Many in South Alabama consider Avery Bates a local legend. His family moved to the Mobile Bay area during the Great Depression to find natural resources to feed their family.
Generations later, Bates continues to fish, shrimp and harvest oysters. Now, he says that the way of life he has always known is being threatened.
"From generation to generation, from our great grandfather's feet to now, it's proceeding to hurt the next generation," said Bates. "You see, a lot of people are so poor, and all they have is inheritance they can leave their children. It's just what they made a living with for generations in this water, and you can see the massive disruption that's going on down in the south end of the county."
Bates said that nature and human actions have had a negative impact on the waters of Mobile Bay.
The Alabama Port deepening and widening project by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has been the focus of many discussions due to concerns over maintenance dredging. Over the next 20 years, 90 million cubic yards of dredge spoil or mud will be removed from the port and sprayed into Mobile Bay. While the Corps says the process will not harm wildlife or negatively impact biological resources due to changes in oxygen, salinity, and sedimentation, those who live, work and play in the waters disagree.
"The good Lord put this stuff out here, what we call the law of nature, the tide rises and the tide falls and you have floods, it comes down harder on this west side," Bates said. "The law of nature still exists, but man has come out there and pumped so much soil from out of the channel on the west side."
"[I] want to tell you there is nothing like silt when it smothers oysters to death," he continued. "If you get in a real smokey room, it'll smother you to death or if you get covered up with dirt, you will die. With the oysters, they died. And they're dying now."
The Mobile Baykeeper has been in talks with the Port Authority and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers over concerns with maintenance dredging. They want materials removed over the next 20 years to be used for beneficial use projects or to be placed away from the bay.
"We have cited over 60 studies showing dumping mud in the bay harms sea grasses, bottom-dwelling organisms, and water quality as well," said Cade Kistler with Mobile Baykeeper. "We're trying to have more meetings, but we've had a couple, and it hasn't really gotten anybody any closer to a solution."
But people in Mobile Bay are angry. They say the science is wrong, and the issues are already obvious.
"I'm a Christian and I read the Bible, and when I come to Leviticus 11, verse 9, it says, 'This is the fish you eat,' and He named this dietary law for one reason, for your health," Bates added. "He said everything with fins and scales, you can eat. Well, man comes along and he starts taking these fish away from you."
"If you keep taking the product away, who's going to suffer?" he continued. "People of the state. What law are you violating when you take these fish away? You ever heard of the First Amendment? I sure have."
Bates is vice president of the Organized Seafood Association of Alabama. Along with Mobile Baykeeper, the organization is hosting a mud dumping workshop for all commercial fishermen. The meeting will be on Saturday at St. Michael's Catholic Church in Heron Bay, beginning at 9:30 a.m.
To connect with the author of this story or to comment, email erica.thomas@1819news.com.
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