an estimated 562 square kilometers of coastal wetlands loss. This land loss can have an extreme negative impact on fish populations. Many saltwater estuaries are fed by marshlands that are protected by extensive levee systems. When a major hurricane hits one of these estuaries, it can break the levee. Thus releasing all the nutrients and baitfish into mostly mud bottom lakes. This can cause an explosion in fish populations in such ecosystems. Though this is not a good scenario, due to the extreme lack of bait in the following years. An example of this would be the “Calcasieu Estuary” South of Lake Charles, LA. Many fishermen can attest to record catches in 2005 (after Hurricane Rita), though in recent years it has been on a slow decline. Which even caused major fish limit reduction in that particular area.
An unnatural disaster that affected the ecosystem of Louisiana was the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The BP (British Petroleum) oil s...

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...tlands. Prior to man's use of the Louisiana wetlands, water flow was determined by the many bayous, which were mostly old river tributaries. Initially, roads were placed on top of natural levees and had only minimal effect on drainage.

There are many proposals to fix these problems. These proposals include implementation of stricter recreational and commercial seafood harvest limits, continue rebuilding/building of levees to stop further coastal erosion that would promote more seafood habitat, and more stringent regulation of offshore drilling. (Or elimination of offshore drilling entirely). Though that option would cause an economical catastrophe in Louisiana due to the massive revenue we take in from drilling. Though the debate is ongoing as to how to fix our current problem, most people can agree that this destruction is real, and must be reversed immediately.

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