Big Easy #2

LUMCON, Chauvin, LA

Our journey took us almost 3 hours into the Bayou's (about the distance from Va Beach to Cape Hatteras) to visit the Louisiana University Marine Consortium (LUMCON).  On the edges of civilization, this research facility conducts work regarding coastal and marine ecosystems.  The top pictures show some of their research vessels from the smaller ones to the bigger one.  Their largest vessel was at sea doing research off the Texas coastline.

The bravest of souls (including Frick & Frack), took to the water to view their backyard habitat - the estuaries of the Gulf of Mexico.  Here they study such subjects as the health of the waters, oxygen levels, growth of oysters, bottom deposition layers and the growth of grasses.  As they complete their research and need to compare their notes and complete their reports, they look to our own backyard habitat (the Chesapeake Bay) for similarities.
Though it was tempting, neither Frick nor Frack jumped in (or got pushed in).

Visiting the labs inside the LUMCON facility conducting both "wet" (anything dealing with tanks of water. live creatures/plants which create high humidity levels inside the facility) and "dry" research regarding ecosystems on the Bayou's and in the Gulf of Mexico. 
They've conducted research involved with Katrina and the Deep Water Horizon oil spill. 



This is one of a series of locks throughout the Bayou's meant to keep the rising floodwaters contained and controlled.
Part of the huge and thick metal wall on the right (with the red signs on it) rolls across the street to seal off the levee system that this lock connects to.  With lots of warning, Parish officials close the gate - if you're on the dry side you keep driving to higher and dryer ground hours away; if you're on the wet side you start praying.



Some of the homes or "camps" at the farthest edges of the Bayou's bordering the Gulf of Mexico. 
Built high for flooding, they look much like homes in Sandbridge or OBX.

 

Isle de Jean Charles
An island community much like Hatteras or Rodanthe in OBX.  The Parish this community lives in has told the residents to move as there will be no services available to them during storms as they are quite remote.  The sign at the top explains all but notice the orange pod behind the sign - it is for the residents to use as an escape pod should their island flood again.

Kind of creepy but...
Since the water table is so high (in places at the surface, in others 1-2 feet below the surface layer) coupled with a ground that's at best a mix of sands that aren't stable, people are buried on top of the land.  The crypts in front contain one body, the mausoleums in the back contain many.  When Katrina's floods came, most of the crypts like the white ones in front got flooded and were moved off their bases, causing them to have to be reseated & resealed which is what the grey ones behind are.