On this 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, the team (Rhett Adam, Sarah Alfonso, Brandon Buchalter, Truman Hill, Cortneia Jasper, and Chelsea Liebenthal, Sophie Mykhaisouk, Sabrina Wang, Mia Wen, and Tony Yoo) began this learning experience at the Whitney Plantation, immersing themselves in the history of the region through the perspective of enslaved people, whose lives and stories were brought to life by Whitney’s guides.
Students learned about bayou ecology and livelihoods of the region on a boat tour led by multi-generational Cajun shrimpers and founders of Zam’s Swamp Tour. The bayou tour prompted conversations about wetland loss due to sediment diversion by the Mississippi system of levees and through artificial channelization by the offshore oil industry. The bayou trip was also one of wonder.
The team communed with the Delta’s nature by watching water birds and large adult gators in their native habitat, as well as by holding and petting baby gators at the hatchery run by our Zam’s hosts, who do hatchery work for Louisiana Wildlife, a state agency that restocks alligators to maintain healthy populations and sustain the subsistence and commercial alligator fisheries in the Mississippi Delta. Two bald eagles and many herons were seen and admired on or near the bayou.
Taking place during both the bayou boat tour and a half-day visit to LUMCON – the Louisiana University Marine Consortium in Cocodrie, LA, conversations about sustaining native ecosystems and water dependent livelihoods left students with a solid understanding of the region’s altered hydrology, its complex ecological and policy challenges, and the opportunities for redressing the water and fishery resource management errors of the past.
In appreciation of the region’s unique combination of ecology, history, and culture, students and faculty sampled many of the local delicacies, starting with a fresh seafood dinner at Schmoopy’s on night one of the Delta trip. The following night, Rhett Adam (EES & Data Science, 2028), a native of the New Orleans Metro Area, treated the team to a delicious jambalaya dinner, which he cooked at the team’s Terrebonne Parish Airbnb, with everyone pitching in to help, while following Rhett’s mom’s secret recipe that she shared with him special for this trip!
Ending with a day-long visit to New Orleans, the team stopped at different points along the levees, starting with the Katrina Commemorative Mural in the Lower Ninth Ward, and continuing to a high spot near the St. Claude Ave. Bridge, overlooking the locks on the Industrial Canal. The team then enjoyed the breadth of perspectives offered by the New Orleans City museum, as well as a stroll through the Marigny and Bourbon Street neighborhoods housing the museum, and a parting snack of beignets.
Beyond knowledge and ideas about ways to avoid sustainability-equity tradeoffs in climate and resource policy in the future, the team built many relationships that will last through Vanderbilt and beyond.
