00:00:00.867 --> 00:00:03.534
(animals chirp)

00:00:40.882 --> 00:00:43.465
(engine whirs)

00:01:04.710 --> 00:01:07.850
-: My five favorite things in order.

00:01:07.850 --> 00:01:08.683
Hmm.

00:01:09.660 --> 00:01:10.543
You saw that?

00:01:10.543 --> 00:01:11.993
That was our tree ducks.

00:01:12.880 --> 00:01:14.890
From the least favorite to the favorite?

00:01:14.890 --> 00:01:16.098
Or how do you want it?

00:01:16.098 --> 00:01:16.931
Man: Whatever you want.

00:01:16.931 --> 00:01:19.100
-: Oh, I hear more tree ducks.

00:01:19.100 --> 00:01:20.490
I mean, let's skip to one.

00:01:20.490 --> 00:01:23.434
My favorite thing from one to five, I wanna duck hunt.

00:01:23.434 --> 00:01:26.070
(duck whistle quacks)
Make it happen for me, baby.

00:01:26.070 --> 00:01:27.520
Oh, look at this.

00:01:28.493 --> 00:01:30.143
(whistle blows)

00:01:30.143 --> 00:01:32.190
(gun fires)

00:01:32.190 --> 00:01:33.273
Oh, good job.

00:01:35.039 --> 00:01:36.423
Ryan: Here, boy fetch it up.

00:01:37.770 --> 00:01:38.603
Albertine: Just gotta make sure

00:01:38.603 --> 00:01:41.263
we don't shoot the camera guy. (laughs)

00:01:42.796 --> 00:01:45.137
♪ I don't need a dosy though ♪

00:01:45.137 --> 00:01:47.401
♪ I've never been so high or low ♪

00:01:47.401 --> 00:01:49.668
♪ I don't need it today ♪

00:01:49.668 --> 00:01:53.085
♪ I never need it anyway ♪

00:02:00.782 --> 00:02:02.902
♪ Bringing it back to the walls and stones ♪

00:02:02.902 --> 00:02:05.182
♪ Bringing it back to the walls and stones ♪

00:02:05.182 --> 00:02:07.462
♪ Bringing it back to the walls and stones ♪

00:02:07.462 --> 00:02:11.960
♪ Bringing it back to, bringing it back to ♪

00:02:11.960 --> 00:02:14.960
-: Welcome to my world at the mouth of the Mississippi River.

00:02:16.610 --> 00:02:18.557
Carlisle, Louisiana is where I live,

00:02:18.557 --> 00:02:21.530
and the population is one, me.

00:02:21.530 --> 00:02:23.550
We're 22 feet off the ground right now in my house.

00:02:23.550 --> 00:02:25.970
It was at 14, but it flooded twice.

00:02:25.970 --> 00:02:27.163
I had to go up higher.

00:02:28.620 --> 00:02:31.870
I have dual pin tails. (chirps)

00:02:31.870 --> 00:02:32.900
You know when they're coming.

00:02:32.900 --> 00:02:34.830
They make that sound, they're coming.

00:02:34.830 --> 00:02:36.980
This is a bufflehead, male.

00:02:36.980 --> 00:02:38.640
I don't want to forget about my ruddy duck

00:02:38.640 --> 00:02:40.210
'cause they eat duck potato.

00:02:40.210 --> 00:02:43.030
And freshwater equals duck potato, equals ducks.

00:02:43.030 --> 00:02:43.863
True.

00:02:45.000 --> 00:02:47.610
My grandpa was strict, Catholic, you know.

00:02:47.610 --> 00:02:49.380
No women were allowed at the camp.

00:02:49.380 --> 00:02:51.650
Back in the old days, they left their wives at home.

00:02:51.650 --> 00:02:52.483
They did all the cooking.

00:02:52.483 --> 00:02:54.270
Well, I didn't think that was fair.

00:02:54.270 --> 00:02:55.103
I just didn't.

00:02:55.103 --> 00:02:57.340
The two wood ducks, wigeon, canvasback.

00:02:57.340 --> 00:02:59.650
It was two males in one shot.

00:02:59.650 --> 00:03:00.483
Duck fan.

00:03:00.483 --> 00:03:01.830
How you like that, huh?

00:03:01.830 --> 00:03:04.720
Check it out, 2018 duck season.

00:03:04.720 --> 00:03:06.020
Gotta have a flask, right?

00:03:14.220 --> 00:03:16.710
This is the best eating duck in the world right here,

00:03:16.710 --> 00:03:18.540
teal blue-winged.

00:03:18.540 --> 00:03:20.120
And I like to pluck 'em while I'm on the river

00:03:20.120 --> 00:03:22.539
because I just like sitting out here

00:03:22.539 --> 00:03:23.830
and looking at what I need

00:03:23.830 --> 00:03:25.863
to get over here on the other side.

00:03:27.120 --> 00:03:28.260
And the only reason why I'm not getting there

00:03:28.260 --> 00:03:29.510
is because of that levee.

00:03:33.740 --> 00:03:35.660
The philosophy is I want the ship

00:03:35.660 --> 00:03:37.810
to come from Southwest pass to get to New Orleans

00:03:37.810 --> 00:03:39.350
because it's commerce for the port.

00:03:39.350 --> 00:03:41.040
And you got to control the river,

00:03:41.040 --> 00:03:44.270
so they built these levees, the Corps of Engineers.

00:03:44.270 --> 00:03:47.260
But it stops all the needed nutrients

00:03:47.260 --> 00:03:50.283
from feeding the marsh that's been doing it for years.

00:03:51.660 --> 00:03:53.597
Before Katrina, the water went over the levee

00:03:53.597 --> 00:03:55.630
and I had sand in my mailbox,

00:03:55.630 --> 00:03:59.163
Ask me if I was happy, even though my house got flooded.

00:04:04.720 --> 00:04:05.553
Oh, here it is.

00:04:05.553 --> 00:04:06.620
Good morning!

00:04:06.620 --> 00:04:09.240
I'm so happy to be at the spillway today

00:04:09.240 --> 00:04:11.350
where Mother Nature rules.

00:04:11.350 --> 00:04:13.080
Working for Plaquemines Parish government,

00:04:13.080 --> 00:04:14.850
I got really interested in the coast

00:04:14.850 --> 00:04:16.600
because I went all over the whole parish in a boat

00:04:16.600 --> 00:04:18.033
taking water samples.

00:04:18.033 --> 00:04:19.200
I got to see it every day.

00:04:19.200 --> 00:04:20.200
Every day, I was going out

00:04:20.200 --> 00:04:22.820
and I was seeing different landmarks.

00:04:22.820 --> 00:04:25.370
And then all of a sudden, there was no land 30 years later,

00:04:25.370 --> 00:04:26.833
end of your career, you know.

00:04:32.891 --> 00:04:36.058
(duck whistle quacks)

00:04:38.730 --> 00:04:39.580
They're not here.

00:04:41.579 --> 00:04:42.996
They're not here.

00:04:44.853 --> 00:04:47.310
-: This is the top fishery in North America.

00:04:47.310 --> 00:04:50.010
It's the top wintering grounds for ducks,

00:04:50.010 --> 00:04:51.210
and it's all going away.

00:04:52.658 --> 00:04:55.860
Albertine: Well, because no wetlands equals no ducks.

00:04:55.860 --> 00:04:56.763
That's obvious.

00:04:59.470 --> 00:05:01.580
-: You know, Albertine got into this game before me.

00:05:01.580 --> 00:05:04.330
And I was so envious that she had a voice and I didn't.

00:05:05.450 --> 00:05:06.283
People don't understand.

00:05:06.283 --> 00:05:08.220
When I camped out as a kid,

00:05:08.220 --> 00:05:11.620
when I slept in my sleeping bag on a ridge in the swamp,

00:05:11.620 --> 00:05:13.280
that's two foot underwater now.

00:05:13.280 --> 00:05:17.528
And all the giant, ancient oak trees, they're all dead--

00:05:17.528 --> 00:05:18.361
Albertine: They don't like salt.

00:05:18.361 --> 00:05:19.194
Ryan: Because saltwater's coming in

00:05:19.194 --> 00:05:21.180
and putting them underwater, smothering them.

00:05:26.790 --> 00:05:28.600
-: When you put in river water into the system,

00:05:28.600 --> 00:05:31.100
you're getting the nutrients and the sediments in.

00:05:32.490 --> 00:05:34.838
Now, you ain't sank yet, right?

00:05:34.838 --> 00:05:35.838
It's hard as a rock.

00:05:36.730 --> 00:05:38.780
Well, we're about to take you on other side over there,

00:05:38.780 --> 00:05:40.953
Death Valley, Carlisle style.

00:05:42.500 --> 00:05:46.090
If you look behind me, you got marsh to the next ridge.

00:05:46.090 --> 00:05:48.790
And after that, it's open water for ways,

00:05:48.790 --> 00:05:50.220
and it just keeps opening up.

00:05:50.220 --> 00:05:53.210
The tide is taking the land out the grass.

00:05:53.210 --> 00:05:55.340
So I would say in the next 10 years,

00:05:55.340 --> 00:05:57.110
I probably wouldn't even be able to drive back here.

00:05:57.110 --> 00:05:58.253
It's sinking so fast.

00:05:59.160 --> 00:06:00.610
It'll be a thing of the past.

00:06:04.170 --> 00:06:06.536
Ryan: We've lost 2,000 square miles of land

00:06:06.536 --> 00:06:08.010
in the last 70 years.

00:06:08.010 --> 00:06:11.240
We've probably lost 10,000 square miles of habitat

00:06:11.240 --> 00:06:13.070
because of saltwater intrusion.

00:06:13.070 --> 00:06:14.250
Everybody looks at the land,

00:06:14.250 --> 00:06:16.470
but you have to look at the fish species

00:06:16.470 --> 00:06:18.510
and how far they've gone inland.

00:06:18.510 --> 00:06:21.107
They're 100 miles inland now, the saltwater species.

00:06:21.107 --> 00:06:22.760
Wherever those are,

00:06:22.760 --> 00:06:25.373
chances are the aquatic vegetation is gone as well.

00:06:27.230 --> 00:06:28.483
-: You gotta divert some river water.

00:06:28.483 --> 00:06:29.820
You got to.

00:06:29.820 --> 00:06:30.653
It's the heartbeat.

00:06:30.653 --> 00:06:31.486
It's the vein.

00:06:31.486 --> 00:06:32.500
It's the pulse.

00:06:32.500 --> 00:06:34.850
When you go look at it, it's alive and kicking.

00:06:39.967 --> 00:06:41.387
We're almost in the Mississippi River.

00:06:41.387 --> 00:06:42.810
Are you ready?

00:06:42.810 --> 00:06:44.030
Look at the sediment in the water.

00:06:44.030 --> 00:06:45.030
Look at that.

00:06:50.168 --> 00:06:53.085
This is a certified map right here.

00:06:53.930 --> 00:06:54.820
Watch this.

00:06:57.560 --> 00:06:58.560
See this right here?

00:07:00.170 --> 00:07:01.780
That's my dad's orange orchard right here

00:07:01.780 --> 00:07:02.930
on the Mississippi River.

00:07:02.930 --> 00:07:05.320
The river will come up on his crop.

00:07:05.320 --> 00:07:07.600
That man don't have to put fertilizer on them orange trees.

00:07:07.600 --> 00:07:08.673
That was so nice.

00:07:15.229 --> 00:07:18.630
♪ There are some things ♪

00:07:18.630 --> 00:07:23.630
♪ I may not know ♪

00:07:23.767 --> 00:07:28.767
♪ There are some places, oh Lord ♪

00:07:28.870 --> 00:07:32.449
♪ I cannot go ♪

00:07:32.449 --> 00:07:33.282
♪ But I ♪

00:07:33.282 --> 00:07:36.200
Albertine: You think about how vital the river is

00:07:36.200 --> 00:07:39.710
for life in this parish, we should be getting on our knees

00:07:39.710 --> 00:07:41.187
and thanking God we got the Mississippi River,

00:07:41.187 --> 00:07:42.855
the way I feel.

00:07:42.855 --> 00:07:46.938
♪ For I can feel him deep within ♪

00:07:49.640 --> 00:07:51.070
-: God and Mother Nature are not the same

00:07:51.070 --> 00:07:53.640
but they're working hand in hand together. (chuckles)

00:07:53.640 --> 00:07:54.844
They got to.

00:07:54.844 --> 00:07:58.230
♪ Yes, God is real ♪

00:07:58.230 --> 00:08:00.840
Albertine: If we don't have Louisiana wetlands,

00:08:00.840 --> 00:08:02.000
we're not gonna have people.

00:08:02.000 --> 00:08:05.284
We're not gonna have commerce, ships coming up the river.

00:08:05.284 --> 00:08:06.420
And I don't know what else we have to do

00:08:06.420 --> 00:08:08.180
to get the attention of the world

00:08:08.180 --> 00:08:12.570
to show them how vital it is for storm surge, for commerce.

00:08:12.570 --> 00:08:13.953
Oil and gas for everything.

00:08:13.953 --> 00:08:15.940
♪ His love for me ♪

00:08:15.940 --> 00:08:18.490
Albertine: The wetlands are vital to the nation.

00:08:19.490 --> 00:08:23.801
If we're gone, it's a slow cancer that eats.

00:08:23.801 --> 00:08:28.801
♪ For I can feel him in my soul ♪

00:08:31.079 --> 00:08:33.350
♪ Some folks made a house ♪

00:08:33.350 --> 00:08:34.820
-: I feel more at peace in the swamp

00:08:34.820 --> 00:08:37.010
than I do in the city of New Orleans.

00:08:37.010 --> 00:08:39.333
If we lose this area, New Orleans is next,

00:08:39.333 --> 00:08:41.003
because we protect New Orleans.

00:08:42.450 --> 00:08:44.923
So if we do nothing, it's just done.

00:08:46.751 --> 00:08:47.584
We need it.

00:08:47.584 --> 00:08:51.241
♪ Oh, yes, God is real ♪

00:08:51.241 --> 00:08:55.172
♪ He's real in my soul ♪

00:08:55.172 --> 00:08:57.721
♪ Yes, God is real ♪

00:08:57.721 --> 00:09:02.721
♪ For he has walked and made me whole ♪

00:09:03.530 --> 00:09:07.431
♪ His love for me ♪

00:09:07.431 --> 00:09:11.239
♪ Is just like pure gold ♪

00:09:11.239 --> 00:09:14.022
♪ Yes, God is real ♪

00:09:14.022 --> 00:09:18.022
♪ For I can feel him in my soul ♪

00:09:20.932 --> 00:09:23.682
(people chatter)

00:09:47.052 --> 00:09:49.885
(thunder rumbles)

00:10:09.910 --> 00:10:12.080
Alex: The good thing about this being newly emergent land

00:10:12.080 --> 00:10:14.420
is there's not that many thick roots.

00:10:14.420 --> 00:10:15.587
Molly: Yep.

00:10:25.580 --> 00:10:26.650
Alex: What is that?

00:10:26.650 --> 00:10:28.053
Silty, sandy?

00:10:29.250 --> 00:10:31.500
Molly: It's muddier than I expected it to be.

00:10:31.500 --> 00:10:33.860
So we've got some dark gray.

00:10:33.860 --> 00:10:34.994
It's really clay, huh?

00:10:34.994 --> 00:10:36.503
-: It's really clay, yeah, right?

00:10:39.550 --> 00:10:40.437
Yeah.

00:10:40.437 --> 00:10:43.020
(upbeat music)

00:10:48.550 --> 00:10:51.880
A lot of the history of coastal Louisiana

00:10:51.880 --> 00:10:55.973
is buried in the sediments of the marshes that are here.

00:10:57.220 --> 00:10:58.053
Molly: Ooh.

00:10:58.053 --> 00:10:58.886
Albert: Oh, wow, well, that's cool.

00:10:58.886 --> 00:10:59.719
Alex: Hey.

00:10:59.719 --> 00:11:03.140
-: And so by looking at the coastal system,

00:11:03.140 --> 00:11:06.463
we can get a record of the environment.

00:11:08.680 --> 00:11:10.570
Not a lot of, I don't taste any silt.

00:11:10.570 --> 00:11:12.483
Yeah, that's just clay.

00:11:16.730 --> 00:11:18.450
As a coastal geologist,

00:11:18.450 --> 00:11:22.440
I look at how water and mud move across the coast,

00:11:22.440 --> 00:11:25.113
and I look at how humans alter that process.

00:11:26.340 --> 00:11:29.153
I guess I originally wanted to be an ornithologist.

00:11:30.120 --> 00:11:32.480
My first job was in the Everglades.

00:11:32.480 --> 00:11:34.780
I chased swallow-tailed kites around

00:11:34.780 --> 00:11:38.130
and realized that I did not want to spend

00:11:38.130 --> 00:11:40.943
my scientific career chasing my samples.

00:11:41.840 --> 00:11:43.620
So I started being a geologist

00:11:43.620 --> 00:11:47.640
because I realized that the mud didn't move very fast.

00:11:47.640 --> 00:11:49.954
And I think we're stuck, so I'm gonna just--

00:11:49.954 --> 00:11:50.787
Man: Yeah, we're grounded.

00:11:50.787 --> 00:11:51.620
-: Yeah.

00:11:51.620 --> 00:11:53.710
Let's just see if we can get it.

00:11:53.710 --> 00:11:56.280
The question, if you're a scientist

00:11:56.280 --> 00:11:58.320
that works in shallow water environments,

00:11:58.320 --> 00:12:00.140
is not if you're gonna get stuck.

00:12:00.140 --> 00:12:02.740
It's how you handle things when you do get stuck.

00:12:02.740 --> 00:12:04.560
We're fine.

00:12:04.560 --> 00:12:05.783
We just hit an oyster.

00:12:07.332 --> 00:12:09.710
(upbeat music)

00:12:09.710 --> 00:12:11.600
Here at LUMCON's marine center,

00:12:11.600 --> 00:12:13.300
one of the really nice things

00:12:13.300 --> 00:12:15.830
is that we have a seawater system.

00:12:15.830 --> 00:12:19.140
So just as a bar might have beer on tap,

00:12:19.140 --> 00:12:20.880
we have seawater on tap.

00:12:20.880 --> 00:12:23.350
A laser diffraction particle size analyzer,

00:12:23.350 --> 00:12:25.710
a drying oven, get out all the water.

00:12:25.710 --> 00:12:28.420
So in the field the other day, we were tasting sediment.

00:12:28.420 --> 00:12:29.720
The gamma detector,

00:12:29.720 --> 00:12:32.270
liquid nitrogen, which I use to keep the detector cool.

00:12:32.270 --> 00:12:34.800
That's a pretty good qualitative way to do it and burn it

00:12:34.800 --> 00:12:36.450
to determine the organics.

00:12:36.450 --> 00:12:39.110
No, I actually have not had many humorous mishaps

00:12:39.110 --> 00:12:39.990
when tasting the samples.

00:12:39.990 --> 00:12:43.110
I've had no shortage of field humor.

00:12:43.110 --> 00:12:45.243
They were hanging out and I guess we got attacked by it.

00:12:45.243 --> 00:12:46.542
-: Hmm, big fish, yeah.

00:12:46.542 --> 00:12:47.930
-: And it was a little boat!

00:12:47.930 --> 00:12:51.460
But tasting samples was actually not one of them.

00:12:51.460 --> 00:12:52.850
Nah, there's a little silt in there.

00:12:52.850 --> 00:12:53.742
Molly: Yeah?

00:12:53.742 --> 00:12:54.575
-: Yeah.

00:13:08.690 --> 00:13:11.420
A lot of the issues of restoring coastal Louisiana

00:13:11.420 --> 00:13:16.420
revolve around building land at a rate that is faster

00:13:16.890 --> 00:13:18.740
than the rate at which we're sinking

00:13:18.740 --> 00:13:20.423
and water levels are rising.

00:13:27.870 --> 00:13:29.820
A lot of the subsidence in New Orleans

00:13:29.820 --> 00:13:31.540
is a little bit like a sponge.

00:13:31.540 --> 00:13:33.750
And when a sponge is wet, it expands.

00:13:33.750 --> 00:13:35.290
And then when it dries out,

00:13:35.290 --> 00:13:38.420
it compresses into a smaller mass.

00:13:38.420 --> 00:13:40.833
And part of the reason we're here is we want to understand

00:13:40.833 --> 00:13:44.400
what the possibility for this area is to compact and sink

00:13:44.400 --> 00:13:45.490
and also what that means

00:13:45.490 --> 00:13:47.633
about how water might flow in the city.

00:13:49.550 --> 00:13:52.100
Here in South Louisiana, we're sinking at a rate,

00:13:52.100 --> 00:13:55.070
on average, it's about a centimeter a year.

00:13:55.070 --> 00:13:58.770
Global sea level rise makes that 1.4 centimeters a year,

00:13:58.770 --> 00:14:00.690
so about a half an inch a year.

00:14:00.690 --> 00:14:03.330
Over 10, 12 years, you could easily be looking

00:14:03.330 --> 00:14:05.363
at six inches worth of sea level rise.

00:14:06.880 --> 00:14:08.950
Down at a place like LUMCON,

00:14:08.950 --> 00:14:11.340
six inches of sea level rise is the difference

00:14:11.340 --> 00:14:15.083
between a dry parking lot and a flooded parking lot.

00:14:15.950 --> 00:14:19.210
The marsh buffer that provided flood protection

00:14:19.210 --> 00:14:20.733
is diminished.

00:14:28.070 --> 00:14:29.460
This poster was like 20,

00:14:29.460 --> 00:14:30.350
when did you make this poster?

00:14:30.350 --> 00:14:32.560
-: This is about a year ago.

00:14:32.560 --> 00:14:33.670
The place where we started

00:14:33.670 --> 00:14:36.058
was looking at these Google Earth images

00:14:36.058 --> 00:14:39.110
and just looking at the visual land change

00:14:39.110 --> 00:14:40.870
that you can see in Davis Pond.

00:14:40.870 --> 00:14:42.130
The sediment load in the river,

00:14:42.130 --> 00:14:44.080
calculating it based on season...

00:14:44.080 --> 00:14:48.130
-: A freshwater diversion is a gate in a levee,

00:14:48.130 --> 00:14:50.810
and the idea of that is to restart

00:14:50.810 --> 00:14:52.930
the natural land building processes

00:14:52.930 --> 00:14:55.923
that originally built the Mississippi River delta.

00:14:57.090 --> 00:15:01.660
The delta was built when sediments from continental US

00:15:01.660 --> 00:15:04.050
were delivered to the coastal landscape.

00:15:04.050 --> 00:15:05.290
When it hit the ocean,

00:15:05.290 --> 00:15:07.990
the flow slowed down, and all of the mud

00:15:07.990 --> 00:15:10.503
in the muddy Mississippi River settled out.

00:15:11.930 --> 00:15:15.240
Now, the Mississippi River sits largely behind levees,

00:15:15.240 --> 00:15:18.380
and so it doesn't bring mud to the coast

00:15:18.380 --> 00:15:20.950
in the way that it used to.

00:15:20.950 --> 00:15:24.193
Diversions are designed to mimic that process.

00:15:33.230 --> 00:15:34.063
Molly: How deep is the water,

00:15:34.063 --> 00:15:35.300
like 10 centimeters or something?

00:15:35.300 --> 00:15:36.133
Alex: Yeah.

00:15:36.133 --> 00:15:37.820
-: Let's try to get it in one full meter.

00:15:37.820 --> 00:15:42.670
So we have about 60 centimeters of deposition

00:15:42.670 --> 00:15:45.300
since the diversion opened,

00:15:45.300 --> 00:15:48.050
and the diversion opened in 2002.

00:15:48.050 --> 00:15:49.780
So we're looking at, yeah.

00:15:49.780 --> 00:15:51.470
-: An inch and a half or so a year?

00:15:51.470 --> 00:15:52.303
Molly: Yeah.

00:15:55.070 --> 00:15:56.380
Alex: The diversion packet, we think,

00:15:56.380 --> 00:15:58.490
may be even a little thicker over here.

00:15:58.490 --> 00:15:59.343
What do you think has changed?

00:15:59.343 --> 00:16:00.861
-: I think there's a lot more trees.

00:16:00.861 --> 00:16:02.230
-: I think you're right.

00:16:02.230 --> 00:16:06.670
And if you're talking to a meter in, what, 15 years,

00:16:06.670 --> 00:16:10.090
this was probably open water or quasi open water,

00:16:10.090 --> 00:16:11.800
so you had to fill this in

00:16:11.800 --> 00:16:14.380
high enough that you can get trees there.

00:16:14.380 --> 00:16:18.290
The projections are that river diversions will build tens

00:16:18.290 --> 00:16:21.690
to maybe low numbers of hundreds of square miles.

00:16:21.690 --> 00:16:23.270
They are, long term,

00:16:23.270 --> 00:16:26.800
one of the more efficient ways to build land.

00:16:26.800 --> 00:16:31.570
The 2017 master plan has a diversion in this area, right?

00:16:31.570 --> 00:16:32.580
-: Mm-hmm, a bigger one.

00:16:32.580 --> 00:16:35.552
-: So it makes you think it's not a bad area for it.

00:16:35.552 --> 00:16:36.385
-: Yeah.

00:16:37.250 --> 00:16:40.224
-: But any plan is gonna be a series of trade-offs.

00:16:40.224 --> 00:16:42.810
If you brought a diversion into an area,

00:16:42.810 --> 00:16:45.050
you might change it to a system

00:16:45.050 --> 00:16:47.380
that was dominated by freshwater species.

00:16:47.380 --> 00:16:50.320
What does that mean for people that make a living

00:16:50.320 --> 00:16:53.177
off of like shrimping and oystering?

00:16:54.763 --> 00:16:56.600
If we're going to think about wetland

00:16:56.600 --> 00:16:58.410
and coastal restoration, it needs to be

00:16:58.410 --> 00:17:01.800
a multifaceted process that doesn't just look at wetlands,

00:17:01.800 --> 00:17:04.464
but also the benefits to people.

00:17:04.464 --> 00:17:07.047
(serene music)

00:17:18.528 --> 00:17:21.500
There were other pushes forward to restore the coast,

00:17:21.500 --> 00:17:24.690
but post Katrina was when the state initiated

00:17:24.690 --> 00:17:26.713
its master planning process.

00:17:28.070 --> 00:17:31.670
The state's coastal master plan is basically a plan

00:17:31.670 --> 00:17:36.490
to restore ecosystems and provide flood protection

00:17:36.490 --> 00:17:39.223
for communities across coastal Louisiana.

00:17:43.570 --> 00:17:46.270
The big difference between the 2012 and the 2017 plan

00:17:46.270 --> 00:17:49.320
really comes down to the rate of global sea level rise.

00:17:49.320 --> 00:17:51.890
2012, the high end of sea level rise

00:17:51.890 --> 00:17:55.590
was about 1.4 feet over 50 years.

00:17:55.590 --> 00:17:59.950
And in 2017, the low end of global sea level rise

00:17:59.950 --> 00:18:03.800
was 1.4 feet and the high end was at 2.7 feet.

00:18:03.800 --> 00:18:07.170
So the rate of projected sea level rise

00:18:07.170 --> 00:18:09.123
went up substantially.

00:18:10.180 --> 00:18:11.013
How you doing?

00:18:13.180 --> 00:18:14.190
A couple hundred years ago,

00:18:14.190 --> 00:18:16.070
probably as recently as a hundred,

00:18:16.070 --> 00:18:18.870
this bayou in here would have carried freshwater,

00:18:18.870 --> 00:18:21.583
and the trees would have been able to survive.

00:18:23.880 --> 00:18:25.350
There's basically ghost forests

00:18:25.350 --> 00:18:28.213
that used to be thriving trees and are now dead.

00:18:33.760 --> 00:18:38.760
Working here in Cocodrie, I know what sea level rise means

00:18:39.600 --> 00:18:41.980
and the cascading kinds of influences,

00:18:41.980 --> 00:18:44.240
what it means about how you get to work,

00:18:44.240 --> 00:18:45.590
about how your car functions,

00:18:45.590 --> 00:18:47.390
about how you're building functions.

00:18:53.550 --> 00:18:56.890
One study that I often think of said that this century,

00:18:56.890 --> 00:18:59.890
with sea level rise, somewhere between four

00:18:59.890 --> 00:19:04.413
and 13 million people across the US would have to move.

00:19:05.470 --> 00:19:08.870
If between four and 13 million people need to move,

00:19:08.870 --> 00:19:11.160
what happens to their bank notes?

00:19:11.160 --> 00:19:12.943
What happens to their businesses?

00:19:26.106 --> 00:19:29.050
What happens here depends very much

00:19:29.050 --> 00:19:31.663
on how we deal with our sea level issue.

00:19:32.570 --> 00:19:33.800
While you might think of this

00:19:33.800 --> 00:19:37.600
as a very isolated, remote place, it's very deeply connected

00:19:37.600 --> 00:19:41.243
to decisions that people make in the rest of the world,

00:19:42.430 --> 00:19:47.263
how we manage greenhouse gases, how we manage our climate.

00:19:48.802 --> 00:19:53.183
♪ I'm facing up with bloody hands and face ♪

00:19:53.183 --> 00:19:55.373
-: We'll have to restore the coast.

00:19:56.210 --> 00:19:58.360
If we wait 20, 30 years

00:19:58.360 --> 00:20:00.760
and sea level rise starts to accelerate,

00:20:00.760 --> 00:20:02.210
then it will be very, very difficult

00:20:02.210 --> 00:20:04.910
to rebuild land in Louisiana.

00:20:04.910 --> 00:20:06.410
But if we manage our climate

00:20:06.410 --> 00:20:10.050
in a way that keeps sea level rise low,

00:20:10.050 --> 00:20:13.723
then we have a lot of potential to rebuild the marsh.

00:20:15.380 --> 00:20:18.430
The nice thing about marshes is they have some ability

00:20:18.430 --> 00:20:20.603
to keep pace with sea level rise.

00:20:21.950 --> 00:20:25.160
Put marshes in place now, it's like an investment,

00:20:25.160 --> 00:20:28.240
and it has an ability to provide returns

00:20:28.240 --> 00:20:29.240
years down the road.

00:20:35.862 --> 00:20:40.862
♪ So I don't mind ♪

00:20:43.822 --> 00:20:46.405
♪ I don't mind ♪

00:21:13.435 --> 00:21:16.102
(animals chirp)

00:21:52.830 --> 00:21:55.594
Ben: Every photo is like a drive by.

00:21:55.594 --> 00:21:58.980
(shutter clicks)

00:21:58.980 --> 00:22:03.980
I've probably flown 200 times in South Louisiana.

00:22:05.850 --> 00:22:08.470
Woman: And how many good pictures do you think you have?

00:22:08.470 --> 00:22:09.303
-: 20.

00:22:10.720 --> 00:22:13.380
Woman: How many decent ones do you think you have?

00:22:13.380 --> 00:22:14.213
-: 50.

00:22:15.136 --> 00:22:17.719
(upbeat music)

00:22:19.480 --> 00:22:20.770
On the website, it was saying

00:22:20.770 --> 00:22:23.123
this belt is usually used on treadmills.

00:22:25.040 --> 00:22:26.690
The pipe to the carburetor

00:22:26.690 --> 00:22:29.373
is some sort of vacuum cleaner assembly.

00:22:32.770 --> 00:22:35.250
I first saw South Louisiana from the air

00:22:35.250 --> 00:22:38.080
flying in and out of New Orleans on commercial flights.

00:22:38.080 --> 00:22:40.753
It's an infinitely complex ecosystem.

00:22:43.620 --> 00:22:44.730
What I really wanted to do

00:22:44.730 --> 00:22:47.073
is just go up in the air and explore.

00:23:05.270 --> 00:23:08.470
-: Okay, so were you thinking sail to the same campsite,

00:23:08.470 --> 00:23:12.280
or somewhere else so that you get closer to the next Island?

00:23:12.280 --> 00:23:14.260
-: I kinda want to fly to this other island.

00:23:14.260 --> 00:23:18.504
That's gonna be four miles, like six miles, eight miles.

00:23:18.504 --> 00:23:19.870
Either way--
(phone beeps)

00:23:19.870 --> 00:23:21.710
-: My mom's texting you.

00:23:21.710 --> 00:23:24.840
Ben: I was always intrigued by the barrier islands.

00:23:24.840 --> 00:23:26.280
It's an interesting landscape

00:23:26.280 --> 00:23:28.510
that I wanted to fly and photograph.

00:23:29.674 --> 00:23:32.507
(laid back music)

00:23:47.350 --> 00:23:52.350
We bought this sailboat in an effort to use less gasoline.

00:23:52.950 --> 00:23:55.690
People used to use this kind of boat a hundred years ago

00:23:55.690 --> 00:23:58.920
in Louisiana for oystering and fishing.

00:23:58.920 --> 00:24:00.960
So we thought it would be a smart move

00:24:00.960 --> 00:24:03.080
to use that to get around out here.

00:24:26.145 --> 00:24:27.460
In an ideal world,

00:24:27.460 --> 00:24:29.940
my paramotor wouldn't burn any gasoline,

00:24:29.940 --> 00:24:31.520
but this is the most efficient way

00:24:31.520 --> 00:24:33.620
for me to get up in the air and fly around

00:24:34.650 --> 00:24:36.510
until I stop flying around

00:24:36.510 --> 00:24:39.093
and just sail the rest of my life.

00:24:43.350 --> 00:24:44.530
-: We should go wander around

00:24:44.530 --> 00:24:46.613
and look for dead things on the beach.

00:24:55.334 --> 00:24:58.550
Ben: Man, I'm so hungry right now.

00:24:58.550 --> 00:25:01.310
Tonight is bushes grilling beans

00:25:02.160 --> 00:25:06.083
and a can of green beans, and it should be delicious.

00:25:07.740 --> 00:25:11.330
My neighbor is a scrapper and scraps aluminum

00:25:11.330 --> 00:25:14.490
and often finds canned food.

00:25:14.490 --> 00:25:17.900
The food that he doesn't want, he gives to me.

00:25:17.900 --> 00:25:20.373
So I've got a whole bag of canned food over here.

00:25:26.817 --> 00:25:29.488
Man on Radio: Southwest of the Mississippi River.

00:25:29.488 --> 00:25:31.738
Low tide is at noon today.

00:25:36.140 --> 00:25:38.580
Ben: These barrier islands are eroding

00:25:38.580 --> 00:25:42.573
at rates of something like up to 60 feet per year.

00:25:45.450 --> 00:25:49.230
When you look at the maps, it's just a thin beach line.

00:25:49.230 --> 00:25:51.220
But in reality, you can see

00:25:51.220 --> 00:25:52.950
where they've been rebuilding the beaches

00:25:52.950 --> 00:25:56.060
all throughout this area to try to preserve

00:25:56.060 --> 00:25:58.605
this bit of life for a little longer.

00:25:58.605 --> 00:26:01.022
(soft music)

00:26:14.770 --> 00:26:17.380
The reason I started working on this project

00:26:17.380 --> 00:26:20.680
was essentially environmental communication.

00:26:20.680 --> 00:26:24.140
I think these images can be used by the scientific community

00:26:24.140 --> 00:26:28.410
to kind of raise awareness about how this landscape works.

00:26:28.410 --> 00:26:29.480
-: Great flight the other day.

00:26:29.480 --> 00:26:30.444
That was cool.

00:26:30.444 --> 00:26:31.277
-: Yeah.

00:26:31.277 --> 00:26:33.610
-: A lot of my work has been down here.

00:26:33.610 --> 00:26:35.580
For me as a scientist,

00:26:35.580 --> 00:26:39.970
I very closely link education and research.

00:26:39.970 --> 00:26:42.463
Part of research is to educate people.

00:26:43.330 --> 00:26:45.440
I collaborate with some folks from NASA,

00:26:45.440 --> 00:26:48.260
and they can calculate a vegetation index,

00:26:48.260 --> 00:26:50.070
how much vegetation is there.

00:26:50.070 --> 00:26:52.410
But one of the problems with satellites

00:26:52.410 --> 00:26:54.590
is you don't really know exactly what they're looking at,

00:26:54.590 --> 00:26:58.790
whether it's algae or whether it's marsh grasses.

00:26:58.790 --> 00:27:00.800
Ben: Yeah, I mean, from 50 feet up,

00:27:00.800 --> 00:27:04.510
you can tell what type of vegetation it is exactly.

00:27:04.510 --> 00:27:07.250
Alex: Right, in a way that would be much more precise

00:27:07.250 --> 00:27:09.503
than you could get from an airplane.

00:27:15.410 --> 00:27:17.500
-: South Louisiana feels like

00:27:17.500 --> 00:27:20.030
you're in some kind of remote wilderness

00:27:20.030 --> 00:27:24.180
until you get up in the air and then you can see

00:27:24.180 --> 00:27:26.990
that you're just surrounded by miles and miles

00:27:26.990 --> 00:27:30.770
of oyster leases, shrimpers trawling.

00:27:30.770 --> 00:27:34.330
The horizon is just dotted with endless oil rigs.

00:27:34.330 --> 00:27:37.763
Everything is exploited in one way or another.

00:27:47.170 --> 00:27:48.160
Everywhere you look,

00:27:48.160 --> 00:27:51.833
you see these oil and gas pipeline canals.

00:27:53.670 --> 00:27:56.690
Those canals are what allowed saltwater intrusion

00:27:56.690 --> 00:27:59.960
to penetrate so far north and then killed the vegetation

00:27:59.960 --> 00:28:01.800
which was holding the soil in place.

00:28:01.800 --> 00:28:04.020
And then that's what really triggered

00:28:04.020 --> 00:28:05.863
most of the wetland loss.

00:28:05.863 --> 00:28:09.197
♪ Deep in the woods ♪

00:28:09.197 --> 00:28:13.218
♪ Lies the shadowlands ♪

00:28:13.218 --> 00:28:18.218
♪ Where brother bear is sleeping his deepest lament ♪

00:28:22.200 --> 00:28:24.010
-: I've met old people down in this area

00:28:24.010 --> 00:28:26.280
that tell me this used to be meadow

00:28:26.280 --> 00:28:28.350
where they grazed cattle.

00:28:28.350 --> 00:28:30.010
And now, it's just open water

00:28:30.010 --> 00:28:32.453
with the edges of the canals remaining.

00:28:40.270 --> 00:28:42.270
When I started this project,

00:28:42.270 --> 00:28:44.620
I had in my mind a handful of images

00:28:44.620 --> 00:28:47.450
that would tell the story of wetland loss.

00:28:47.450 --> 00:28:49.960
And then experiencing this place

00:28:49.960 --> 00:28:52.423
drew me in and kept me exploring.

00:28:54.290 --> 00:28:56.070
It's really become a process

00:28:56.070 --> 00:28:59.413
of going out and looking for like magic.

00:29:10.531 --> 00:29:15.531
♪ Mother sun sings a song so sweet ♪

00:29:18.741 --> 00:29:22.329
♪ Blooms start to bud ♪

00:29:22.329 --> 00:29:25.912
♪ The green world is free ♪

00:29:29.040 --> 00:29:30.340
Ben: I love New Orleans

00:29:30.340 --> 00:29:33.283
but I try to be realistic about living here.

00:29:34.640 --> 00:29:36.400
You know, one major hurricane

00:29:36.400 --> 00:29:39.720
without that protection of the wetlands,

00:29:39.720 --> 00:29:42.247
we'll all be finding a new place to live

00:29:53.286 --> 00:29:58.286
♪ Ooh ♪

00:30:00.956 --> 00:30:02.789
♪ Ooh ♪

00:30:08.670 --> 00:30:12.750
Ben: There is so much value in this ecosystem.

00:30:12.750 --> 00:30:14.190
Hopefully, I'm able to capture

00:30:14.190 --> 00:30:16.542
a little bit of that with my photographs

00:30:16.542 --> 00:30:18.324
and kind of make people

00:30:18.324 --> 00:30:20.633
think about this place a little more.

00:30:25.170 --> 00:30:26.230
When I'm flying,

00:30:26.230 --> 00:30:29.190
I often have this feeling of overwhelming beauty

00:30:29.190 --> 00:30:32.940
with this like deep sadness for what's been lost,

00:30:32.940 --> 00:30:35.653
two feelings at the same time constantly.

00:30:40.134 --> 00:30:45.134
♪ Father time is weaving an autumn melody ♪

00:30:47.894 --> 00:30:52.174
♪ It's harvest time ♪

00:30:52.174 --> 00:30:55.841
♪ The earth yields her seed ♪

00:31:05.374 --> 00:31:08.207
(thunder rumbles)

00:31:51.477 --> 00:31:53.120
Man: So usually, what would this look like

00:31:53.120 --> 00:31:54.150
during the shrimping season?

00:31:54.150 --> 00:31:58.670
-: Right now, you would have about 15 bolts lined up

00:31:58.670 --> 00:32:01.933
starting from over there going into the village.

00:32:02.830 --> 00:32:04.750
You know, they will space itself out,

00:32:04.750 --> 00:32:07.733
enough time for the shrimp to pop back up, and catch.

00:32:09.280 --> 00:32:11.563
And now, it's none, none.

00:32:16.027 --> 00:32:18.010
The Grand Bayou was the honey hole.

00:32:18.010 --> 00:32:20.120
If they're having a great season somewhere else,

00:32:20.120 --> 00:32:23.880
we're having an awesome season.

00:32:23.880 --> 00:32:25.260
This was the best.

00:32:25.260 --> 00:32:27.793
This was, it didn't get no better than that.

00:32:31.830 --> 00:32:33.056
What's up, fella?

00:32:33.056 --> 00:32:33.889
Man: How you doing, man?

00:32:33.889 --> 00:32:36.477
Gleason: Boy, long time no see.

00:32:36.477 --> 00:32:37.310
-: What's going on?

00:32:37.310 --> 00:32:38.143
-: Nothing much.

00:32:38.143 --> 00:32:39.773
We're doing a documentary with my cousin.

00:32:39.773 --> 00:32:40.606
-: Yeah?
-: Yeah.

00:32:40.606 --> 00:32:41.439
-: On what?

00:32:41.439 --> 00:32:43.563
-: On us, the fishing life of us.

00:32:44.840 --> 00:32:46.580
What you think about it?

00:32:46.580 --> 00:32:48.360
We're gonna survive?

00:32:48.360 --> 00:32:49.863
We're gonna survive or what?

00:32:51.888 --> 00:32:54.305
(soft music)

00:33:00.860 --> 00:33:03.030
Ever since I was little, we will wait, my grandma,

00:33:03.030 --> 00:33:05.330
for the high tide to come up.

00:33:05.330 --> 00:33:06.530
And when the good time would come,

00:33:06.530 --> 00:33:08.530
we was always anxious to run to the dish

00:33:08.530 --> 00:33:10.063
to see who spot the crab.

00:33:14.408 --> 00:33:17.010
And then my dad introduced shrimping.

00:33:17.010 --> 00:33:19.410
When we became teenagers, he stopped coming with us.

00:33:19.410 --> 00:33:21.190
Next thing you know, we was out there by ourselves.

00:33:21.190 --> 00:33:24.023
It gave us the opportunity to be out there by ourselves.

00:33:27.070 --> 00:33:29.153
That's my dad's camp.

00:33:29.153 --> 00:33:31.493
That old boat there is named The Wake.

00:33:33.060 --> 00:33:35.423
I had some of my best catches on that boat.

00:33:48.059 --> 00:33:51.040
It grew back up pretty bad.

00:33:51.040 --> 00:33:53.010
We hauled shells out here.

00:33:53.010 --> 00:33:55.417
This was a bulkhead that we put up.

00:33:55.417 --> 00:33:57.530
And now, in the saltwater, it's eroding.

00:33:57.530 --> 00:33:58.723
This was high land.

00:34:03.390 --> 00:34:06.370
I can remember I caught so much shrimp up the bayou,

00:34:06.370 --> 00:34:07.610
I had the little boat,

00:34:07.610 --> 00:34:10.510
I came and delivered the catch three times, offload it.

00:34:10.510 --> 00:34:13.980
And I mean crown the dock three times,

00:34:13.980 --> 00:34:15.360
and I would go back and get some more.

00:34:15.360 --> 00:34:18.260
And they will do the help, sorting it out, sorting it out.

00:34:19.200 --> 00:34:21.783
We would line up and take a turn up the bayou.

00:34:37.810 --> 00:34:40.390
I think we have 13 acres if you look at it,

00:34:40.390 --> 00:34:43.713
13 acres from the back of that bunker to the back.

00:34:44.710 --> 00:34:47.300
In the five years, I've planted watermelon here.

00:34:47.300 --> 00:34:50.413
They all popped up, but I didn't have time to irrigate it.

00:34:52.210 --> 00:34:54.490
Now, when the fishing has gone bad,

00:34:54.490 --> 00:34:56.470
I think we need to maybe consider this

00:34:56.470 --> 00:35:00.829
as a more primary thing, but we'll see how it goes.

00:35:00.829 --> 00:35:03.246
(soft music)

00:35:07.100 --> 00:35:09.740
When they built the levee, they stopped all the freshwater

00:35:09.740 --> 00:35:11.760
from dumping on to this side of the levee.

00:35:11.760 --> 00:35:15.230
On the more side, it became saltwater, which the brownie,

00:35:15.230 --> 00:35:18.330
the Brazilian shrimp, it thrives in saltwater,

00:35:18.330 --> 00:35:21.700
and back here became a new unique place for it.

00:35:21.700 --> 00:35:24.583
We can catch 3,000 pounds in maybe six hours.

00:35:25.520 --> 00:35:27.660
So when they put the siphon right up the road,

00:35:27.660 --> 00:35:29.550
they flooded it with freshwater

00:35:29.550 --> 00:35:31.820
and they wiped out the brown shrimp

00:35:31.820 --> 00:35:35.630
but it made the white shrimp season better.

00:35:35.630 --> 00:35:38.040
So it swapped from being a brownie season

00:35:38.040 --> 00:35:40.233
to more a white shrimp season.

00:35:53.730 --> 00:35:57.450
When they first talked about putting a diversion down here,

00:35:57.450 --> 00:35:59.720
I was saying it can help us.

00:35:59.720 --> 00:36:03.290
Outside the bayou, that salinity was on the high side.

00:36:03.290 --> 00:36:07.600
The freshwater, we can use some if they manage it.

00:36:07.600 --> 00:36:11.090
But if they come in on a scale what they're telling me,

00:36:11.090 --> 00:36:13.143
I'm realizing it's way too much.

00:36:14.180 --> 00:36:15.013
Fisherman: I'll tell you what.

00:36:15.013 --> 00:36:17.350
The first day that trawling season opened,

00:36:17.350 --> 00:36:18.820
I caught the net in the wheel.

00:36:18.820 --> 00:36:21.000
I jumped in the water to take the webbing out.

00:36:21.000 --> 00:36:21.990
I thought it was in the river.

00:36:21.990 --> 00:36:23.480
That's how fresh the water was.

00:36:23.480 --> 00:36:24.313
-: Right.

00:36:24.313 --> 00:36:25.570
-: That's how come all them oysters

00:36:25.570 --> 00:36:27.560
in the back of Empire and Buras are dying out.

00:36:27.560 --> 00:36:29.970
-: Yeah, I know that.
-: Freshwater.

00:36:29.970 --> 00:36:32.698
-: Right now, we're hitting the record flood with the river,

00:36:32.698 --> 00:36:35.760
and it's already changing our fishing recipe.

00:36:35.760 --> 00:36:39.050
It's having an impact of the size of a Katrina to us.

00:36:39.050 --> 00:36:41.430
We have a crop that we can't even sell.

00:36:41.430 --> 00:36:43.250
The shrimp is small enough to fit on a quarter,

00:36:43.250 --> 00:36:45.600
and you got room to see the rim of the quarter.

00:36:51.540 --> 00:36:54.150
If fishing keep declining,

00:36:54.150 --> 00:36:58.020
I have two other options that I will be venturing into,

00:36:58.020 --> 00:37:02.273
some farming on the land, or running tug for my brother.

00:37:06.260 --> 00:37:08.470
We started off with it as a shrimp boat.

00:37:08.470 --> 00:37:10.970
The first job was the Danielle Monique.

00:37:10.970 --> 00:37:13.930
It still had the skimmer frames on it for the shrimp.

00:37:13.930 --> 00:37:16.180
From there, he grew to five boats.

00:37:16.180 --> 00:37:19.030
He's got the Danielle Monique, the Uncle Robert,

00:37:19.030 --> 00:37:21.140
the Uncle Blue, the Silver Dollar,

00:37:21.140 --> 00:37:23.103
the Mr. Joe, the Miss Alma,

00:37:25.906 --> 00:37:26.856
and the Uncle John.

00:37:28.490 --> 00:37:29.763
Washer and dryer.

00:37:30.740 --> 00:37:32.140
Man: Who does the cooking?

00:37:32.140 --> 00:37:35.080
-: We, everybody takes a turn, and whoever turns out the best

00:37:35.080 --> 00:37:37.460
will be nominated to cook from then on.

00:37:37.460 --> 00:37:39.413
Man: And who's the best cook?

00:37:39.413 --> 00:37:40.246
-: Um.

00:37:41.554 --> 00:37:43.554
Second living quarters right behind you.

00:37:45.250 --> 00:37:46.083
Another living quarters.

00:37:46.083 --> 00:37:47.830
I prefer fishing over the tug.

00:37:47.830 --> 00:37:51.330
But, you know, sometimes we gotta give it up

00:37:51.330 --> 00:37:52.730
to make ends meet, you know.

00:37:56.600 --> 00:37:58.720
I would always keep my boat.

00:37:58.720 --> 00:38:00.290
My mind would always be

00:38:00.290 --> 00:38:02.490
when can I go back to commercial fishing.

00:38:02.490 --> 00:38:04.780
It's not I'm gonna stay here.

00:38:14.680 --> 00:38:16.890
Traveling farther for the catch,

00:38:16.890 --> 00:38:20.330
that's one of my biggest fear of happening to me

00:38:20.330 --> 00:38:22.120
with the freshwater coming on

00:38:22.120 --> 00:38:24.813
from fishing in the bays and bayou mostly,

00:38:25.740 --> 00:38:29.090
sooner or later, we'll start having fish to go.

00:38:29.090 --> 00:38:31.630
And you can't run from every storm.

00:38:31.630 --> 00:38:33.780
Eventually, you're gonna get caught in one.

00:38:47.860 --> 00:38:50.530
You remember, remember what I used to tell you on the boat,

00:38:50.530 --> 00:38:52.130
what's the most important thing?

00:38:53.600 --> 00:38:54.619
To follow the order.

00:38:54.619 --> 00:38:55.452
And what do you say?

00:38:55.452 --> 00:38:57.040
Aye, aye captain?

00:38:57.040 --> 00:38:58.320
-: Yep.

00:38:58.320 --> 00:39:02.080
-: I think with a larger boat, we can go more places.

00:39:02.080 --> 00:39:06.050
I think we'll be successful enough to stay shrimping.

00:39:06.050 --> 00:39:08.883
But we'll see what happens, you know.

00:39:11.875 --> 00:39:14.806
You have your ticket to get on the boat, Joe?

00:39:14.806 --> 00:39:15.639
-: Yep.

00:39:19.366 --> 00:39:22.910
♪ Oh, there was a time ♪

00:39:22.910 --> 00:39:24.470
Gleason: It's kinda hard right now,

00:39:24.470 --> 00:39:25.950
but I'ma try to go see

00:39:25.950 --> 00:39:29.153
if I can manage to make ends meet shrimping.

00:39:32.094 --> 00:39:35.133
♪ Danced like ♪

00:39:35.133 --> 00:39:38.930
♪ No one was watching ♪

00:39:38.930 --> 00:39:39.940
Gleason: Some kids don't even know

00:39:39.940 --> 00:39:42.760
what their parent does for a living, and that's what I love

00:39:42.760 --> 00:39:45.000
about the commercial fishing industry.

00:39:45.000 --> 00:39:46.943
It brings you together.

00:39:46.943 --> 00:39:51.587
♪ When no was not a word I'd use ♪

00:39:51.587 --> 00:39:52.420
♪ Though I should ♪

00:39:52.420 --> 00:39:53.813
-: Hey, Joe, stop!

00:39:55.320 --> 00:39:56.520
All right.

00:39:56.520 --> 00:40:00.317
Sometimes he messes me up back here when he steers up there,

00:40:00.317 --> 00:40:01.417
but it works together.

00:40:03.880 --> 00:40:05.490
Everybody came and lived with us

00:40:05.490 --> 00:40:07.680
to go shrimping with my dad during the summer.

00:40:07.680 --> 00:40:09.590
All the kids would come to my house.

00:40:09.590 --> 00:40:12.940
Back then, we have winches to pick up the frame on the boat,

00:40:12.940 --> 00:40:15.330
but we didn't have winches to pick up the tail.

00:40:15.330 --> 00:40:17.873
And so we'll get together and we'll lift it.

00:40:19.200 --> 00:40:20.910
And I remember, when we got a little older,

00:40:20.910 --> 00:40:22.687
we;d tell my dad, "Well, why you you don't put winches?"

00:40:22.687 --> 00:40:25.237
"Well, if I get winches, I ain't gonna need y'all."

00:40:26.880 --> 00:40:29.150
As it got modern, we got less catch to go.

00:40:29.150 --> 00:40:31.013
We had way more catch back then.

00:40:32.190 --> 00:40:33.786
Hey, my baby, look at it.

00:40:33.786 --> 00:40:34.930
That's the white shrimp.

00:40:34.930 --> 00:40:35.830
These are the brownies.

00:40:35.830 --> 00:40:37.440
I don't want bad for my kids.

00:40:37.440 --> 00:40:38.530
So with what I see today,

00:40:38.530 --> 00:40:40.420
I would say, no, I wouldn't want them shrimping.

00:40:40.420 --> 00:40:42.797
But in my heart, for what it gave to me--

00:40:42.797 --> 00:40:44.940
♪ What's beneath the wave ♪

00:40:44.940 --> 00:40:46.300
-: Yes, I want 'em in it.

00:40:46.300 --> 00:40:48.260
I want 'em in nothing else.

00:40:48.260 --> 00:40:49.570
But we have to make changes.

00:40:49.570 --> 00:40:50.830
We gotta be willing to adapt

00:40:50.830 --> 00:40:52.946
and change and do different things.

00:40:52.946 --> 00:40:55.620
♪ Oh, there was a time ♪

00:40:55.620 --> 00:40:57.430
-: What kind of boat are we gonna call it?

00:40:57.430 --> 00:40:58.830
What are we gonna call it?

00:40:58.830 --> 00:41:00.033
The Savanna Rose?

00:41:00.925 --> 00:41:02.170
-: The Joseph Boat!

00:41:02.170 --> 00:41:03.291
-: The Joseph Boat.

00:41:03.291 --> 00:41:05.083
Uh-oh, I'm in trouble now.

00:41:06.264 --> 00:41:07.430
We're gonna see how well we do,

00:41:07.430 --> 00:41:08.820
because if it's gonna be pretty,

00:41:08.820 --> 00:41:11.030
we'll name it the Savanna Rose.

00:41:11.030 --> 00:41:12.430
But if it's gonna stay like it is,

00:41:12.430 --> 00:41:14.080
we're gonna call it the Joe Boat.

00:41:16.060 --> 00:41:18.573
Hey, are you gonna start eating shrimp or what?

00:41:18.573 --> 00:41:20.232
-: Oh, no.

00:41:20.232 --> 00:41:21.512
Gleason: Oh, no!

00:41:21.512 --> 00:41:26.018
♪ Not a word I'd use ♪

00:41:26.018 --> 00:41:29.400
♪ Oh, I should have backed away ♪

00:41:29.400 --> 00:41:30.770
Gleason: Putting the land back

00:41:30.770 --> 00:41:32.470
is part of keeping our livelihood.

00:41:33.760 --> 00:41:35.230
We need the land to come back

00:41:35.230 --> 00:41:39.089
just as well as we need the salinity level to stay the same.

00:41:39.089 --> 00:41:41.785
♪ Don't be mistaken ♪

00:41:41.785 --> 00:41:43.707
♪ We can all be ♪

00:41:43.707 --> 00:41:44.800
Joe: What kind of fish is it?

00:41:44.800 --> 00:41:46.770
-: That's a white cloud.

00:41:46.770 --> 00:41:47.603
Yeah, come here.

00:41:47.603 --> 00:41:48.436
Come here, hey!

00:41:48.436 --> 00:41:49.269
Give it to me.

00:41:49.269 --> 00:41:50.102
I'm gonna show yo the difference.

00:41:50.102 --> 00:41:52.446
One has freckles, one don't.

00:41:52.446 --> 00:41:53.279
Huh?

00:41:55.480 --> 00:41:57.650
So we went on our little maiden voyage.

00:41:57.650 --> 00:42:01.440
We've seen a lot of white shrimp with the brown shrimp.

00:42:01.440 --> 00:42:04.120
I'm thinking we might have the big boat at the right time

00:42:04.120 --> 00:42:07.545
to catch the mother lode and pull through everything.

00:42:07.545 --> 00:42:11.665
♪ Oh, what an an ocean ♪

00:42:11.665 --> 00:42:14.665
♪ Oh, what an ocean ♪

00:42:17.260 --> 00:42:18.740
-: A fishermen always have hope.

00:42:18.740 --> 00:42:19.600
It's gotta have hope.

00:42:19.600 --> 00:42:21.310
That's what keeps us going.

00:42:21.310 --> 00:42:24.120
You wake up every morning trying to think

00:42:24.120 --> 00:42:26.674
today is another day, let's go get 'em.

00:42:26.674 --> 00:42:31.283
♪ What's beneath the waves ♪

00:42:31.283 --> 00:42:36.283
♪ Hey ♪

00:42:36.704 --> 00:42:40.287
♪ What's beneath the waves ♪

00:43:06.167 --> 00:43:07.000
Man: You got it?

00:43:07.000 --> 00:43:07.833
Kasha: No.

00:43:07.833 --> 00:43:08.666
Man: Set it what you want.

00:43:08.666 --> 00:43:09.499
Hurry up.

00:43:09.499 --> 00:43:10.332
Kasha: Check check, check.

00:43:10.332 --> 00:43:11.165
(speaker buzzes)

00:43:11.165 --> 00:43:12.401
Whoo!

00:43:12.401 --> 00:43:13.234
Man: It's all right.

00:43:13.234 --> 00:43:14.067
It's gonna be all right.

00:43:14.067 --> 00:43:14.900
You got it?

00:43:14.900 --> 00:43:15.733
Kasha: Check, one, two

00:43:15.733 --> 00:43:16.829
Kenneth: It's getting serious now.

00:43:16.829 --> 00:43:17.662
Kasha: Getting serious, yeah.

00:43:17.662 --> 00:43:21.023
No, no, that's something.
(man laughs)

00:43:21.023 --> 00:43:24.023
(soft guitar music)

00:43:26.964 --> 00:43:28.446
I don't play this.

00:43:28.446 --> 00:43:29.279
-: Well, just do it.

00:43:29.279 --> 00:43:30.834
Man: Baby, you know you an play.

00:43:30.834 --> 00:43:31.667
-: Check.

00:43:33.210 --> 00:43:34.043
-: Let's go!

00:43:37.615 --> 00:43:38.448
-: Oh, man!

00:43:42.980 --> 00:43:44.140
Kasha: I mean, you could tell

00:43:44.140 --> 00:43:45.610
when he's been in town too long.

00:43:45.610 --> 00:43:48.953
He kinda gets ornery. (chuckles)

00:43:51.160 --> 00:43:54.650
My dad needs to get out on the water from time to time.

00:43:54.650 --> 00:43:57.480
It's just something he has to do.

00:43:57.480 --> 00:44:00.220
-: First time I bought crab this year.

00:44:00.220 --> 00:44:02.084
That's only gonna get better.

00:44:02.084 --> 00:44:05.084
(soft guitar music)

00:44:18.100 --> 00:44:20.683
(upbeat music)

00:44:23.346 --> 00:44:24.367
-: One time, he was,

00:44:24.367 --> 00:44:27.470
I was having a little drink here, a little food here.

00:44:27.470 --> 00:44:28.303
Next thing you know,

00:44:28.303 --> 00:44:29.934
"Where's my teeth?
Here I come, here I come.

00:44:29.934 --> 00:44:31.549
(Kasha laughs)
I tell you.

00:44:31.549 --> 00:44:33.706
I looked and looked and looked and looked.

00:44:33.706 --> 00:44:35.707
(Kasha laughs)

00:44:35.707 --> 00:44:37.493
And I'm still looking for my dentures!

00:44:41.235 --> 00:44:42.068
That's Lake Giroux.

00:44:42.068 --> 00:44:44.693
Maybe we ought to go to Lake Giroux.

00:44:57.288 --> 00:44:58.248
Kasha: Oh, I saw one.

00:44:58.248 --> 00:44:59.081
Kenneth: Yeah, you saw one?

00:44:59.081 --> 00:44:59.914
Kasha: Yeah.

00:44:59.914 --> 00:45:00.747
-: Ah.

00:45:00.747 --> 00:45:01.670
If you saw a shrimp, look out.

00:45:01.670 --> 00:45:03.107
-: Look it!
-: Whoa.

00:45:03.107 --> 00:45:04.576
-: Was that a little fish?
-: What was that?

00:45:04.576 --> 00:45:05.409
-: I don't know--

00:45:05.409 --> 00:45:09.020
-: Was that shrimp or was that fish?

00:45:09.020 --> 00:45:09.873
Y'all ready?

00:45:11.050 --> 00:45:14.713
How about you, net, are you ready? (chuckles)

00:45:15.674 --> 00:45:16.507
All right.

00:45:18.992 --> 00:45:22.494
That's a tickle chain right here.

00:45:22.494 --> 00:45:23.993
It's supposed to tickle the shrimp.

00:45:32.400 --> 00:45:33.243
There it is.

00:45:43.500 --> 00:45:45.180
-: My earliest memory of learning

00:45:45.180 --> 00:45:48.800
that this land is disappearing was in school.

00:45:48.800 --> 00:45:51.800
It wasn't from my elders.

00:45:51.800 --> 00:45:53.890
I think you have to really ask them

00:45:53.890 --> 00:45:55.350
to really get information

00:45:55.350 --> 00:45:57.900
of things that they didn't wanna remember maybe,

00:45:57.900 --> 00:46:01.260
like land loss and what they used to have

00:46:01.260 --> 00:46:03.083
which now isn't here anymore.

00:46:04.060 --> 00:46:05.890
-: You see that sign right there?

00:46:05.890 --> 00:46:08.700
That used to be all the bank right all the way down.

00:46:08.700 --> 00:46:09.970
Kasha: So it was all the bank--

00:46:09.970 --> 00:46:14.080
-: That was all land, no water behind it.

00:46:14.080 --> 00:46:14.913
And over here, that's where I told you

00:46:14.913 --> 00:46:15.883
where the bayou used to go back there,

00:46:15.883 --> 00:46:17.617
it's all gone right there too.

00:46:17.617 --> 00:46:20.680
But that's where daddy used to bring us to, right here.

00:46:20.680 --> 00:46:23.283
Yeah, the whole family.

00:46:24.830 --> 00:46:27.710
Kasha: I grew up with my dad going hunting and fishing.

00:46:27.710 --> 00:46:29.290
That's something that molded me.

00:46:29.290 --> 00:46:32.660
So we have a deep connection with that land

00:46:32.660 --> 00:46:34.243
that is being lost now.

00:46:38.570 --> 00:46:40.460
There was an opportunity that came up

00:46:40.460 --> 00:46:42.670
funded by the National Academy of Sciences

00:46:42.670 --> 00:46:46.240
to be a part of a research project, getting oral histories

00:46:46.240 --> 00:46:49.160
of our elders who've lived off of this land

00:46:49.160 --> 00:46:51.463
to kinda heal what's going on here.

00:46:53.920 --> 00:46:58.143
-: Prior to the invasion, we had own culture, history, laws.

00:46:59.770 --> 00:47:02.430
We were recorded by the Spaniards in 1540

00:47:02.430 --> 00:47:05.210
to be where the Red River and the Mississippi meet.

00:47:05.210 --> 00:47:07.060
In the 1680s, when the French came,

00:47:07.060 --> 00:47:09.660
they saw the red poles of the Houma, Baton Rouge,

00:47:09.660 --> 00:47:12.700
and we saw there was gonna be another shedding of blood,

00:47:12.700 --> 00:47:14.970
decided to migrate out of their way.

00:47:14.970 --> 00:47:16.480
The migration went south.

00:47:16.480 --> 00:47:19.863
We moved into areas where nobody else wants to live.

00:47:20.950 --> 00:47:23.150
And then of course, the Acadians arrived

00:47:23.150 --> 00:47:25.940
and made us exiles in our own country.

00:47:25.940 --> 00:47:28.713
That's when our next step was to go even further south.

00:47:29.700 --> 00:47:31.050
Kasha: So how do you think that affects,

00:47:31.050 --> 00:47:32.580
you know, our culture as a whole

00:47:32.580 --> 00:47:34.830
and our togetherness as a people?

00:47:34.830 --> 00:47:36.660
-: Well, we got to remember one thing.

00:47:36.660 --> 00:47:39.860
A tribe is a large family.

00:47:39.860 --> 00:47:41.207
We're still family.

00:47:41.207 --> 00:47:46.207
♪ Secret from each other ♪

00:47:48.161 --> 00:47:52.994
♪ Seven past to where things began for us ♪

00:47:56.700 --> 00:48:00.870
-: My mom was a file maker, taking the sassafras leaves

00:48:00.870 --> 00:48:03.903
and making them into the powder that we call file.

00:48:05.230 --> 00:48:08.480
Long before the research was being done,

00:48:08.480 --> 00:48:10.230
she knew what was happening.

00:48:10.230 --> 00:48:11.963
Her trees started to die.

00:48:13.220 --> 00:48:16.423
That ground got saturated with salt.

00:48:17.800 --> 00:48:20.670
The navigation canal built to bring boats,

00:48:20.670 --> 00:48:23.620
and they would be good for the economy,

00:48:23.620 --> 00:48:25.323
and it really didn't happen.

00:48:26.600 --> 00:48:29.540
What did come to was the saltwater.

00:48:29.540 --> 00:48:34.540
♪ Going without you ♪

00:48:36.912 --> 00:48:41.912
♪ The change you made within ♪

00:48:44.888 --> 00:48:47.055
♪ Within ♪

00:49:00.227 --> 00:49:01.667
Corinne: See you in the house.

00:49:01.667 --> 00:49:04.150
Kasha: Where did y'all live on the bayou down in Brule?

00:49:04.150 --> 00:49:05.660
Corinne: Across from your grandmother.

00:49:05.660 --> 00:49:06.658
Kasha: Right there on the coast, Corinne?

00:49:06.658 --> 00:49:07.491
-: Yes.

00:49:07.491 --> 00:49:08.380
It's no longer there.

00:49:08.380 --> 00:49:10.620
You know, you wouldn't have been able to know

00:49:10.620 --> 00:49:11.750
what it looked like.

00:49:11.750 --> 00:49:14.800
I'm still looking for a picture of that little old house.

00:49:14.800 --> 00:49:17.060
-: So this is my great grandpa here, right?

00:49:17.060 --> 00:49:18.080
Corinne: Yes.

00:49:18.080 --> 00:49:18.913
Kasha: Wow.

00:49:20.020 --> 00:49:22.783
Corinne: And everybody that's there is gone.

00:49:29.270 --> 00:49:31.790
-: My grandparents fought a long time

00:49:31.790 --> 00:49:33.690
through hurricane after hurricane.

00:49:33.690 --> 00:49:36.660
But when Rita came through, my grandpa lost his boat,

00:49:36.660 --> 00:49:38.310
and so they moved further inland.

00:49:39.500 --> 00:49:42.870
It's weird to not gather there for every Christmas

00:49:42.870 --> 00:49:44.890
and not be there for the boat blessings

00:49:44.890 --> 00:49:46.600
with the band on the levee.

00:49:46.600 --> 00:49:48.580
And now, my daughter won't know about that,

00:49:48.580 --> 00:49:50.780
so that's a loss.

00:49:50.780 --> 00:49:53.280
It's a loss to me, but it's a bigger loss for my daughter.

00:49:53.280 --> 00:49:55.090
And I can relate to that when I hear Corinne

00:49:55.090 --> 00:49:57.050
talking about something that I don't really know about,

00:49:57.050 --> 00:49:59.560
but she can tell me what's my family land.

00:50:01.450 --> 00:50:03.490
-: The whole point was just so beautiful.

00:50:03.490 --> 00:50:07.770
These oak trees were so green and pretty.

00:50:07.770 --> 00:50:10.283
Oh, man, there's almost none left.

00:50:11.610 --> 00:50:16.027
All of this was just trees, oak trees all over the place.

00:50:16.027 --> 00:50:18.210
It was just beautiful.

00:50:18.210 --> 00:50:19.180
They were so thick

00:50:19.180 --> 00:50:21.523
that it was just the leaves on the ground.

00:50:22.449 --> 00:50:23.282
Oh.

00:50:24.660 --> 00:50:28.400
It's like feeling death around you already

00:50:28.400 --> 00:50:32.110
because it's gonna be taken away from you.

00:50:32.110 --> 00:50:33.243
So sad,

00:50:34.873 --> 00:50:36.550
and you just want to stay

00:50:36.550 --> 00:50:40.397
where you know that this is your land, this is your people.

00:50:55.803 --> 00:50:57.303
-: Where the bayou?

00:50:58.150 --> 00:50:59.983
I can't see the bayou.

00:51:03.940 --> 00:51:06.850
-: It takes our local people to band together

00:51:06.850 --> 00:51:09.140
and do as much as they can to learn

00:51:09.140 --> 00:51:13.090
instead of just caving in, under these big industries.

00:51:13.090 --> 00:51:14.810
And it's hard.

00:51:14.810 --> 00:51:16.210
It's scary.

00:51:16.210 --> 00:51:17.500
But what's more scary,

00:51:17.500 --> 00:51:20.510
that or losing the places that we have?

00:51:20.510 --> 00:51:21.560
-: That's why we're out here.

00:51:21.560 --> 00:51:23.800
We're still feeling the effects of colonization

00:51:23.800 --> 00:51:26.710
as indigenous people, trying to hang on to our culture,

00:51:26.710 --> 00:51:29.740
our language, our value systems, things like that.

00:51:29.740 --> 00:51:30.573
-: I'm a camp counselor

00:51:30.573 --> 00:51:32.770
at the Native Youth Community Project Camp

00:51:32.770 --> 00:51:35.110
for us to expose them to college communities

00:51:35.110 --> 00:51:36.610
while also exposing them to the land

00:51:36.610 --> 00:51:39.990
and how our culture has been molded through where we live.

00:51:39.990 --> 00:51:42.900
Does anybody have anything that they have maybe taken

00:51:42.900 --> 00:51:45.500
that they didn't know before about coastal issues

00:51:45.500 --> 00:51:46.660
and our people living along?

00:51:46.660 --> 00:51:48.949
-: The soil is more than just soil.

00:51:48.949 --> 00:51:50.647
It's our ancestors.

00:51:50.647 --> 00:51:53.610
And like, more and more of our heritage and our ancestors

00:51:53.610 --> 00:51:56.060
are like going away with the water.

00:51:56.060 --> 00:51:58.020
Kasha: That's a great point, yeah.

00:51:58.020 --> 00:51:59.730
-: I think is interesting how if we just opened up

00:51:59.730 --> 00:52:01.817
the Mississippi in a controlled way,

00:52:01.817 --> 00:52:04.830
all like the sediments would just rebuild the land.

00:52:04.830 --> 00:52:06.930
-: Yeah, and you guys are at a vital point

00:52:06.930 --> 00:52:07.900
in your lives right now

00:52:07.900 --> 00:52:10.510
where whether it be learning more about it

00:52:10.510 --> 00:52:12.707
and going into a field that'll help this coast

00:52:12.707 --> 00:52:15.250
and our way of life, but also about passing on

00:52:15.250 --> 00:52:17.150
these traditions that you're learning.

00:52:19.350 --> 00:52:22.360
What's going on here can relate to all bayou communities,

00:52:22.360 --> 00:52:23.720
all coastal communities.

00:52:23.720 --> 00:52:26.320
And I think that other communities

00:52:26.320 --> 00:52:30.530
can see the immediate need to save our land

00:52:30.530 --> 00:52:33.830
but don't really see how the loss of this land

00:52:33.830 --> 00:52:36.083
will also be the loss of our culture.

00:52:37.460 --> 00:52:39.640
The further inland we must push,

00:52:39.640 --> 00:52:41.830
it's gonna change our ways of life.

00:52:41.830 --> 00:52:44.713
Now is the time to preserve that as much as we can.

00:52:46.370 --> 00:52:48.100
-: Our flag has the crawfish.

00:52:48.100 --> 00:52:49.820
And if you know anything about crawfish,

00:52:49.820 --> 00:52:51.450
crawfish do not retreat.

00:52:51.450 --> 00:52:53.840
You're not gonna make us back up and give up.

00:52:53.840 --> 00:52:56.092
We'll keep moving forward.

00:52:56.092 --> 00:52:57.967
Kasha: All right, dinner!

00:52:57.967 --> 00:53:00.800
-: Yeah, that's a nice little ball.

00:53:05.361 --> 00:53:06.361
There it is!

00:53:07.257 --> 00:53:09.790
We've got enough for about six people in here.

00:53:09.790 --> 00:53:11.179
Kasha: Unless you put it in jambalaya.

00:53:11.179 --> 00:53:15.761
Kenneth: A jambalaya or spaghetti or a stew.

00:53:15.761 --> 00:53:17.740
Kasha: Yeah.

00:53:17.740 --> 00:53:20.157
(soft music)