Cat Islands (LA) Vanishing Into Sea; Stretched For Miles, Now Literally The Size of A Living Room

Last Sunday I motored out to the southeastern edge of Barataria Bay say good-bye to an old friend -- the Cat Islands. This line of grass and mangrove islands once spread for miles across the bay like a string of green pearls. Today all that's left is a tiny strip of crushed shells and sand maybe 30 yards long and 10 feet wide. That will be washed away with the next storm. And part of my life will go with them.

As they had for generations of sportsmen before me, The Cats became one of my favorite destinations, a place responsible for a library of warm memories of good times with good friends. Their grassy shorelines were favorite year-round haunts for redfish, while the oyster reefs that surrounded them attracted schools of speckled trout during summer spawning season. When the wind was right, the silver and bronze shadows of speckled trout and reds would be waving in clear green water when we arrived, waiting to pounce on our offerings of live shrimp or gold spoons.

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That's where the parental neglect comes in. It didn't have to end this way. As soon as we declared this landscape our own, the health of its land, air, water and coast were our responsibilities. We could have had the oil and gas - and still held on to most of our coast for many more years. Scientists pointed out as early as the 1970s the likely result of our actions, but most of us refused to make a difference. When it came down to choosing between stopping the abuse of the things we loved and feared of the oil and gas industry, we gave in to our fears. The final, devastating example of that abuse is going on right now.

In 2010 there were still a number of the islands large enough to host huge concentrations of nesting pelicans, roseate spoonbills, ibis, egrets and many shore birds. Milder winters had allowed black mangroves to colonize the islands, and their roots were holding the sand and shells against the rising water while their branches were providing nesting platforms for many birds. Then the Deepwater Horizon blew. Oil coated the mangrove roots, and within three years most of them were dead. Without the roots to hold the island sands together, in eight years they quickly washed away. An attempt to garner federal and state grants to rebuild some of the islands has been in limbo for years, with little hope of being restarted.

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http://www.nola.com/opinions/index.ssf/2018/04/cat_islands_erosion.html#incart_river_index