Perhaps, in the face of this unscalable limitation, if it is not possible to quantify this profound inheritance, it is at least possible to qualitatively comprehend the functional roles these mystical natural phenomena perform in the lives of the Louisiana citizen. To do so requires not just an effort to define exactly what it is one refers to when using the term, but also some familiarity with the relatively ubiquitous distribution of these ancient natural resources. Beyond the temporal virtues of a full belly, or the aesthetically pleasing character of nature, the substantive discussion of these roles must arrive at the subject of industry. The bayous and rivers of Louisiana have provided a seemingly inexhaustible boon to the commercial pursuits of Louisiana citizens, like accelerant in a house-fire. Furthermore, because of these innumerable and immensely profitable qualities, other efforts emerge to promote, protect, and preserve the bayous against destruction and depletion.
When taken together, these bayou-generated and bayou-sustaining industries occupy a substantial sector of the Louisiana economy. The trouble is, many people, if asked, probably aren't entirely sure what a bayou even is, let alone why it is so important to the state's success.
For generations of audiences worldwide, National Geographic has been an iconic and invaluably authoritative source of useful information on naturally occurring land and water features. From it, a few useful facts may help to understand what a bayou is. According to their online educational resources, “A Bayou is a slow-moving creek or a swamp section of a river or a lake...Usually shallow and sometimes heavily wooded.”1 National Geographic identifies two important perspectives when considering the bayou: The first is vegetation, which refers to all that flora which grows in, above, and around the bayou. The second is habitat, which refers to all that fauna in the region. In both categories, the bayou contributes to an endlessly vibrant diversity of life, the whole catalog of which would fill volumes. Among much other useful information, this source refers to a few principle bayous in the state, including Black Lake Bayou, Bayou Bartholomew, and Bayou Teche. Other notable examples include a cluster of bayous along the Plaquemines peninsula, Bayou Macon, and Bayou Boeuf.
The outline of the state appears to have been drawn specifically with the inclusion of these features in mind. For each of the half-dozen or so to be found on any map of the state, there are dozens more hidden along the meandering paths of rivers, big and small, which converge from points accounting for maybe half the states in the Union and wash out to sea via the Atchafalaya and Mississippi rivers. The bayous fanning out above the Ouachita River, in the central northern part of the state, are Bayou de L'outre, Cross Bayou, Bayou D'Arbonne, Bayou Choudrant, Bayou Tupawek, and Bayou de Saird. Bayous Bartholomew and Bonne Idee appear to relate to the Beouf River, as does Bayou Lafourche, further south. Bayou Macon joins the Tensas River. These northeastern water bodies begin near or beyond the northern state border, and flow southward parallel to the Mississippi, towards central Louisiana, where they meet the central and northwestern river systems in the center of the Great alluvial Plains. The Bayou of Black Lake begins in the northwest, alongside the meandering Red River, which it joins further south in Natchitoches, perhaps fifty miles or so north of Bayou Rigolette.
Bayous Jeansome and Cocodrie rest upon the Little and Black Rivers near the heart of the state, among the Parish boundaries between Avoyelles, Concordia, and Lasalle. Southwest of these are bayou Sara and the Elbow Bayou, followed by Bayou Teche, which is the dominant bayou system in south central Louisiana. From here, we have a triad to the west. and both a major and a minor system to the east. The southwestern bayous are Lacassine Bayou, which appears to occupy regions of the Calcasieu River system beneath the Whiskey Chitto, near bayous Sara and Queue de Tortue within the Mermentau River system. Bayou Beouf and Bayou St. John rest beneath Lake Pontchartrain, south and north of the Mississippi, respectively.
The most critical bayous in Louisiana, one might argue, are the half dozen bayous which encompass the Plaquemines peninsula between Barataria Bay and the Brexton sound. Within this region, Buras Bayou aligns with the northern needle on the compass, with Long Island Bayou to the east and the Felice Bayou to the south. To the west of these are Bayous Tambour, Little Channel, and Tony. These were the principle bayous most directly impacted by Hurricane Katrina at landfall, as well as by other such storms in history, and are surrounded on three sides by ocean. There are, in summary, six generally distinct bayou regions in the state of Louisiana: The Ouachita system, the Red System, the central system and Bayou Teche, the Calcasieu and Mermentau systems, and the sub-Pontchartrain and Plaquemines systems.
The bayous themselves boast an alluring expression of diversity, changing appearance from region to region, assuming the character and aspect of the lands through which they drift. Consider a brief and descriptive passage from the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries' profile of the state's Scenic River system, referring to the wide continuum of bodies contained within their jurisdiction: “fast running, upland streams like Kisatchie Bayou in Natchidoches Parish, to beautiful cypress-filled bottom land bayous like Bayou Dorcheat in Webster Parish; and for sluggish coastal marsh bayous like Bayou Chaperon in St. Bernard Parish, to whole watersheds like the Tchefuncte River (in St. Tammany)...”2
The influence of the bayou on the history of the people can be traced through many epochs. For example, historian Gary Joiner describes “Chapman Bayou” as the site of a “resounding Confederate victory” between [Lt. Gen. Richard Taylor]'s men and the Union soldiers at the Battle of Mansfield” in his Civil War chronicle of the Red River Campaign of 1864.3 The state's official moniker, “The Bayou State” says it all!
Even in the present, the bayou and river systems occupy center stage in the annual Bass Master's Fishing Tournament, where anglers from across the world converge once a year to see who can catch the biggest mouth in the south. This event serves as a prototypical model of a bayou-generated industry, but it is only the surface layer of a much more complex arrangement of subordinate industries. For instance, this widely-popular tournament drives manufacturing of all kinds of sporting goods, such as rods and reels, string, bait, tents, camp stoves, rifles, etc. The list goes on! As a consequence, increased activity in these markets increases demand in production of aluminum, steel, fuel, plastic, not to mention tourism-related industries such as bars, restaurants, casinos, and hotels.
Another textbook example of the stimulative capacity of bayous upon economic and social interests is Mr. Kelby Ouchely. Mr. Ouchely is a Louisiana biologist, game Warden, and a manager of national wildlife refuges, in addition to hosting a “weekly natural history radio program.”4 He says of bayous: “I live in a place saturated with over 400 of these curious waterways,” and asserts that “the well-being of our species” is dependent upon them.5 Mr. Ouchely discusses a wide range of ecological and geographical relationships, and has written several books within this discipline, including Alligator, Flora and Fauna of the Civil War, and Bayou Diversity.
Ouchely is just one example of how geography and industry are related. This man's entire career evolved upon the desire to inform others about the roles bayous play in our lives. In this sense, he is proof of his own premise, because the bayou is the source and inspiration of his livelihood in a very meaningful (and direct) way. From his stock of scholarly and passionate blogs about bayous, some examples of the aforementioned habitat and vegetation come to life.
For example, in one article, Ouchely argues that the evidence supports the notion that the state was once habitat for buffalo. He says “Early French explorers called them boef sauvage -wild ox,” and also that “our maps [denote three beoufs] ...Bayou Beouf, Beouf River, and Beouf Lake.”6 Similarly, regarding vegetation, the biologists observations are equally useful, such as the evidence of observed drought conditions, for example, in which Ouchely describes a bayou region near his home: “The bayou down the hill...languishes currentless, at pool stage or below, heavy clay soil was cracked into pieces.”7 In each of these two very different instances, Mr. Ouchely illustrates how with careful consideration, the bayou can yield useful cultural and historical information, but may also serve just as faithfully as an indicator of changes in climate.
Kelly Ouchely, for his efforts, is at once an example of bayou-generated industry, as stated above, and also an example of bayou-sustaining industry, because his efforts are in service of the bayou. Like many capable figures within the scientific community, Mr. Ouchely's intention is not merely the preservation of his own self-interest, as it is with many other examples of bayou-related industry. It is primarily the preservation of the bayous themselves, as a matter of critical importance to the survival of the species, as well as economic growth.
On the subject of bayou-sustaining industries, it is appropriate to begin with the “Scenic Rivers system” under the dominion of the state government. Bayous are a part of Louisiana's 3,000 miles of Louisiana waterways “designated natural and scenic rivers by the 1970 Louisiana legislature.”8 In so doing, the state protected many of our bayous from “certain activities...because of their detrimental economic impacts.” The Louisiana Scenic River System “requires permits for all activities...that may impact the ecological integrity...of those rivers.” The website boasts that the LSRS is “one of the largest ...systems like it in the world.” 9
Voters in Louisiana will occasionally notice what may seem like obscure legislation concerning local lakes, streams, rivers, swamps, forests, etc... Many are hesitant to approve new new spending or renew old spending, due in large part to a widely shared lack of confidence in the government. But local programs like these are supremely important industries of preservation, which often generate little or no political attention, As a result, they are often low hanging fruit when politicians need money and look to slashing budget expenditures to find it. Many of these measures are promoted by beleaguered champions; fund-starved civil servants trying desperately to preserve what many would agree are our most important vital natural resources.
Among bayou-generated industries, perhaps there is no better example than the “Swamp and Boat tour,” just one of many offered by the Gray-Line company of New Orleans, where tourists will “experience the timeless beauty of South-Louisiana in a custom-built swamp boat.”10 Features include “Seafood, ...nesting grounds of alligators, egrets, raccoons, nutria, and many species of snake.”11 Patrons are urged to “bring your camera to experience the bon temps (good times) on the bayou.” This is a “3.75 hour tour” departing from the French quarter in New Orleans for $26 to $49 a head.12 Destination360, a popular travel sight, urges patrons to consider Arcadia, Iowa, and Bastrop Louisiana, to “tour plantation homes, follow paddling trails, and more!”13
These exotic adventures draw tourists from around the world, and thus serve as the vertebral hub around which dozens of other subordinate industries evolve, such as restaurants, bars, casinos, and hotels.
If the bayous are lucrative enough to merit preserving, are they worth the investment of rebuilding in the event of a monumental natural disaster? Jeffrey Buchanan, “Senior Domestic Policy Advisor” to Oxfam International, explores this question in an article entitled “Rebuilding Bayous.” According to Buchanan, George Washington once remarked of a D.C. Wetland that it was a “fine improvable marsh.”14 Mr. Buchanan argues that wetlands have always presented an opportunity for industry, and though earlier generations of Americans recognized this intuitively, it is no less true today. He presents an interesting example in Louisiana wetlands which were vital sources of industry in the southern coasts, but which were destroyed or severely damaged during Hurricane Katrina. Occurring in an area already suffering from natural coastal loss, Buchanan describes how this natural disaster eliminated thousands of jobs over night. But the natural value of these wetlands concerned were such that Congress appropriated millions of dollars “in the Recovery Act... generating 17.1 jobs per million spent.”15 The author observes that these “restoration jobs” provided significant pathways out of poverty.”16
On the other hand, industry can have just as devastating of an effect on these fragile ecosystems as an act of God. Protesters lambasting an announcement by the U.S. Department of the Interior of its plans to “auction 43 million acres of land in the gulf of Mexico for new drilling leases” had planned an event called “Operation: Surround the Superdome” in March of 2016 to raise awareness and to “put out a call to end new lease agreements and to hire at least 1000 [presumably local] workers to make repairs to existing drilling equipment and infrastructure that is old and damaged.”17 The article refers to “leaking pipes and leaking valves” belonging to Exxon in Baton Rouge, “the second largest refinery in the country.”18
The subject invokes a deeply controversial paradox between the importance of industry in the state and the hazardous capacity of that industry to become a liability. Columnist Jonathan Henderson attended the 21st annual Conference of the Parties (Cop-21) in Paris. Upon attending these climate talks, Henderson gets to the heart of the contradiction: “I can no longer in good conscience claim to be an advocate for solving our coastal crisis if it means turning a blind eye to one of the root causes of that crisis: oil extraction.”19 Readers will recall the infamous British Petroleum oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico during 2010. Gina Swanson, in an article concerning the storm-worn Plaquemines peninsula, also refers to Betsy, Camille, Audrey, and Ike, which are other famous hurricanes to make landfall in this area, which, as stated, already suffers from decades of profound and irreparable coastal erosion.20 The combined effects of natural and man-made destruction can easily overwhelming the mitigating efforts of even the most able-minded and well-intentioned advocate.
Not all bayou-generated industries so readily embody such negative potential. Perhaps the most fascinating of them all, if not the most profitable, are the many artists and authors who have been inspired by the bayous, and whose work inspires so many others to come from miles around just to experience the hypnotic and seductive power of Louisiana bayous for themselves. Among these are Edwin Adams Davis, author of The Rivers and Bayous of Louisiana, Peter S. Feibleman, a contributor to the Time-Life Books series in the 1970s, and Harnett T. Kane, who published The Bayous of Louisiana in 1943. What follows are a few brief excerpts from their works, which are great testaments to the historical significance of the bayous in the economic and cultural development of Louisiana.
As early as the War of 1812, the significance of the bayou as a matter of national self-defense became self-evident. Of the period, Kane wrote
“The bayous of Louisiana almost brought about the undoing of the American forces...Although [General Andrew] Jackson plugged up several of these waterways above [New Orleans], to prevent the British from entering...the enemy enlisted the aid of Spanish fishermen of the Marshes, who led them to a point a within a few miles of the capital. But the defending forces, including the [Baratarian] pirates did the impossible and won.”21
Although they presented a challenging liability in war, the bayous proved immensely profitable In peace. According to Kane, around the 1870's, “Lee Yim, merchant of Canton, came to Louisiana. He saw a great volume of seafood...” and was inspired.22 By the 1940's, he says “shrimp villages spread about the ends of the eastern Gulf...” where settled “Chinese, Filipinos, Malays, Spaniards, an occasional Mexican or part Mexican, part Indians...” Kane boasts that during that period in the early 1940's, “...nearly three quarters of the nation's shrimp catch comes from New Orleans.”23 Additionally, Kane tells of the Avery Family, who “brought back pepper seeds from the state of Tabasco after the Mexican War, and the descendants of the saucies of this period began producing Tabasco sauce after the Civil War.”24 One more fascinating detail from Kane's authoritative work will suffice. This one concerns the Bayou Teche region, named after the Attakapa (Tack-a-paw) Indians who were the “...subject of gruesome rumors. The name in the red man's tongue means man-eater.”25 [sic]
Perhaps the bayous presented their own unique sets of dangers and perils, but they too are vulnerable. Feibleman, describing certain hazards to the bayou, mentions “hyacinth resistant to flame-throwers and arsenic and dynamite.”26 Such virility in vegetation is rivaled by “Bell-bottomed bald cypress, Lob-lollies, Pollen rich pine cones, mullein plant, Dogwood flower, Wild Azalea, [and] Blackberry blossoms...”27 This luxurious fecundity gives aid and comfort to a wildly diverse habitat, home to the “red-eared turtle, tiger beetle, coach-whip snakes, cotton mice, copperheads and rat-snakes, pelicans, heron, crawfish, mink, gators [and] egrets...”28 Among these forceful expressions of life, the author finds that “nowhere else are there so many live oaks, and nowhere else do these trees grow to such size. Some have trunks nearly twenty feet in girth.”29
Historian Edwin Davis joins this lively panorama to the emerging culture of its earliest tenants:
To the Indians, these rivers and bayous offered sites for villages and places to fish and were roads of easy travel. To the Spanish explorers they were a hindrance to movement, hazards to be crossed. To French pioneers, they offered locations for settlement and were highways for courers du bois, trappers, Indian traders, and voyagers of commerce. To British and Americans they were international boundaries and were barriers to be forded or ferried or bridged in the development of timber land and other natural resources. Throughout the years they were determining factors in international diplomacy and played major roles in the rise of economic empires.30
Davis notes, however, that while many observed beauty and glory glinting off these bubbling streams, others perceived terror and degradation. He quotes Francis Trollope describing the mouth of the Mississippi: “Had Dante seen it, he might have drawn images of another Bulgia from its horrors.”31 Similarly, he observes of British Naval captain Fredrick Marryat, that he called the Mississippi “turbulent and bloodstained” and “the great common sewer of western America.”32 In the same work, speaking of the Ouachita river system in the 19th century, John D. Winters writes “in the early days of steam boating, on the inland waters the arrival of a boat was an occasion of enjoyment and celebration,” signaled by “long, repeated blasts from the powerful boat whistle, sometimes accompanied by the firing of a canon... People gathered to buy newspapers and magazines, to eat fresh oysters in season, and to enjoy fine liquors and wines provided by the bartender...” and that these festivities were often “enlivened by dances and frequent fights.”33
Such virility has become a manifestly identifiable aspect of the culture these waters incubate. Kane, writing during the first half of the twentieth century, claims that “The Louisianian consumes his raw oysters in quantity; the man who calls a halt at half a dozen or a dozen is a weak-gilled Yankee or some other foreigner.” It is the kind of assertion as likely to elicit nods and often shouts of approval from most audiences familiar with the region, but pass unnoticed right over the heads of audiences, weak-gilled, or Yankee... It is a demonstration of the capacity of a geographical region to shape even the conception of self.
The Bayous are inspiration in motion. They are celebrated in art, music, and poetry. Consider this excerpt from a poem entitled “Bayou Night”.
There is no night like a bayou night,
the air pregnant with expectancy and
mystery, mingling scents of wisteria,
trumpet honeysuckle and gumbo mud -
a Dark ages alchemist seeking an elusive
golden fragrance. It's a night dark despite
the nearly full moon, a night in which
fireflies pulsate as so many flickering
neon bulbs and the cacophony of insects
reaches toward an unattainable crescendo.34
Southern Rock super-group Creedence Clearwater Revival released “Born on the Bayou” in 1969, capitalizing on America's latent fascination with the old south, and heralding an entire decade of southern-tribute rock influence promoting (and often romanticizing) the cultural imagery and symbolism which accompanies the region's history.
Occasionally, reality intervenes, however, and the industries which upon the bayou thrive are often themselves the major hazard. An article from the Associated Press detailed the clean-up efforts in response to “11,500 gallons of oil that over flowed from a tank being filled in south Louisiana.” The spill occurred in the vicinity of Bayou Teche, and the article reports that at that time “Investigators [didn't] know how much oil got into the water.”35
Recent flooding across the state, widely attributed to an increase in storm intensity related to global warming, has brought hard times to residents along the bayous in both Louisiana and Texas. The US Geological Survey summarized the events as follows: “Triggered by a slow-moving low-pressure system that dumped between 10 and 26 inches of rain across the state the week of March 7, the floods prompted a statewide federal disaster declaration. News media reported that the flooding caused four deaths, and Louisiana emergency managers said floodwaters damaged more than 11,000 homes...”36
But when disaster strikes, residents of the bayou rally their efforts to recover and restore their communities as well as the environment that sustains them. Liam Ottem of Phys.org details the efforts of a man named John Hoal to save the Delta of the Mississippi river from the massive loss of sediment suffered when, in January of 2016, “...as record floodwaters roared down the mid-Mississippi River Valley, hundreds gathered on the shores of Lake Ponchartrain to witness the opening of the Bonnet Carre Spillway,” as a result of which, the author explains, “Millions of tons of rich river sediment- the delta's basic building block, which might have been used to staunch coastal erosion-instead washed out to sea.”37 Hoal says that “over the last 7,000 years, the river has shifted course six times- a natural process that built the delta as we know it, but which complicates the process of maintaining a navigable channel.”38 These scientists are just a small part of a much greater bayou-sustaining effort.
Among these friends of the earth, there are others who look to consolidating their presence and unifying their voices in order to leverage political influence as a bayou-sustaining method. One reporter describes the outcome of the Surround the Superdome event: “Gulf Coast residents and activists from around the country came together yesterday to stand strong against the Fossil Fuel Empires who submitted bids to drill on 43 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico”39 Sadly, their efforts were insufficient on that day: “The sale ended up leasing 693,932 acres for $156 million.” Marissa Knodel informs her readers that two more such sales are scheduled for the year, and that “this rally would not be the last.”40
Surviving, let alone taming, these wild, watery inlets, engendered, (and indeed required!) a certain heartiness, a taste for adventure and a capacity for innovation which left many visitors breathless and many would-be settlers bankrupt. For those with the gumption to master the snakes and the mosquitoes and the heat, the bayous opened up worlds of possibility in navigation and trade. For others, they were shrouded in mysticism and intrigue, containing unseen horizons of fantasy and fear and wonder. But to all, they were a driving force for prosperity and a boon to wealth. They were to the state a vast, natural circulatory system for commerce in transit. The bayous invited movement and rewarded it, but they could just as easily punish inertia and stagnation. To Louisiana citizens in modern times, they are just as critical as they have ever been to those who came before, but even still, they are fragile and require the attendance of mature and competent interests to avert their annihilation.
Image Source: http://www.assumptionla.com/files/images/attakapas2.jpg
1 National Geographic Education, Bayou, nationalgeographic.org http://education.nationalgeographic.org/enyclopedia/bayou/ (accessed 4 February, 2016).
2 Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheres, Scenic Rivers, www.wlf.louisiana.gov/scenic-rivers (accessed 2 February, 2016).
3 Gary D. Joiner, The Red River Campaign: March 10-May 22, 1864,www.civilwar.org/battlefields/mansfield/mansfield-history-articles/redriverjoiner.html (accessed 2 February 2016).
4 Kelby Ouchley, Bayou Diversity, http://bayou-diversity.com/ (accessed 2 February, 2016).
5 Ibid.
6 Ibid.
7 Ibid.
8 Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, Scenic Rivers, www.wlf.louisiana.gov/scenic-rivers (accessed 2 February, 2016).
9 Ibid.
10 Gray Line, Swamp and Bayou Tour, www.grelineneworleans.com/all/tours/swamp-and-bayou-tour (accessed 4, February, 2016).
11 Ibid.
12 Ibid. Other such tour companies include “Cajun Country Swamp Tours, LLC,” which is “near Lafayette,” and operated by Butch Guchereau; “Louisiana Tour Company” which claims to be 24 years old; “Cajun Pride Swamp Tours;” and “Jean Lafitte Swamp Tours.”
13 Destination360, Bayou, http://www.destination360.com/north-america/us/louisiana/bayou (accessed 2 February, 2016).
14 Jeffrey Buchanan, Rebuilding Bayous? That's a no brainer,” Oxfam America, 24 April 2014. politicsofpoverty.oxfamamerica.org/2014/04/rebuilding-bayous-no-brainer-coastal-restoration/ (accessed 4 Frbruary, 2016).
15 Ibid.
16 Ibid.
17 Kelsey Davis, Louisiana environmental groups protest against new drilling leases in Gulf of Mexico, WDSU NEWS, 3 February 2016. http://www.wdsu.com/news/local-news/new-orleans/louisiana-environmental-groups-to-protest-against-new-drilling-leases-in-gulf-of-mexico/37797896 (accessed 4 February, 2016).
18 Ibid.
19 Jonathan Henderson, Yes, fighting climate change means Louisiana oil workers will lose jobs,” The Lens, 3 February, 2016.
20 Gina Swanson, Plaquimines Parish community bands together despite erosion, storm after storm,” WDSU News, 26 August, 2015. http://www.wdsu.com/katrina-10-years-forward/plaquemines-parish-community-bands-together-despite-erosion-storm-after-storm/34929682 (accessed 4 February, 2016).
21 Harnett T. Kane, The Bayous of Louisiana, New York: William Morrow Company, 1943. 53.
22 Kane, The Bayous of Louisiana, 90-92.
23 Ibid.
24 Kane, The Bayous of Louisiana, 126.
25 Kane, The Bayous of Louisiana, 231.
26 Peter S. Feibleman, The Bayous, Time-Life American Wilderness Series, New York: Time-Life Books, 1973. 28.
27 Feibleman, The Bayous, 58-61.
28 Ibid.
29 Feibleman, The Bayous, 30.
30 Edwin Adams Davis, ed. The Rivers and Bayous of Louisiana, Baton Rouge: Louisiana Education and Research Association, 1968. vii.
31 Davis, E., The Rivers and Bayous of Louisiana, viii.
32 Ibid.
33 John D. Winters, The Ouachita-Black, from The Rivers and Bayous of Louisiana, ed. Edwin Adams Davis, Baton Rouge: Louisiana Education and Research Association, 1968. 26.
34 Warren Gosset, Bayou Night, HellPoetry, 18 December, 2011. http://hellopoetry.com/words/69884/bayou/poems/ (accessed 3 March 2016).
35 Coast Guard: Contractor Cleans up after 11k-gallon bayou oil sill, Associated Press, courtesy of the Chicago Tribune, 29 March, 2016. http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/ct-louisiana-bayou-oil-spill-20160328-story.html (accessed 4 April, 2016).
36 U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey, USGS Tracks Louisiana Floods to Help Guide Emergency Relief, 24 March, 2016. http://www.usgs.gov/newsroom/article.asp?ID=4487#.VwH4EPkrLGI (accessed 4 April, 2016).
37 Liam Otten, A Radical Plan to Save the Delta, Phys.org, 1 April, 2016. http://phys.org/news/2016-04-radical-delta.html (accessed 4 April, 2016).
38 Ibid.
39 Marissa Knodel, Rally Tally: Hundreds surround the Superdome to demand no gulf drilling,Friends of the Earth, 24 March, 2015. http://www.foe.org/news/archives/2016-03-rally-tally-hundreds-surround-the-superdome-to-deman (accessed 4 April 2016).
40 Ibid.