Round Island is a small, uninhabited island in the Mississippi Sound

Mississippi Sound

The Mississippi Sound is a sound along the Gulf Coast of the United States. It runs east-west along the southern coasts of Mississippi and Alabama, from Waveland, Mississippi, to the Dauphin Island Bridge, a distance of about 145 kilometers...

, 6.5 kilometers (4 mi) south of Pascagoula, Mississippi

Pascagoula, Mississippi

Pascagoula is a city in Jackson County, Mississippi, United States. It is the principal city of the Pascagoula, Mississippi Metropolitan Statistical Area, as a part of the Gulfport–Biloxi–Pascagoula, Mississippi Combined Statistical Area. The population was 26,200 at the 2000 census...

, U.S.A. The 0.26-km² (65 acre) island is a coastal preserve

Nature reserve

A nature reserve is a protected area of importance for wildlife, flora, fauna or features of geological or other special interest, which is reserved and managed for conservation and to provide special opportunities for study or research...

, situated in Jackson County

Jackson County, Mississippi

There were 47,676 households out of which 37.00% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 55.70% were married couples living together, 14.50% had a female householder with no husband present, and 25.10% were non-families. 20.80% of all households were made up of individuals and 7.10% had...

 and managed by the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources. The relatively isolated terrain—consisting of slash pine

Slash Pine

Pinus elliottii, commonly known as the Slash Pine, is a pine native to the southeastern United States, from southern South Carolina west to southeastern Louisiana, and south to the Florida Keys....

 forest, interior marsh

Marsh

In geography, a marsh, or morass, is a type of wetland that is subject to frequent or continuous flood. Typically the water is shallow and features grasses, rushes, reeds, typhas, sedges, other herbaceous plants, and moss....

, and sandy beach—provides feeding, resting, and wintering habitat for migratory birds, including the brown pelican

Brown Pelican

The Brown Pelican is the smallest of the eight species of pelican, although it is a large bird in nearly every other regard. It is in length, weighs from and has a wingspan from .-Range and habits:...

, white pelican

White Pelican

The Great White Pelican, Pelecanus onocrotalus also known as the Eastern White Pelican or White Pelican is a bird in the pelican family...

, and cormorant

Cormorant

The bird family Phalacrocoracidae is represented by some 40 species of cormorants and shags. Several different classifications of the family have been proposed recently, and the number of genera is disputed.- Names :...

s. A number of rare or endangered species

Endangered species

An endangered species is a population of organisms which is at risk of becoming extinct because it is either few in numbers, or threatened by changing environmental or predation parameters...

, including the American alligator

American Alligator

The American alligator , sometimes referred to colloquially as a gator, is a reptile endemic only to the Southeastern United States. It is one of the two living species of alligator, in the genus Alligator, within the family Alligatoridae...

, are found there.

The island had a lighthouse

Lighthouse

A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses or, in older times, from a fire, and used as an aid to navigation for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways....

 as early as 1833. The original wooden structure was replaced in 1859 with a brick lighthouse at 30.2919°N 88.5867°W at the southern tip of the island. The lighthouse was destroyed by Hurricane Georges

Hurricane Georges

Hurricane Georges was a very destructive, powerful and long-lived Cape Verde-type Category 4 hurricane. Georges was the seventh tropical storm, fourth hurricane, and second major hurricane of the 1998 Atlantic hurricane season...

 in 1998.

Hurricane Katrina

Hurricane Katrina

Hurricane Katrina of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was a powerful Atlantic hurricane. It is the costliest natural disaster, as well as one of the five deadliest hurricanes, in the history of the United States. Among recorded Atlantic hurricanes, it was the sixth strongest overall...

 in 2005 damaged Round Island, cutting channels partly or completely through from east to west. A $7.5 billion, ten-year Gulf Coast environmental restoration

Environmental restoration

Environmental restoration is a term common in the citizens’ environmental movement. Environmental restoration is closely allied with ecological restoration or environmental remediation...

 initiative announced in December 2005 includes plans to restore Round Island.

Nearby islands

• Deer Island
• Horn Island
  Horn Island (Mississippi)
  Horn Island is a long, thin barrier island off the Gulf Coast of Mississippi, south of Ocean Springs. It is part of the Gulf Islands National Seashore. Horn Island is several miles long, but less than a mile wide at its widest point...
  
  
• Petit Bois Island
  Petit Bois Island (Mississippi)
  Petit Bois Island is an island off the coast of the U.S. state of Mississippi, south of Pascagoula. It is part of Jackson County, Mississippi. Since 1971 it has been a part of Gulf Islands National Seashore, administered by the U.S. National Park Service....