![]() Outside, the first displays have you looking into the eyes of lounging American crocodiles and then watching playful otters slip and slide. With that understanding, an unusual feature of the aquarium – similar to a zoo – is the outdoor exhibits. On Horn Island, as part of the world’s first major re-introduction program for bald eagles, wildlife biologists have released a large number of the birds in recent years, she noted.To get a feel for the state’s natural resources, you have to get acquainted with the outdoors. Unprotected bird habitats outside the national seashore have been disappearing rapidly because of development, leaving the protected islands as crucial breeding grounds for marine birds, according to Gail Bishop, chief interpreter for the Mississippi section of the national seashore. It put three Mississippi islands-Ship Island, Horn and Petit Bois-under federal protection. ![]() Since I left the area, successful efforts have been made to protect birds and wildlife, especially with the establishment of the Gulf Islands National Seashore by the U.S. And they are expected to be removed from lists in those states soon. ![]() Protected under the federal Endangered Species Act beginning in the 1970s, pelicans have made such a comeback around the nation that they have been removed from the list of endangered species in all states except Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas and California. It is an island rich in history: Some colonists took their first steps on American soil there in the late 1600s, and old Fort Massachusetts still stands there, a reminder of the island’s strategic importance to Union forces in the Civil War. When I returned recently to see how Biloxi was coping with environmental problems, I was reminded of a fishing trip I had taken around Ship Island several years earlier. When I left in 1951, before commercial development along both sides of the beach highway and the proliferation of pleasure and commercial boats, you could walk along the waterfront and hardly ever see trash. That was before pesticides, widely used on the coast, had entered their food chain, making the shells of their eggs thin and virtually wiping out the pelican population here by the 1960s. I used to see pelicans perched on every piling in what is known as the Mississippi Sound-that part of the Gulf of Mexico located inside the barrier islands, 10 to 15 miles offshore, and bordering on Mississippi. The city caught the culprits by forcing smoke up drainage pipes and waiting for it to pour out of houses. #Marine life oceanarium biloxi ms crackNot until many years later did city officials crack down on residents who bypassed the sewage system and disposed of their sewage through storm drains, sending the waste directly into the Gulf. ![]() The fact that raw sewage drained into the Gulf from Biloxi and other towns was common knowledge and caused little concern. I sold newspapers to soldiers stationed at Keesler Field-the setting for Neil Simon’s play, “Biloxi Blues"-and it made me mad when they called my hometown “the armpit of the world.” Much later I learned that military personnel-regardless of where they were stationed-were prone to talk of the nearby town in such unflattering ways. My family had moved here from Atlanta in 1942 my father joined the Army Air Corps after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. #Marine life oceanarium biloxi ms professionalTourists flocked to Biloxi in summer months, and trade and professional groups held conventions. Touted as “the seafood capitol of the world,” its huge oyster reefs and large shrimping fleet provided a bounty that was shipped all over the country. ![]()
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