Sunday, May 11, 2008
By BEN RAINES
Staff Reporter
Mobile Bay is slowly being turned into a bathtub.
More and more, the gentle hiss of waves rolling ashore is being replaced by the slap and pop of water rocking against vertical walls known as bulkheads.
The bay's natural shoreline a mix of sandy beaches, muddy flats and marshy fringes is being lost behind an ever-growing number of these bulkheads, which are designed to stop waves from eating away at private waterfront property.
The problem is that bulkheads are barren, at least in terms of providing habitat for marine creatures. As natural shorelines give way to a growing wall of bulkheads, the bay begins to lose the shrimp, crabs, fish and other creatures that are part of its incredible fecundity, according to biologists.
Alarmed that more than a third of Mobile Bay's shoreline is now armored with bulkheads, several local groups have come together to create a property-protecting alternative they call "the living shoreline."
Built last week just offshore of Helen Wood Park near Dog River, the shoreline stabilization experiment was created through a partnership with the Dauphin Island Sea Lab, the Alabama State Lands Division and The Nature Conservancy.
Mobile Press-Register
