Nutria

Nutria are huge water rats that were originally imported to help control vegetation in rice canals.  They are a prime example of the Law of Unintended Consequences – they have become a major pest along the gulf coast, particularly South Louisiana.

They have even given rise to a TV series - Rat Bastards, on Spike, the cable channel.

Hurricane Isaac killed thousands of the critters, and they are washing up on Mississippi beaches by the truckload.

Here’s the story from the Biloxi-Gulfport Sun Herald:

Nutria cleanup on the beaches of Hancock County, Mississippi,  was slow going Monday as crews developed the best way to attack the problem of tons of the dead animals washing ashore from south Louisiana.

Sunday's was a test crew to see how best to tackle the problem, and by 8:30 a.m. Sunday, a half-dozen of the crew had quit, state officials said.

It's not work that suits just anyone.

The federal government hired a contractor, U.S. Environmental Services, to handle the situation -- 16,000 to 18,000 nutria and other dead animals from Hurricane Isaac. The bodies will be disposed of in a Pecan Grove landfill that's rated to take household garbage.

"They're separating the bodies from the grass and piling them up," said Hancock County Supervisor David Yarborough. "They have equipment today. It's moving.

"But it's only getting worse," he said. "As they're picking them up, they're busting open. It's worse in one sense and better in another.

"They're getting the job done. They're equipped, but there's people who can't take the sight of something like this," he said. "That's the reason I wouldn't even attempt this with county people. You really should be certified and trained in hazardous waste."

County crews tried to deal with a similar situation after Hurricane Gustav "and we had people getting sick; wound up buying everybody's clothes," he said. "Our people just aren't trained for this."

He said it's better to have the federal government handle this one. State officials said the federal contract is for two weeks, but expect the cleanup to go more quickly than that.

Harrison County used the county's sand-beach crews to remove about 11 tons of dead animals from its beaches on Saturday -- Courthouse Road to the Hancock County line. Even with additional cleanup on Sunday, bring the total closer to 16 tons, they didn't have as many as Hancock County.

But they were still washing up on Monday, Supervisor Kim Savant said, adding that Harrison County decided it didn't want to wait on the federal government to do the job.

Chad Lafontaine, with the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality, said Monday that most of the nutria in Hancock County were on the beach, but some were still floating or in the surf.

"Most are dry and can be identified as nutria," Lafontaine said. "Contractors are looking at getting boats to scoop the others out of the water."

State and federal agencies focused cleanup on the 11 miles of Hancock County beaches.

The bodies are tangled in deeper grass, and crews had to develop techniques to deal with this -- hand tools and other equipment.

"It's slow going today," Lafontaine said. "The odor is pretty bad and it gets worse every day. Obviously, it's rotting carcasses.

"The closer you get to Waveland and Buccaneer State Park, the worse the smell because the concentration is heavier.

"We're dealing with a heat issue too," he said. "But we've got a good game plan on how to approach it."

He said crews will leave the carcasses that are out in the marsh and aren't in public-use or residential areas.

"We're letting mother nature take care of those."