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Boat tours on Pascagoula River put visitors in midst of Coastal Mississippi’s abundant wildlife

Photo by Anne Braly / Capt. Benny McCoy, now retired, explains a bit about the river to a group of tourists from Texas and Michigan.
Photo by Anne Braly / Capt. Benny McCoy, now retired, explains a bit about the river to a group of tourists from Texas and Michigan. Photo by Anne Braly / Capt. Benny McCoy, now retired, explains a bit about the river to a group of tourists from Texas and Michigan.

By Anne Braly 8 min read

As drivers race along the I-10 bridge spanning the Pascagoula River, the longest unimpeded river in the Lower 48 states, most have no clue what lies beneath. An osprey racing headfirst into the water for a kill; wild hogs rooting through the underbrush along the swamp in search of anything to eat; a fledgling bald eagle testing its wings from its protected nest high in a tall pine in the marshland.

But it’s not all a fight for survival. There’s a peaceful, beautiful side to the Pascagoula River: Flowers that bloom in spring and summer, painting the swamp with color. A fisherman wetting a line in the warm morning sun. A kayaker out for a paddle.

Arranging for a tour by boat allows nature lovers to get a bird’s-eye view of this southern Mississippi paradise.

Capt. Kathy Wilkinson, owner of Eco-Tours of South Mississippi, has always lived on or near the water. After she married a local Moss Point, Mississippi, boy in 1975, the two spent any free time they had plying the native waters. In 2006, she and husband Jeff started offering tours of the Pasacagoula River, a waterway they knew so well.

“We always thought we could offer something to tourists to let them commune a little more closely with our beautiful river,” says Wilkinson, known to passengers as Capt. Kathy.