Debris piled up on popular MS beach. ‘We’ve never had this much at one time’
Debris from Mississippi River flooding is washing up on barrier islands and beaches along the Mississippi Coast, forcing a popular tourist attraction to partially relocate right before the summer tourist season begins.
“We’ve never had complaints about the beach before,” said Capt. Louis Skrmetta, CEO of Ship Island Excursions. “It’s just an inordinate amount of debris this year. We’ve never had this much at one time.”
The debris is mostly driftwood, splintered wood and marsh grass washed up along the tideline. The flooding comes as the business prepares to begin its busy summer season ferry service on Saturday, with day trips offered to the offshore island seven days a week from the Gulfport Harbor.
The Skrmetta family has been offering round-trip excursions to Ship Island since 1926. The island features a dock and Civil War fort on the north side, which overlooks the Mississippi Sound. A 1/3-mile boardwalk takes visitors to the south side on the Gulf of Mexico.
For the past 30 years, beach chairs and umbrellas have been available on the Gulf side. A snack bar, picnic pavilion and restrooms are the only development on the unspoiled island.
But Skrmetta said some of those chairs and umbrellas will be relocated, for the first time, to the island’s north side, where the water is crystal clear and calmer, and no Mississippi River debris has washed up.
“An extraordinary amount of the debris currently washed ashore on the island is from winter storms,” Skrmetta said. “We were blown away by the beach covered in the stuff when we first arrived to set up back in early March.”
River flooding impacts limited
Mississippi Coast residents and business leaders were relieved this year when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers decided against opening the Bonnet Carré Spillway to release Mississippi River water into Lake Pontchartrain.
The river didn’t get high enough to flood New Orleans, so southeast Louisiana and south Mississippi avoided dealing with the issues the polluted water creates when released into coastal waterways.
But river flooding is still being felt because of the debris washing up from the river, which empties into the Gulf to the south and west of the barrier islands. Skrmetta said the debris seems to be worse along the southwest end of Ship Island.
“This year, for some reason, we’ve got an inordinate amount of it,” he said. The National Park Service, which manages the barrier islands, gave the go-ahead to relocate some beach umbrellas and chairs to the island’s north side.
Skrmetta said most visitors have been OK with the debris line, but there have been some complaints.
“You get a certain sector of the public that wants to be surrounded by clean, white beach,” he said. He said the Ship Island Excursions staff has been picking up the debris, but it keeps washing up.
“If we’ve got a problem, we want to resolve it as quickly as we can,” he said. “We pride ourselves on having the finest beaches in Mississippi.”
Skrmetta is hoping the National Park Service will be able to help with larger pieces of debris too big to move without heavy equipment, but “so far no movement,” he said.
The flooding should end by late May or early June, he said.
“It’s Mother Nature,” he said. “You just have to deal with it.”
This story was originally published May 12, 2025 at 10:29 AM.
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