It was only this week that the last pair of endangered Kemp’s ridley sea turtles could be released after successful rehabilitation. They were among dozens of other turtles and bottlenose dolphins that had stranded after the record-long opening of the Bonnet Carre Spillway last year.
The Bonnet Carre Spillway is a flood control operation at the East bank of Mississippi, allowing floodwaters from the Mississippi River to flow into Lake Pontchartrain which opens to the Gulf of Mexico. With the Mississippi River close to reaching the trigger point, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Mississippi Valley Division, is considering opening the spillway by the end of this week to allow the river to safely pass New Orleans. This opening would be a record-setting third year in a row, potentially due to changing weather and increased snowmelt. Two long back-to-back openings last year had led to a strong change in salinity and influx of farming fertilizer in the Mississippi sound, facilitating a toxic algae bloom that negatively influenced the environment, wildlife and thereby also the economy.
After the final release of the rehabilitated turtles this week, the Institute for Marine Mammal Studies prepares for a possible renewed increase in stranding numbers with the potentially disastrous Spillway opening. Even in the face of the Corona-crisis dilemma, IMMS executive director Moby Solangi says “We are on the job regardless of anything going on because these animals need help. For animals, it’s really us. So we are trying to save animals who have no voice."
Especially in the face of COVID-19 paralyzing the country, the IMMS team – as well as state officials, the public and fishing companies – greatly hope that the spillway will only have to be opened for a short while. A prolonged opening, particularly with the water temperatures rising, could be devastating for marine life, the ecosystem and the economy. The dilemma leaves Mississippi “between a rock and a hard place”, but a dilemma “they are determined to get through.”
More details on the potential Spillway opening are covered in this report: https://gcrl.usm.edu/bonny.carre.spillway/2019%20Bonnet%20Carre%20Spillway%20Overview%20-%20August%202,%202019%20-%20Final.pdf
Information on IMMS’s work in the face of the dilemma can be found here: https://www.wlox.com/2020/04/01/between-rock-hard-place-imms-braces-possible-reopening-bonnet-carr-spillway/
Facts about the environmental effects of last year’s opening have been visualized here: https://gcrl.usm.edu/bonny.carre.spillway/2019%20Bonnet%20Carre%20Spillway%20Overview%20-%20August%202,%202019%20-%20Final.pdf
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