Biloxi

Description:

The Biloxi Wildlife Management Area is located in Upper St. Bernard Parish about 40 miles east of New Orleans. It is accessible only by boat via commercial launches at Hopedale and Shell Beach. The 35,644-acre tract is owned and leased to the Department by the Biloxi Marsh Lands Corporation. The area is a low brackish to saline marsh. A few oak trees are present on old ridges but the major vegetation includes marshhay cord grass, black rush, hog cane, smooth cord grass, saltgrass, glasswort, and three square. Widgeon grass is the main submerged aquatic plant occurring there.

A tremendous number of bayous, sloughs and potholes make the Biloxi tract an excellent producer of fish, shrimp, crabs, waterfowl, and furbearers. The few canal spoil banks and ridges scattered throughout the marsh provide escape for birds and mammals from rising water levels during storms or high tides. Game species hunted on the area include rabbits, rails, gallinules, snipe, ducks, and geese. Major ducks present in winter are lesser scaup, teal, wigeon, gadwall, shoveler, and mottled duck with lesser concentrations of pintail and mallard. Blue and snow geese are normally found on Biloxi although not in large numbers. Fur animals present include nutria, muskrat, mink, raccoon, otter, and opossum. Alligators are also found on the area.

Fish species common on the area include speckled trout, redfish, black drum, sheepshead, flounder, and croaker. Large catches of crabs and shrimp are often taken by both sportsmen and commercial fishermen.

Besides hunting and fishing, other forms of recreation available are boating, crabbing, shrimping, and bird watching.