In spite of the peaceful setting, a battle is going on for the beach - a battle involving the forces of nature and the manipulations of man. The Gulf has been washing away the beach to the point where the highway was being damaged. In fact parts of the highway have already had to be moved back. The series of off-shore breakwaters seen here were constructed in the early 1990s to prevent beach erosion. Notice that wherever there is a breakwater the beach extends slightly farther out into the water. The breakwaters not only break the incoming surf, but more importantly after each wave breaks on the beach, the breakwaters slow the receding water. It is this receding water that pulls the sand from the beach causing the erosion. A bonus benefit of breakwaters is that they provide an excellent habitat for flounder, redfish, drum and speckled trout, making this stretch of beach a good spot to cast a line from shore. Unfortunately, these breakwaters have not completely solved the problem. So the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources started a "beach nourishment" project here. Beach nourishment, also called "beach replenishment," is a process wherein sand is transported and deposited on the beach. In this case the sand is dredged and pumped from nine miles offshore.