Chandeleur Islands to be submerged in 20 years if restoration efforts fall short, experts say

BILOXI, Miss. (WLOX) - Launching from a harbor in Biloxi, a handful of Louisiana-based restoration groups headed south for the Chandeleur Islands on Wednesday. The Louisiana island chain is in danger of being totally submerged in 20 years if their efforts are not successful, one of the experts told WLOX News.

“Depending on storm frequency, we think that within two decades, the Chandeleur Islands could be converted into a shoal,” explained Mike Miner, the applied geosciences director for The Water Institute.

According to Miner, about 60% of the islands are already below the water’s surface. He has spent much of his career researching the Chandeleur Islands and how storms have pushed it to this point.

“The islands are rapidly eroding. It is a natural process. We are trying to intervene before it becomes a submerged shoal,” he said. “Our plan is to take the submerged sand, dredge it, and move it back onto the island where it can be naturally spread out by waves and wind, just like the islands naturally formed. Basically setting back the clock on the island’s life span.”

$8 million has been sunk into engineering and planning the restoration efforts of the northern portion of the island. Dredging 9 million cubic yards of sand needed to complete the mission could cost as much as $285 million.

The Louisiana Coastal Restoration and Protection Authority is among the agencies heading up the efforts. Deputy Executive Director Bren Haase told WLOX News that the importance of the Chandeleur Islands cannot be understated.

“This is a really unique and special place along the northern Gulf of Mexico,” Haase said. “It is home to one of the largest concentrations of the most endangered sea turtle species in the world: the Kemp’s Ridley sea turtle. It is the most diverse assemblage of seagrasses in the world, and it is one of the largest concentrations of colonial nesting seabirds in the Gulf of Mexico.”

On top of that, the Chandeleur Islands also act as a buffer for the Gulf Coast when storms approach from the south, and the islands help regulate the salinity of the Mississippi Sound.

“The idea behind this project is to put more sand on the island, make it wider and taller, and improve the quality of habitat for all the wildlife and fish species that rely on the island,” Haase added.

While the engineering and planning phase has been funded partially with dollars from the BP Oil Spill settlement, the groups spearheading the restoration efforts are still looking to secure the $285 million needed to rebuild the island and fortify it for the future.

“It is not cheap. This kind of work is challenging and it is very expensive,” said Haase. “There are a lot of federal agencies, state agencies, non-government organizations that are very interested in the work going on at the island -- and they are funding some of it.”

Additionally, some of the funding comes from other places, like Gulfport-based Chandeleur Island Brewery, which has pledged to help fund some of the project.

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