A look at the effects and what’s next for the Bonnet Carre Spillway

This morning at the Commission of Marine Resources, the Office of Marine Fisheries gave an update on the impact the Bonnet Carre Spillway has had since closure.

The Office of Marine Fisheries gave an update on what the spillway caused number wise. Spillway gates were open a total of 123 days with the maximum number of gates being opened at a time at 168.

The algae bloom team has analyzed 852 water samples and the algae has been persistent. They mentioned mortality rates of marine life being at record lows with shrimp down 60 percent and brown shrimp down 80 percent and oyster very near 100 percent.

Tomorrow DMR representatives will be meeting with the Mississippi River Commission to discuss ways to avoid this sort of problem in the future. Mississippi Department of Marine Resources Executive Director Joe Spraggins said, “Is there something that we can do in the future that could eliminate some of this? Is there ways that we could open up the Morganza a little bit, the Bonnet Carre Spillway a little bit before it ever gets to the point that it had to be massive? Is there something that we could do and work with? And another thing is what do we need to do to get Congress to help them do what they need to do? It’s not just the Corps. They are going by the rules and we need to change the rules.”

They also have been doing water samples daily since the closing and will continue to do so until the end of the month. Seafood samples have shown that no cynaotoxins were detected about the method detection limit which shows our Gulf seafood is safe.