A Visit to Mobile and its Bay

New work for the Navy.

LEAVING FAIRHOPE TODAY – Yesterday, Saturday, we went to Mobile. It was a mixed experience, we guess because Mobile is exactly so. A lot of the old downtown has seen better days, but both parks on Dauphin Street inland from Water Street were crowded with cheerful, not-at-all-upscale events, full of human life. We also visited the waterfront where we were told that the Navy’s latest warships are being built.

Confirming who is in charge!

Our next stop was to take a boat out into the 5-rivers delta. The Mobile, Apalachee, Tensaw, and 2 other big rivers come together at and above Mobile Bay not only to feed the Bay but also to create one of the world’s largest and most biologically diverse wild areas—a wetland area to rank with any in the world. E.O. Wilson says it is the most biologically diverse in North America—not what one usually thinks of as Alabama. One example, there are more types of turtles in the Mobile-Tensaw Delta than any place in the world.

Mobile in the distance.

Efforts are underway to protect the area, with both The Nature Conservancy and local groups involved. That’s the good news. The bad news is that this vast treasure—America’s Amazon they call it—is going fast. Species loss in the delta is many times the national average. The oyster harvest in Mobile Bay has declined 80% over the past century. And Alabama may have the most lax water pollution laws and enforcement in the country. The five rivers dump amazing amounts of toxics and BOD into the bay. Its salvation is the sheer volume of incoming water washing through the bay out to sea. We heard that Mobile Bay flushes out every two days.

We are glad that Ed Wilson, a native of Mobile, and others are on the case—another great American environmental battle that must be won.

Osprey world.