least three or four times what you would see here. reporter: you used to land next to islands. way out in the bay. those islands are gone. reporter: you couldn t land next to it today if you tried? it s open water. open water. reporter: just look as how the louisiana coastline has changed. nasa recorded these satellite images and from the mid 1980s to now you can see a subtle but steady change capturing how a significant amount of coastline is disappearing. charlie says the gulf of mexico water keeps swallowing up land. like a cancer. it just keeps moving. i watch it every year. it keeps moving farther and farther and farther every year. eventually everyone is going to have to retreat? yeah. reporter: along desolate roads of the louisiana bayou, one of the first signs things aren t right when you come across oak trees like these withering away. these trees depend on fresh
all right? and they are gone. reporter: those ooilts islands are gone? yeah. reporter: you couldn t land here? no, no. open water, open water. reporter: look at how the louisiana coastline has changed. nasa recorded these satellite images and from the 80s to now, you can see a subtle but steady change. charlie ham hn p mond says the gulf of mexico water keeps swallowing up land. like a cancer. i watch it every year. it keeps moving farther and farther and farther every year. reporter: eventually everyone s going to have to retreat? yeah. reporter: along o these roads of the louisiana bayou one of the first signs things aren t quite right is when you come across cypress and oak trees start withering away.