Views from readers: Front beach in Ocean Springs + the power of science

Speak up

The Department of Marine Resources (MDMR) is inviting the public to comment on Mississippi’s Draft Oyster Management and Recovery Plan until Oct. 16.

Their draft plan lists 28 oyster projects: Active projects, future funded projects, and future unfunded projects. Director Joe Spraggins and Shellfish Bureau Chief Erik Broussard are seeking local knowledge and soliciting ideas especially for the future unfunded category.

The three listed categories are a start, but MDMR needs an oyster recovery plan built on a framework that can chart the department’s strategy and goals over the next five to 10 years, including a look back at history, and a view forward to flexibility as environmental conditions change. And it must offer ways to measure success along the way.

Each Bonnet Carre Spillway opening, oil spill or hurricane undoes and frustrates some of the oyster restoration work. Mississippi is adapting to the changing environment and welcoming new techniques like cage-grown oysters at Deer Island. BP restoration funds will provide some new spawning reefs that allow mature oysters to remain unharvested through several spawning cycles to boost natural reproduction, seeding new reef areas with juvenile oysters.

Director Spraggins expressed the need to diversify techniques, grow oysters in more places and have more oyster larvae and juveniles in coastal waters. The public can provide input into the oyster plan until Oct. 16, emailed to oyster@dmr.ms.gov or snail mailed to Erik Broussard, MDMR Shellfish Bureau, 1141 Bayview Ave., Biloxi, MS 39530.

Andrew Whitehurst

Healthy Gulf, Water Program Director

Be smart

Scientists warned us about COVID-19 and created a vaccine to help save us from it, but many people ignored the warning and turned down the vaccine. The consequences have been horrifying.

Scientists also warned us about global warming and told us how to slow it down, but many ignored, even sneered at the warnings and solutions. Now we are beginning to suffer the terrible impacts of global warming on our homes and businesses, and on agriculture and nature.

When are we going to start listening?

Is science always right? No. But probability is on its side because of the intelligence, education, and research that guide it. When we make decisions the smart thing to do is to side with probability.

Let’s start being smart.

Richard E. Creel

Biloxi

Front beach

Why is the Jackson County Board of Supervisors ruining Front Beach in Ocean Springs?

I live on Front Beach and bike or walk along Front Beach daily. The supervisors’ destruction has been under way for months.

A Front Beach Erosion Mitigation Study conducted for the Supervisors by Michael Baker International reports that Front Beach didn’t have an erosion problem until the concrete got installed on the beach after Hurricane Katrina, specifically the knee wall. Rather than removing the concrete, the supervisors opted to worsen the problem by adding more concrete.

Troy Ross must be in love with concrete from the $1.3 million he convinced the Supervisors to commit to this atrocity.

Judge for yourself. You will see that this is not a beach anyone would want to visit or hold a wedding or birthday party or church beach bonfire. It has become an eyesore, a construction zone, and a concrete sewer.

And every time we have another storm the condition worsens.

I urge anyone who once visited or still tries to enjoy Front Beach in Ocean Springs to tell the supervisors to quit ruining Front Beach.

Carol Burnett

Ocean Springs