Posted on April 1, 2026
By Erica Thomas
Mobile Mayor Spiro Cheriogotis explained how a project by the Mobile Bay National Estuary Program will help preserve natural resources for years to come.
The Deer River Coastal Marsh Stabilization is using dredge material to replenish an eroding shoreline. Cheriogotis said the beneficial use project will protect one of the “largest remaining salt marsh systems on the western shore of Mobile Bay.” Approximately nine acres of productive marshland have been lost over the past two decades.
“Mobile County’s shoreline has been receding by an average of two to three feet per year, and threats to the coast are only increasing,” Cheriogotis said. “This project addresses decades of erosion by using dredged material to create 19 acres of new, natural offshore marsh habitat that will help curb the energy of the waves moving toward the shore.”
The dredge material will nourish the marsh and improve access to fishing.
The Mobile Bay National Estuary Program was awarded funding to begin the project in 2018.
The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, the State of Alabama, Mobile Bay National Estuary Program and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers worked together to make the project possible.
