 |
|
          |
The health of Mobile Bay is vitally important to the economic health of this area. Many industries that contribute much to our economy depend on the Bay and Delta: tourism, sport fishing, commercial fishing, recreational boating, chemical, pulp and paper industries and shipping. "Eco-tourism" is also gaining attention, including bird watching, which depends on providing special habitats that will attract native and migratory birds. As a major deep-water port and industrial center, Mobile Bay represents billions of dollars in impact to the state, region and global economies. In the Mobile area alone, this includes more that $5 billion in total investment; 15,000 direct jobs, of which 80-90 percent are local hires; $830 million in payroll; $160 and $290 million in local and state taxes, respectively; and contribution of more than $5 million to community projects. In 1997, the Port of Mobile was ranked 8th in the nation in total exports and 13th in foreign waterborne tonnage. Recreation and tourism continue to provide significant input to the regional and state economies. Sport fishing alone contributes more than $170 million annually to the local economy. More than 24,000 boats of 25 feet or less in length are registered in coastal Alabama. An estimate of tourism expenditures in the area in 1995 was more than $415 million. In addition, more than 90 percent of all commercial and recreational fishing dollars derived from the entire Gulf of Mexico depend on species that require estuaries like Mobile Bay for one or more stages in their lives. The value of commercial seafood landed in Alabama exceeded $300 million in 1995. These are traditional way of measuring economic contributions. Another approach is to place a value on the ecological services provided by Mobile Bay and the Delta. For example, consider the amount of money spent to treat wastewater. It is expensive to remove organic matter, such as human and animal wastes, and other unwanted material from water before it gets released into local streams, rivers or the bay. You need a complex system of pumps, filters, and tanks and even then the system may break down. But wetlands do the same job for free. Polluted water flowing through wetlands provides fertilizer for plants and microbes, which act as filters, cleaning the water. Estimates are that one acre of tidal marsh performs almost $2,000 worth of water purification every year. If you consider that there are more than 160,000 acres of wetlands in and around Mobile Bay and the Delta, that equals nearly $320 MILLION dollars in water purification each year! Even though these numbers are far from precise, the point is important. Obviously we cannot rely solely on wetlands to take care of our domestic sewage, but they are very valuable in cleaning pollution from stormwater runoff. The forested wetlands in the Delta also help purify water draining from most of Alabama and parts of Georgia and Mississippi. Losing wetlands and marshes, whether by filling them in or as a result of soil erosion and sedimentation, can have other impacts such as increasing the potential damage from floods. This can affect property owners and land values even for those who don't own waterfront property. To find out how you can help our Estuary, please contact the Mobile Bay NEP office at (334) 431-6409 or send us an e-mail.
|
 |
|
|
This site best view at
800X600 with Netscape 6.0 or Explorer 5.5 or higher |
|