Mississippi Gulf Coast Mississippi Gulf Coast The Mississippi Gulf Coast, also known as the Mississippi Gulf Coast region, or simply The Coast, is the area of southern Mississippi along the Mississippi Sound along the Gulf Of Mexico. The term has traditionally referred to the three counties that lie directly on the Mississippi Sound that meet up with the Gulf of Mexico within the state: Hancock County, Harrison County, and Jackson County. The U. S. Census Bureau divided the Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) for the Mississippi Gulf Coast in 2003, which previously had been the three coastal counties, into two MSAs that included two
Gulf of Mexico squid. River drainage and atmospheric fallout from industrial coastal cities also provide nutrients to the coastal zone. The Gulf Stream, a warm Atlantic Ocean current and one of the strongest ocean currents known, originates in the gulf, as a continuation of the Caribbean Current-Yucatán Current-Loop Current system. Other circulation features include the anticyclonic gyres which are shed by the Loop Current and travel westward where they eventually dissipate, and a permanent cyclonic gyre in the Bay of Campeche. The Bay of Campeche in Mexico constitutes a major arm of the Gulf of Mexico. Additionally, the gulf's shoreline is fringed by