Growing up in the small southern Louisiana town of Gonzales, Jason Garey did not venture far for family vacations. Many of them were spent down in the marshes, where Garey and his three siblings learned to fish, shrimp and crab in the bountiful brackish waters.

But by the time he was in college, Garey began to notice that the landscape was changing. A small barrier island near the outpost of Grand Isle  a dirt mound, really  where he had landed his canoe six months earlier was no longer there. In other places, the shoreline was 30 feet farther back than the last time he had visited.

“That’s when it hit home that this is a huge, huge problem,” said Garey, a reserve forward for the Columbus Crew who has a goal and two assists this season. “You realize that it’s gone and it’s going to keep getting worse.”