Posted on May 19, 2025
As the Mobile Bay ship channel dredging continues, many local citizens and environmentalists continue to be concerned with how it’s being done and what it could be doing to the local seafood industry and the bay itself.
It’s the reason Mobile Baykeeper held another in its series of town halls Thursday night, this one at St. Philip Neri Catholic Church in Theodore.
Baykeeper and local fishermen warn that the spoil from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ dredging is damaging the bay.
“We have no problem maintaining the ship channel and creating the commerce that we have in the port city of Mobile,” says charter fishing Capt. Richard Rutland of Cold-Blooded Fishing. “It’s very, very important to our economy and everything, but dispersing, doing the thin layer dispersal, the mud dumping out there is just very detrimental to all of the wildlife, all of the sea grass to the water clarity…”
“Right now, we’re still in a holding pattern on getting the dredge disposal methods changed to where we’re not going to have any more disposal inside the bay,” says Capt. Patric Garmeson of “Ugly Fishing”. “That what we’re looking for, to try to make that change.”
A contingent from the meeting just returned from Washington to meet with local representatives there to plead their case.
Baykeeper has scheduled another town hall next Thursday at 6 at Fairhope United Methodist Church.
