If there was ever a case to be made for the benefits of maintaining our coastal resiliency, this is it. The oil spewing out of the Deepwater Horizon well threatens to spread oil across the northern Gulf Coast. It is almost certain that fish and wildlife will perish in this event. The effects of this spill on beautiful wading birds, tasty oysters, and the livelihood of many hardworking fisher folks will be tragic.
What will it take for these species, and those who live off them, to recover? Ecological populations can rebound from die-offs if they have enough food and habitat. And at one point, Louisiana had plenty of that. The wetlands and coastal bays of this area have provided food and habitat for countless species for thousands of years. However, in the past century, we’ve lost much of that habitat-almost 20 percent or 1,900 square miles of a system that was once nearly 10,000 square miles. With this land loss comes the loss of the habitat needed for birds, fish, and other wildlife to recover. A century ago, this system could have done a much better job of coping with a spill like this. A century from now, most of its resiliency will be gone. Whether it will be able to recover from the current spill, well, we are still waiting on that data.
In the short run, the spill obviously needs to be cleaned up. In the long run, what the system needs is habitat revitalization. We need to restore, or come close to restoring, the natural systems of freshwater flow and sediment delivery that created this vast landscape of marshes, swamps, beaches and bayous. If there is a silver lining in this event I hope it will be redoubled focus, at the state and national levels, on restoring coastal Louisiana.
Alex Kolker
Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium
Dr. Alex Kolker is assistant professor at the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium. He is currently conducting research on the impact of hurricanes along Louisiana’s coast and the implications to coastal restoration.
