Posted on August 26, 2024
GULF OF MEXICO — Officials allowed News 15 an exclusive, up-close look at a mysterious new island discovered nine miles off the coast of St. Mary Parish.
Our journey to the new island started in Morgan City. With help from the US Coast Guard, we traveled down the Atchafalaya River. Our destination was about 40 minutes away in the Gulf of Mexico.
As the Louisiana coast shrank into the horizon in the open waters, dolphins emerged to help find a new strip of land poking out of the Gulf waters. Eventually, a low sandy space covered in brown pelicans appeared in the distance. Lafayette native Harold Shoeffler, an environmentalist, described what it was like to see the island for the first time.
“Yeah, it’s full of pelicans!” he exclaimed.
Retired LSU oceanographer Paul Kemp actually stepped foot on the island but didn’t really “stand” on it. He quickly sank.
“It was muddy and we almost left him,” said John W. Day Jr., a retired LSU professor.
This new island is almost entirely artificial. It is made of sediment from the Atchafalaya River Dredging Project. It’s been growing for the past 10 years.
“The island was formed through dredging material,” said Raymond ‘Mac’ Wade, executive director of the Port of Morgan City. “It came out of the channel, the Atchafalaya River. We’re a federally authorized channel. The material has to be moved for navigational purposes. Instead of moving it and just pumping it anywhere, we use the beneficial use process. So, this is where we wanted the island at. We’ve started pumping on it, and we’ve been doing this for about 10 years now.”
The island is 500 feet by 2,000 feet, and is expected to grow quickly in the years ahead.
“It’s been in the making for about 10 years now. Now, it has finally broken the surface. You may say it’s really not that big. You can’t see what’s under the water. It’s gonna be like the tip of the iceberg. It’s gonna be a big island when we finish it. And it’s still several years from really becoming a big island,” explained Wade.
The new island still doesn’t have a name.
