INTRODUCTION 



The Eightieth Congress of the United States of America enacted 

 legislation in 1948 vrtiich provided in part: 



". . . that money be appropriated to enable the Fish and Wildlife 

 Service, Department of the Interior, to investigate and study the 

 means and methods best adaptable to the rehabilitation, replant- 

 ing and maintenance of the oysters beds in the State of Louisiana 

 and Mississippi that have been or may be destroyed through the 

 operation of the Bonnet Carre Spillway and through intrusion of 

 fresh water and the blockage of natural passages west of tiie 

 Mississippi River in the vicinity of Lake Mechant and Bayou 

 Severin, Terrebonne Parrish, Louisiana, together with such sums 

 that may be determined, as a result of such investigations and 

 studies, to be necessary to rehabilitate, replant, and maintain 

 such oyster beds. . ." 



The passage of this legislation resulted from the Congressional repre- 

 sentation of the respective states following the heavy floods which 

 occurred on the lower Mississippi River in the Spring of 1945, 



In the month of March, 1945 water levels in the Mississippi 

 River reached flood crests so that the City of New Orleans was 

 endangered. As a resxilt, engineers of the Department of the Army 

 Corps of Engineers opened the Bonnet Carre Spillway, situated some 

 25 miles above the city, to relieve the water pressure and lessen 

 the danger to New Orleans. The Spill^vay was operated for a period 

 of 56 days from March 24 until May 17 and diverted from the river 

 bed a maximum flow of water of 318,000 second/feet. This mass of 

 water was channelled into Lake Pont char train, where it spread out 

 and flov/ed from the two exits of the lake into Lake Borgne and then 

 eastward into the west end of Mississippi Sound (Fig, 1). 



As the fresh water emerged from Lake Borgne, it passed through 

 an oyster producing area and pushed back the more salty water of the 

 Sound for a distance of 25 miles to the east. A total area of perhaps 

 200 square miles was affected but it is estimated that no more than 

 one-third of this area at the most had any oysters present on the 

 bottom. The water over the oyster beds nearest the source of river 

 vmter rtaiiained fresh during the months of April, May and June. This 

 resulted in the subsequent loss of most of the oyster population 

 in that area. Competent investigators from both federal and state 

 agencies have testified that the west and northeast sections of the 

 area involved lost up to 100 per cent of the oysters and that the 

 southeast section lost up to 50 per cent of its oyster population. 



