West Petit Bois Island in the foreground and Petit Bois Island in the background/Courtesy of Fly The Coas

Proof that if you pile enough sand in the ocean you can create an island comes from Gulf Islands National Seashore, where a site once used to dispose of dredging material has officially been recognized as an island that is part of the seashore.

The small island just west of the Pascagoula shipping channel has officially been added to the list of Domestic Names by the Board on Geographic Names, park staff announced this week. Recognizing its location and source the island has been named West Petit Bois Island by the board at the recommendation of the National Park Service. The island developed over time through dredging activities and has unofficially been known as disposal area #10 and Sand Island in the past, according to a park release.

Listing the island allows the NPS and other federal agencies, including the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, to label the island on official maps and navigational charts. The NPS hopes that through these activities increased awareness of the island as part of Gulf Islands National Seashore will improve. “Officially listing West Petit Bois Island enables the national seashore to better manage the island along with the other islands which make up the national seashore,” said Superintendent Dan Brown.

When Gulf Islands National Seashore was established, the State of Mississippi donated the submerged lands within the park boundary to the Park Service. Any new islands that emerge from submerged lands owned by the agency are owned by the agency as part of the national seashore whether the islands form naturally or through dredging activities.

Barrier islands along the Mississippi coast move east to west at a rate of nearly 200 feet per year. In 1950, Petit Bois Island reached the Pascagoula shipping channel. Over time, about 2.5 miles of the island have “disappeared” into the shipping channel and has been subsequently dredged out. This dredged material created what is now known as West Petit Bois Island. As a part of the national seashore, all laws, regulations, and policies which apply to the national seashore lands apply at West Petit Bois Island as well.

The U.S. Board on Geographic Names is a federal body created in 1890 and established in its present form by Public Law in 1947 to maintain uniform geographic name usage throughout the federal government. The board comprises representatives of federal agencies concerned with geographic information, population, ecology, and management of public lands. Sharing its responsibilities with the Secretary of the Interior, the board promulgates official geographic feature names with locative attributes as well as principles, policies, and procedures governing the use of domestic names, foreign names, Antarctic names, and undersea feature names.