VOA – CONNECT
EPISODE 97
AIR DATE 11 22 2019
FULL TRANSCRIPT
OPEN ((VO/NAT))
((Banner))
Life in the Bayou
((SOT))
((Dr. Quenton Fontenot, Head of Biological Sciences,
Nicholls State University))
Look at that, ha ha, look at that one. We have a rich
diversity out here. If you take a ride on a bayou, you almost
always are going to see something.
((Animation Transition))
((Banner))
Creatures in the Lakes
((SOT))
((Scott Miehls, Fish Biologist))
The sea lamprey are called the vampire of the Great Lakes
because they attach and drink the blood of our native fish
species here.
((Animation Transition))
((Banner))
Ghosts in the Bay
((SOT))
((Joel Dunn, President, Chesapeake Conservancy))
You can see just one ship after another, next to each other,
creating this intricate array of reefs in this river and in this
bay.
((Open Animation))
BLOCK A
((PKG)) CAJUN CLIMATE
((Banner: Cajun Life))
((Reporter/Camera: Jeff Swicord))
((Producer: Jacquelyn De Phillips))
((Map: Thibodaux, Louisiana; Port Fourchon, Louisiana))
((NATS, MUSIC))
((Dr. Quenton Fontenot, Head of Biological Sciences,
Nicholls State University))
My dad is from Ville Platte, Louisiana which is a small Cajun
town in the central part of the state and my mom is from New
Orleans. So, some of my friends call me a Cajun hybrid.
((NATS: Fisherman))
Catching a few?
((Dr. Quenton Fontenot, Head of Biological Sciences,
Nicholls State University))
The French, they came down from Nova Scotia from Acadie
(Arcadia) and the English are notorious in history for kicking
the French out of Acadia. The majority of them settled in
south Louisiana and so that’s where the origins of the Cajun
people came from.
((NATS, MUSIC))
((Dr. Quenton Fontenot, Head of Biological Sciences,
Nicholls State University))
Caught catfish by this before. So much of what we’d like to
do in Louisiana is to go out into the Swamps, the marshes
and either fish or hunt or bird watch.
((NATS, MUSIC))
((Dr. Quenton Fontenot, Head of Biological Sciences,
Nicholls State University))
My dad was a fisheries biologist for the state. When I found
out I could get a degree in fisheries, well that's what I want to
do.
((NATS, MUSIC))
((Dr. Quenton Fontenot, Head of Biological Sciences,
Nicholls State University))
So for about the last eight years, I've been the head of the
Department of Biological Sciences here at Nicholls State.
Very fortunate to have that job.
((NATS, MUSIC))
((Dr. Quenton Fontenot, Head of Biological Sciences,
Nicholls State University))
Look at that, haha. Look at that. A little yellow bass.
So again, these little cuts here aren’t too bad of a place to
fish.
((Dr. Quenton Fontenot, Head of Biological Sciences,
Nicholls State University))
We have a rich diversity out here. If you take a ride on a
bayou, you almost always are going to see something.
Whether it's a fish jumping, a fish splashing or a bird, you
know, an alligator or a turtle. There's so much life down
here.
((NATS))
((Dr. Quenton Fontenot, Head of Biological Sciences,
Nicholls State University))
We do see the effects of climate change. The land is not as
elevated today as it was several years ago. So, we have
almost like a double whammy. We're losing elevation of our
land and the sea level is rising. And so those two factors
together are really accelerating coastal land loss in
Louisiana.
((NATS))
((Dr. Quenton Fontenot, Head of Biological Sciences,
Nicholls State University))
Land loss will affect Cajun culture, we know that.
((NATS: People gathering on the grass at event))
((Dr. Quenton Fontenot, Head of Biological Sciences,
Nicholls State University))
Cajun men cook. And what's funny is every man down here
who's a cook, he will tell you that he learned from his
mother. You know so, the Cajun women around here can
cook too. The origins, of course, it was the French settlers
that came here first, and so a lot of French style Cajun is
very rustic. We grow a lot of rice in Louisiana, so rice is a
big mainstay. You know, we always think about having the
meat. I get just as excited about the vegetables that we
cook. I use canned corn because I don’t grow my own
corn.
((NATS, MUSIC))
((Dr. Quenton Fontenot, Head of Biological Sciences,
Nicholls State University))
Alright, watch this. It's called a corn maque choux. And
usually the way we do it is we smother down corn with
onions and peppers and garlic and stuff and some kind of a
smoked meat whether smoke sausage or smoked tasso.
I was so fortunate. Our family, we've had some camps and
the purpose to go to the camp is to go hunting, to go fishing
or just to go cook and relax with friends. We sit around, we
cook on these types of stoves. Everybody I know, they have
a stove like this. It’s just a propane stove, two burners.
((NATS: Man))
It’s kind of like background music. It’s nothing…..
((Dr. Quenton Fontenot, Head of Biological Sciences,
Nicholls State University))
A lot of the meals take a long time to cook. So, it's not like
there's one person in the kitchen cooking while everybody
sits in the living room. It’s everybody is in the kitchen. And
so, while we’re cooking, we’re in the kitchen stirring the pot.
We’re also socializing. We’re talking to each other.
((NATS))
((Dr. Quenton Fontenot, Head of Biological Sciences,
Nicholls State University))
So, things are a little hectic when we first start cooking, when
you browning and doing the onions. It's kind of hard to keep
in control of everything. But, once you get everything back
in the pot and it's all set, we've got a special setting on our
stove and it's called drink. And so, you get your stove set,
everything in the pot, you turn it down nice and low and go
sit down, fix a drink and relax. And so, we'll be there soon
enough. And we'll play some music then.
((NATS, MUSIC))
((Dr. Quenton Fontenot, Head of Biological Sciences,
Nicholls State University))
The traditional Cajun music is what our Cajun ancestors
played starting back in the 1700s, 1800s. The fiddle and the
guitar came about and they would play in dance halls. They
would play at each other's house. You know, there was no
Internet, no TV. And so, what do you do? You sit around
and play music and have a dance on Saturday nights.
((NATS, MUSIC))
((Dr. Quenton Fontenot, Head of Biological Sciences,
Nicholls State University))
Traditional Cajun music is almost always sung in French.
Almost every song, the lyrics are about someone's girl
leaving him or someone dying or he's in prison, he misses
his mama or he's drinking too much or he's hung over.
That’s what the songs are about.
((NATS, MUSIC))
((Dr. Quenton Fontenot, Head of Biological Sciences,
Nicholls State University))
You can find Cajun music out there. But in the region where
we live, we saw a decline in the music. So, we formed the
Cajun Music Preservation Society, me and a few friends.
((NATS, MUSIC))
((Dr. Quenton Fontenot, Head of Biological Sciences,
Nicholls State University))
We host open Cajun jams so people can learn the music.
The young people can learn the old songs and the
community has embraced us tremendously.
((NATS, MUSIC))
((Locator: Port Fourchon, Louisiana))
((Dr. Quenton Fontenot, Head of Biological Sciences,
Nicholls State University))
When I see water come up like that because of a very small
storm that’s very far away in the Gulf of Mexico, it makes me
nervous. Fifteen years ago, that storm would not have put
that much water in the parking lot at the boat ramps.
((NATS: Quinton))
Alright you guys are going to fill a bucket, right?
((Dr. Quenton Fontenot, Head of Biological Sciences,
Nicholls State University))
One of the things that we do with our graduate program is
small scale restoration work. We bring our students to the
coast every fall and we collect the mangrove seeds.
((NATS: Quinton))
So, we can get them here anyway. I think you can go
around. I think you can access them that way. This one is
pretty good.
((Dr. Quenton Fontenot, Head of Biological Sciences,
Nicholls State University))
And we bring those seeds back to campus and we grow
them out for a year. And then, we bring those out the
following year. And we plant those and we collect some
more seeds.
((NATS))
((Dr. Quenton Fontenot, Head of Biological Sciences,
Nicholls State University))
Yeah, so these are some mangroves that we planted last
year, in these little, we call them these deepots. So, we can
bring out these mangroves, straight out here and that’s fifty
plants in there. Bring that out to the beach or the barrier
island or wherever we want to plant them and pop them out,
stick them in the ground. They grow out real easy.
((NATS))
((Dr. Quenton Fontenot, Head of Biological Sciences,
Nicholls State University))
It’s scary when we look at the land loss projection maps
going up for the next 50 years. They always do a scenario
of no actions taken. But if we do some types of restoration,
we won't lose as much land.
((NATS))
((Dr. Quenton Fontenot, Head of Biological Sciences,
Nicholls State University))
So much of Cajun culture in the bayou region is the
livelihood. Our shrimpers, our crabbers, our oystermen,
they're the ones who are going to be impacted by the coastal
changes. Some people say that, well, we've lost almost
everything there is to lose. I disagree. I think that there's a
lot left to lose for us and we need to stay strong and we need
to continue to use the best engineering that we can to
rebuild and restore our coastal wetlands.
((NATS))
TEASE ((VO/NAT))
Coming up…..
((Banner))
Maine Lobsterman
((SOT))
((Tom Martin, Lobsterman))
So these traps are coming up from about 50 feet deep and
these are going to be some of our metal-wired traps.
BREAK ONE
BUMP IN ((ANIM))
BLOCK B
((PKG)) SEA LAMPREY
((Banner: Saving the Fish))
((Reporter/Camera: Ailin Li))
((Map: Millersburg, Michigan))
((NATS, MUSIC))
((Scott Miehls, Fish Biologist, USGS))
The most obvious feature of the sea lamprey is the suction
cup shaped mouth. We call it the oral disc. It's just a
perfectly round mouth. The sea lamprey mouth is
completely lined and ringed with teeth, has about 150 teeth
inside that mouth and that allows them to really latch on and
hold onto a prey fish.
((NATS))
((Scott Miehls, Fish Biologist, USGS))
My name is Scott Miehls. I'm a fish biologist with the U.S.
Geological Survey stationed here at the Hammond Bay
Biological Station in northern Michigan.
((NATS))
((Scott Miehls, Fish Biologist, USGS))
The sea lamprey is an ancient jawless fish. It's a very
snake-like fish. A lot of people confuse them with eels
because they do look very eel-like but they're a completely
different family. The sea lamprey are called the vampire of
the Great Lakes because they attach and drink the blood of
our native fish species here. They use their suction cup-
mouth to attach onto the side of the fish. They're able to
create a suction force about seven times greater than your
average household vacuum cleaner. And then they can also
rasp into the side of the fish with the teeth that line that
suction cup mouth. They'll stay attached to the prey fish as
long as that prey fish is healthy. They end up ultimately
draining so much blood and juice from the fish that they kill
it. A single sea lamprey will kill about 40 pounds [18 kg] of
fish prey in its lifetime which occurs in about an 18-month
period. In Lake Huron behind us, there are anywhere from
80,000 to 150,000 parasitic sea lamprey swimming around
right now.
((NATS))
((Scott Miehls, Fish Biologist, USGS))
Probably the sea lamprey is one of, if not the most,
devastating species to have invaded the Great Lakes. The
sea lamprey actually swam or hitched a ride into the Great
Lakes through the canal system. So, as the canal systems
were being built to connect the Great Lakes to the East
Coast to the Atlantic Ocean, from there, it only took a
decade or two to really completely infest all five of the Great
Lakes and wipe out the native fish populations.
((NATS))
((Scott Miehls, Fish Biologist, USGS))
Specifically, one of the research projects that we have
underway is trying to develop a tool where we can
selectively pass fish. So, right now, we're actually using one
of the Whooshh Innovations’ scanning devices and we're
traveling around to various locations around the Great
Lakes, working with state management agencies, collecting
the fish and collecting images of those fish. Those images
are then going to be used to develop an algorithm. We're
developing fish recognition technology I guess you could
say.
((NATS))
((Nick Johnson, Research Ecologist, USGS))
Sea Lamprey control has two primary methods. The first is
to use barriers and dams to keep adult sea lamprey from
reaching spawning habitat. Where larvae are produced,
there's a lampricide which is a compound that specifically
kills larval sea lamprey that's applied and removes larval sea
lamprey from the streams before they metamorphose and go
out into the lakes and kill fish.
((NATS))
((Ed Benzer, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service))
So, here we're sorting according to the male and female.
So, the females, the way we can tell is, of course, they're full
of eggs, from 60,000 to 80,000 eggs in there. And then the
male is a tighter belly and a dorsal rope on the top.?There's
a good example of one right there.
((NATS))
((Nick Johnson, Research Ecologist, USGS))
The work we're researching is whether or not we can reduce
reproduction. So, the males come in from the trap sites and
we make sure that all the males are sorted from the females.
So, we're only injecting males. They then get transported
inside the facility where they're injected with a chemo
sterilant. We just kill the female and we release the sterile
males. The reason we fin-clip the animals is so we can tell
they are sterile. If we catch a lamprey in a trap and it has
fin-clips, then we release it because it's on our side.
((NATS))
((Researcher))
So, this is the top fin here. This is the tail fin.
((NATS))
((Nick Johnson, Research Ecologist, USGS))
These animals are our secret agents or double agents.
They don't know they're sterile. And when we release them,
they go out and find the females in these huge river systems.
It would be extremely hard for people to go out and find
these animals, but these males are doing all the hard work
for us and they don't even know it, and they don't need to
know it. It's a very humane way for them to finish their life, in
some ways.
((NATS))
((Andrea Miehls, Communications Associate, USGS))
There we go. All right. That's a bigger one. Oh, it's so
slippery. When sea lamprey first invaded the Great Lakes,
many people suggested, "Have you considered actually
fishing for sea lamprey? Maybe people would be willing to
eat them." But unfortunately, that method failed for multiple
reasons. People in the Great Lakes region simply didn't
have the palate for sea lamprey. Now interestingly, sea
lamprey are considered a delicacy in other parts of the
world. Spain and Portugal, you could find sea lamprey on a
menu as the high dollar market price item. So many people
ask, "Will a sea lamprey attack me while I'm out swimming in
the Great Lakes or in one of the streams?" And the answer,
thankfully, is no. Sea lamprey can tell the difference
between warm and cold-blooded organisms. We are warm-
blooded and the fish that sea lamprey feed on are cold-
blooded. Most sea lamprey would swim very quickly away if
they came near a human. The fishing economy is very
valuable to the Great Lakes region. It's the part of our way
of life within the Great Lakes and that way of life, the Great
Lakes as we know them, would not be as they are today had
it not been for sea lamprey control.
((NATS))
((PKG)) MAINE LOBSTERMAN
((Banner: Saving the Lobsters))
((Reporter: Julia Taboh))
((Camera: Adam Greenbaum))
((Adapted by: Martin Secrest))
((Map: Portland, Maine))
((NATS: waterfront))
((Popup Banner: Lobsters have been fished since the
1800s in Maine, the leading US lobster state))
((Tom Martin, Lobsterman))
Well, I started lobstering as a summer job as a kid when I
was 14 and then lobstered every summer until I went to
college for about a year and then dropped out and started
lobstering year round. So, I've been lobstering for 35 years
in total.
((NATS: boat))
((Tom Martin, Lobsterman))
Alright, so that is a beauty.
((NATS: boat))
((Tom Martin, Lobsterman))
So, every lobster has to be at least three and a quarter
inches [8.2cm] to keep it across his back. So, what we do is
we hook this right behind the lobster’s eye, back corner of
his eye socket and then we watch carefully to see where this
point touches. If that lands on the lobster’s back, he’s big
enough. If it touches beneath the back, he's too short. You
can see that one easily touches on the back. This one we
can keep.
Every time we get a ‘keeper’ lobster, we have to check the
sex. So, on the females, we're always looking for eggs. And
when a female is carrying her eggs, the entire bottom of her
tail will be covered with thousands and thousands of little
black dots. So, if we catch one of those inside the trap,
we're going to set her free. But before we do, we're going to
mark her as a breeding female. So, what the lobsterman
does is we take something sharp and we leave a scar on the
second tail flipper from the right. We actually mark it with a
scar, so that scar indicates that she's a breeding female. So,
even after she's thrown back and the eggs are released into
the sea, we're always checking the sex and we're always
checking females for a mark. If the female has a mark, she
gets thrown back for the rest of her life. The Maine
fishermen thought this law up and had it passed in the 1930s
to protect the breeding females. And it's not a perfect
system because it is possible for a female to carry eggs but
never happen to walk in a trap and get the mark. But we're
saving the majority and certainly enough to keep our lobster
population very healthy in the state of Maine.
((NATS: boat))
((Tom Martin, Lobsterman))
Let’s go through the measuring process. A little bit too short.
((NATS: boat))
((Tom Martin, Lobsterman))
So, you can imagine that once we mark a female, she's
going to get thrown back from the trap, year after year after
year. So eventually, we have a lot of very large breeding
females in our population. Those large females need a
similar sized male to mate with. So, we also need to protect
some big males to mate with the big females. So, we've
already used the short side of the measure of three-and-a-
quarter inches [8.2cm], but the back of the measure is five
inches [12.7cm] and that's a maximum size limit.
In the state of Maine, you can't keep a lobster that's over five
inches on the carapace. To that guarantees that we
preserve some big males to keep mating with the big
females that we've saved by notching their tails. But this is
one of the primary reasons why our lobster population in the
state of Maine is still so high. We're doing such a good job
to conserve the breeding females.
((NATS: boat))
((Tom Martin, Lobsterman))
I really enjoy doing it. It's a lot of hard work, but I think the
reward can be there and every year is different. I mean,
some years you catch a lot of lobsters, some years you
don't. So, you can never really rely on the income entirely,
but you just work as hard as you can and then let the chips
fall where they may.
((NATS: boat))
TEASE ((VO/NAT))
Coming up…..
((Banner))
Ghost Fleet
((SOT))
((Susan Langley, Underwater Archaeologist))
We noticed a lot of them are like floating flower pots.
They're full of vegetation and it's tremendous for the
environment. They're actually cleaning the water. They're
providing habitat.
BREAK TWO
BUMP IN ((ANIM))
BLOCK C
((PKG)) GHOST FLEET
((Banner: Ghost Fleet))
((Reporter/Camera: Deborah Block))
((Adapted by: Philip Alexiou))
((Map: Nanjemoy, Maryland))
((NATS))
((Popup Banner: A watery grave of old sunken ships has
been designated the newest national marine sanctuary in the
United States))
((Joel Dunn, President, Chesapeake Conservancy))
So, we're at Mallows Bay which was just recently designated
as a national marine sanctuary. And what's special about
this place is that it contains over 200 ships that were sunk
here. And one reason they focused on this place is because
it's the largest collection of shipwrecks in the Western
Hemisphere. And 100 of those ships is known as the ghost
fleet.
((Courtesy: National Archives))
((Joel Dunn, President, Chesapeake Conservancy))
In World War 1, there was a big effort by the United States to
build a fleet of ships that would help them win the war.
((Courtesy: National Archives))
((Joel Dunn, President, Chesapeake Conservancy))
So, at 40 ports around the country, they built these wooden
steamships which were the technology of the day.
Unfortunately, those boats were all finished after the war
was completed.
((NATS))
((Popup Banner: In 1925, these surplus ships were
brought here and intentionally sunk))
((Courtesy: Kurt Schwoppe))
((Joel Dunn, President, Chesapeake Conservancy))
Now if you look at an aerial photograph of this area, you can
see just one ship after another, next to each other, creating
this intricate array of reefs in this river and in this bay.
You can see this ship in front of us. It's the only metal ship
here. But that's an old ferry and that used to ferry people
from the eastern shore of Virginia across to Norfolk. And
this is a tidally influenced river and bay. So, as the tide goes
out, the ships come up,
((Courtesy: Duke University Marine Lab))
and it's a great experience to kayak around these ships
to see the wildlife, to learn about the history and get some
exercise.
((NATS))
((Joel Dunn, President, Chesapeake Conservancy))
What you're looking at in front of us is the hull of an old ship,
one of these steam ships, and that piece of
((Courtesy: Duke University Marine Lab))
stone sticking out there was originally in the bottom or the
hull of the ship and it was balancing the ship.
((NATS)
((Susan Langley, Underwater Archaeologist))
We noticed a lot of them are like floating flower pots.
They're full of vegetation and
((Courtesy: Kurt Schwoppe))
it's tremendous for the environment. They're actually
cleaning the water. They're providing habitat. They're
actually helping with climate change.
((NATS))
((Courtesy: Duke University Marine Lab))
((Joel Dunn, President, Chesapeake Conservancy))
Because it's underwater, it doesn't receive as much
oxygen and so, the decay rate is a lot slower. It's also salt
water which further reduces the rate of decay.
((NATS)
((Susan Langley, Underwater Archaeologist))
We have nothing from World War 1. I mean really nothing
left and that's why this is so important. It's the largest
collection of World War 1 vessels
((Courtesy: Duke University Marine Lab))
and the fact that they were built for one purpose. They
never told the poor guys who were going to serve on it that
they expected a lot of them to be expendable. They were
just figured if they built a thousand of them and 600 made it
across, then they could get bundles to our allies.
((Courtesy: Duke University Marine Lab))
((Susan Langley, Underwater Archaeologist))
They didn't tell these guys, which I think they all know when
they sign up, that by the way, you are government property
and you are expendable. But, you know, when you think
about it that way, that's why these ships were built so quickly
and so cheaply, is that they largely looked at, if we build
enough of them, the U-Boats won't get them all.
((NATS))
((Courtesy: Kurt Schwoppe))
((Susan Langley, Underwater Archaeologist))
So, it's so scary in that regard. But it's, this is the only place
you can see the size of these vessels and the size of the
collection and the fact that they are a cross-section of a
different number of designs, it is like one big museum.
((NATS))
((Courtesy: Kurt Schwoppe))
CLOSING ((ANIM))
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((NATS))
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BREAK
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((PKG)) FREE PRESS MATTERS
((NATS))
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SHOW ENDS
EPISODE 97
AIR DATE 11 22 2019
FULL TRANSCRIPT
OPEN ((VO/NAT))
((Banner))
Life in the Bayou
((SOT))
((Dr. Quenton Fontenot, Head of Biological Sciences,
Nicholls State University))
Look at that, ha ha, look at that one. We have a rich
diversity out here. If you take a ride on a bayou, you almost
always are going to see something.
((Animation Transition))
((Banner))
Creatures in the Lakes
((SOT))
((Scott Miehls, Fish Biologist))
The sea lamprey are called the vampire of the Great Lakes
because they attach and drink the blood of our native fish
species here.
((Animation Transition))
((Banner))
Ghosts in the Bay
((SOT))
((Joel Dunn, President, Chesapeake Conservancy))
You can see just one ship after another, next to each other,
creating this intricate array of reefs in this river and in this
bay.
((Open Animation))
BLOCK A
((PKG)) CAJUN CLIMATE
((Banner: Cajun Life))
((Reporter/Camera: Jeff Swicord))
((Producer: Jacquelyn De Phillips))
((Map: Thibodaux, Louisiana; Port Fourchon, Louisiana))
((NATS, MUSIC))
((Dr. Quenton Fontenot, Head of Biological Sciences,
Nicholls State University))
My dad is from Ville Platte, Louisiana which is a small Cajun
town in the central part of the state and my mom is from New
Orleans. So, some of my friends call me a Cajun hybrid.
((NATS: Fisherman))
Catching a few?
((Dr. Quenton Fontenot, Head of Biological Sciences,
Nicholls State University))
The French, they came down from Nova Scotia from Acadie
(Arcadia) and the English are notorious in history for kicking
the French out of Acadia. The majority of them settled in
south Louisiana and so that’s where the origins of the Cajun
people came from.
((NATS, MUSIC))
((Dr. Quenton Fontenot, Head of Biological Sciences,
Nicholls State University))
Caught catfish by this before. So much of what we’d like to
do in Louisiana is to go out into the Swamps, the marshes
and either fish or hunt or bird watch.
((NATS, MUSIC))
((Dr. Quenton Fontenot, Head of Biological Sciences,
Nicholls State University))
My dad was a fisheries biologist for the state. When I found
out I could get a degree in fisheries, well that's what I want to
do.
((NATS, MUSIC))
((Dr. Quenton Fontenot, Head of Biological Sciences,
Nicholls State University))
So for about the last eight years, I've been the head of the
Department of Biological Sciences here at Nicholls State.
Very fortunate to have that job.
((NATS, MUSIC))
((Dr. Quenton Fontenot, Head of Biological Sciences,
Nicholls State University))
Look at that, haha. Look at that. A little yellow bass.
So again, these little cuts here aren’t too bad of a place to
fish.
((Dr. Quenton Fontenot, Head of Biological Sciences,
Nicholls State University))
We have a rich diversity out here. If you take a ride on a
bayou, you almost always are going to see something.
Whether it's a fish jumping, a fish splashing or a bird, you
know, an alligator or a turtle. There's so much life down
here.
((NATS))
((Dr. Quenton Fontenot, Head of Biological Sciences,
Nicholls State University))
We do see the effects of climate change. The land is not as
elevated today as it was several years ago. So, we have
almost like a double whammy. We're losing elevation of our
land and the sea level is rising. And so those two factors
together are really accelerating coastal land loss in
Louisiana.
((NATS))
((Dr. Quenton Fontenot, Head of Biological Sciences,
Nicholls State University))
Land loss will affect Cajun culture, we know that.
((NATS: People gathering on the grass at event))
((Dr. Quenton Fontenot, Head of Biological Sciences,
Nicholls State University))
Cajun men cook. And what's funny is every man down here
who's a cook, he will tell you that he learned from his
mother. You know so, the Cajun women around here can
cook too. The origins, of course, it was the French settlers
that came here first, and so a lot of French style Cajun is
very rustic. We grow a lot of rice in Louisiana, so rice is a
big mainstay. You know, we always think about having the
meat. I get just as excited about the vegetables that we
cook. I use canned corn because I don’t grow my own
corn.
((NATS, MUSIC))
((Dr. Quenton Fontenot, Head of Biological Sciences,
Nicholls State University))
Alright, watch this. It's called a corn maque choux. And
usually the way we do it is we smother down corn with
onions and peppers and garlic and stuff and some kind of a
smoked meat whether smoke sausage or smoked tasso.
I was so fortunate. Our family, we've had some camps and
the purpose to go to the camp is to go hunting, to go fishing
or just to go cook and relax with friends. We sit around, we
cook on these types of stoves. Everybody I know, they have
a stove like this. It’s just a propane stove, two burners.
((NATS: Man))
It’s kind of like background music. It’s nothing…..
((Dr. Quenton Fontenot, Head of Biological Sciences,
Nicholls State University))
A lot of the meals take a long time to cook. So, it's not like
there's one person in the kitchen cooking while everybody
sits in the living room. It’s everybody is in the kitchen. And
so, while we’re cooking, we’re in the kitchen stirring the pot.
We’re also socializing. We’re talking to each other.
((NATS))
((Dr. Quenton Fontenot, Head of Biological Sciences,
Nicholls State University))
So, things are a little hectic when we first start cooking, when
you browning and doing the onions. It's kind of hard to keep
in control of everything. But, once you get everything back
in the pot and it's all set, we've got a special setting on our
stove and it's called drink. And so, you get your stove set,
everything in the pot, you turn it down nice and low and go
sit down, fix a drink and relax. And so, we'll be there soon
enough. And we'll play some music then.
((NATS, MUSIC))
((Dr. Quenton Fontenot, Head of Biological Sciences,
Nicholls State University))
The traditional Cajun music is what our Cajun ancestors
played starting back in the 1700s, 1800s. The fiddle and the
guitar came about and they would play in dance halls. They
would play at each other's house. You know, there was no
Internet, no TV. And so, what do you do? You sit around
and play music and have a dance on Saturday nights.
((NATS, MUSIC))
((Dr. Quenton Fontenot, Head of Biological Sciences,
Nicholls State University))
Traditional Cajun music is almost always sung in French.
Almost every song, the lyrics are about someone's girl
leaving him or someone dying or he's in prison, he misses
his mama or he's drinking too much or he's hung over.
That’s what the songs are about.
((NATS, MUSIC))
((Dr. Quenton Fontenot, Head of Biological Sciences,
Nicholls State University))
You can find Cajun music out there. But in the region where
we live, we saw a decline in the music. So, we formed the
Cajun Music Preservation Society, me and a few friends.
((NATS, MUSIC))
((Dr. Quenton Fontenot, Head of Biological Sciences,
Nicholls State University))
We host open Cajun jams so people can learn the music.
The young people can learn the old songs and the
community has embraced us tremendously.
((NATS, MUSIC))
((Locator: Port Fourchon, Louisiana))
((Dr. Quenton Fontenot, Head of Biological Sciences,
Nicholls State University))
When I see water come up like that because of a very small
storm that’s very far away in the Gulf of Mexico, it makes me
nervous. Fifteen years ago, that storm would not have put
that much water in the parking lot at the boat ramps.
((NATS: Quinton))
Alright you guys are going to fill a bucket, right?
((Dr. Quenton Fontenot, Head of Biological Sciences,
Nicholls State University))
One of the things that we do with our graduate program is
small scale restoration work. We bring our students to the
coast every fall and we collect the mangrove seeds.
((NATS: Quinton))
So, we can get them here anyway. I think you can go
around. I think you can access them that way. This one is
pretty good.
((Dr. Quenton Fontenot, Head of Biological Sciences,
Nicholls State University))
And we bring those seeds back to campus and we grow
them out for a year. And then, we bring those out the
following year. And we plant those and we collect some
more seeds.
((NATS))
((Dr. Quenton Fontenot, Head of Biological Sciences,
Nicholls State University))
Yeah, so these are some mangroves that we planted last
year, in these little, we call them these deepots. So, we can
bring out these mangroves, straight out here and that’s fifty
plants in there. Bring that out to the beach or the barrier
island or wherever we want to plant them and pop them out,
stick them in the ground. They grow out real easy.
((NATS))
((Dr. Quenton Fontenot, Head of Biological Sciences,
Nicholls State University))
It’s scary when we look at the land loss projection maps
going up for the next 50 years. They always do a scenario
of no actions taken. But if we do some types of restoration,
we won't lose as much land.
((NATS))
((Dr. Quenton Fontenot, Head of Biological Sciences,
Nicholls State University))
So much of Cajun culture in the bayou region is the
livelihood. Our shrimpers, our crabbers, our oystermen,
they're the ones who are going to be impacted by the coastal
changes. Some people say that, well, we've lost almost
everything there is to lose. I disagree. I think that there's a
lot left to lose for us and we need to stay strong and we need
to continue to use the best engineering that we can to
rebuild and restore our coastal wetlands.
((NATS))
TEASE ((VO/NAT))
Coming up…..
((Banner))
Maine Lobsterman
((SOT))
((Tom Martin, Lobsterman))
So these traps are coming up from about 50 feet deep and
these are going to be some of our metal-wired traps.
BREAK ONE
BUMP IN ((ANIM))
BLOCK B
((PKG)) SEA LAMPREY
((Banner: Saving the Fish))
((Reporter/Camera: Ailin Li))
((Map: Millersburg, Michigan))
((NATS, MUSIC))
((Scott Miehls, Fish Biologist, USGS))
The most obvious feature of the sea lamprey is the suction
cup shaped mouth. We call it the oral disc. It's just a
perfectly round mouth. The sea lamprey mouth is
completely lined and ringed with teeth, has about 150 teeth
inside that mouth and that allows them to really latch on and
hold onto a prey fish.
((NATS))
((Scott Miehls, Fish Biologist, USGS))
My name is Scott Miehls. I'm a fish biologist with the U.S.
Geological Survey stationed here at the Hammond Bay
Biological Station in northern Michigan.
((NATS))
((Scott Miehls, Fish Biologist, USGS))
The sea lamprey is an ancient jawless fish. It's a very
snake-like fish. A lot of people confuse them with eels
because they do look very eel-like but they're a completely
different family. The sea lamprey are called the vampire of
the Great Lakes because they attach and drink the blood of
our native fish species here. They use their suction cup-
mouth to attach onto the side of the fish. They're able to
create a suction force about seven times greater than your
average household vacuum cleaner. And then they can also
rasp into the side of the fish with the teeth that line that
suction cup mouth. They'll stay attached to the prey fish as
long as that prey fish is healthy. They end up ultimately
draining so much blood and juice from the fish that they kill
it. A single sea lamprey will kill about 40 pounds [18 kg] of
fish prey in its lifetime which occurs in about an 18-month
period. In Lake Huron behind us, there are anywhere from
80,000 to 150,000 parasitic sea lamprey swimming around
right now.
((NATS))
((Scott Miehls, Fish Biologist, USGS))
Probably the sea lamprey is one of, if not the most,
devastating species to have invaded the Great Lakes. The
sea lamprey actually swam or hitched a ride into the Great
Lakes through the canal system. So, as the canal systems
were being built to connect the Great Lakes to the East
Coast to the Atlantic Ocean, from there, it only took a
decade or two to really completely infest all five of the Great
Lakes and wipe out the native fish populations.
((NATS))
((Scott Miehls, Fish Biologist, USGS))
Specifically, one of the research projects that we have
underway is trying to develop a tool where we can
selectively pass fish. So, right now, we're actually using one
of the Whooshh Innovations’ scanning devices and we're
traveling around to various locations around the Great
Lakes, working with state management agencies, collecting
the fish and collecting images of those fish. Those images
are then going to be used to develop an algorithm. We're
developing fish recognition technology I guess you could
say.
((NATS))
((Nick Johnson, Research Ecologist, USGS))
Sea Lamprey control has two primary methods. The first is
to use barriers and dams to keep adult sea lamprey from
reaching spawning habitat. Where larvae are produced,
there's a lampricide which is a compound that specifically
kills larval sea lamprey that's applied and removes larval sea
lamprey from the streams before they metamorphose and go
out into the lakes and kill fish.
((NATS))
((Ed Benzer, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service))
So, here we're sorting according to the male and female.
So, the females, the way we can tell is, of course, they're full
of eggs, from 60,000 to 80,000 eggs in there. And then the
male is a tighter belly and a dorsal rope on the top.?There's
a good example of one right there.
((NATS))
((Nick Johnson, Research Ecologist, USGS))
The work we're researching is whether or not we can reduce
reproduction. So, the males come in from the trap sites and
we make sure that all the males are sorted from the females.
So, we're only injecting males. They then get transported
inside the facility where they're injected with a chemo
sterilant. We just kill the female and we release the sterile
males. The reason we fin-clip the animals is so we can tell
they are sterile. If we catch a lamprey in a trap and it has
fin-clips, then we release it because it's on our side.
((NATS))
((Researcher))
So, this is the top fin here. This is the tail fin.
((NATS))
((Nick Johnson, Research Ecologist, USGS))
These animals are our secret agents or double agents.
They don't know they're sterile. And when we release them,
they go out and find the females in these huge river systems.
It would be extremely hard for people to go out and find
these animals, but these males are doing all the hard work
for us and they don't even know it, and they don't need to
know it. It's a very humane way for them to finish their life, in
some ways.
((NATS))
((Andrea Miehls, Communications Associate, USGS))
There we go. All right. That's a bigger one. Oh, it's so
slippery. When sea lamprey first invaded the Great Lakes,
many people suggested, "Have you considered actually
fishing for sea lamprey? Maybe people would be willing to
eat them." But unfortunately, that method failed for multiple
reasons. People in the Great Lakes region simply didn't
have the palate for sea lamprey. Now interestingly, sea
lamprey are considered a delicacy in other parts of the
world. Spain and Portugal, you could find sea lamprey on a
menu as the high dollar market price item. So many people
ask, "Will a sea lamprey attack me while I'm out swimming in
the Great Lakes or in one of the streams?" And the answer,
thankfully, is no. Sea lamprey can tell the difference
between warm and cold-blooded organisms. We are warm-
blooded and the fish that sea lamprey feed on are cold-
blooded. Most sea lamprey would swim very quickly away if
they came near a human. The fishing economy is very
valuable to the Great Lakes region. It's the part of our way
of life within the Great Lakes and that way of life, the Great
Lakes as we know them, would not be as they are today had
it not been for sea lamprey control.
((NATS))
((PKG)) MAINE LOBSTERMAN
((Banner: Saving the Lobsters))
((Reporter: Julia Taboh))
((Camera: Adam Greenbaum))
((Adapted by: Martin Secrest))
((Map: Portland, Maine))
((NATS: waterfront))
((Popup Banner: Lobsters have been fished since the
1800s in Maine, the leading US lobster state))
((Tom Martin, Lobsterman))
Well, I started lobstering as a summer job as a kid when I
was 14 and then lobstered every summer until I went to
college for about a year and then dropped out and started
lobstering year round. So, I've been lobstering for 35 years
in total.
((NATS: boat))
((Tom Martin, Lobsterman))
Alright, so that is a beauty.
((NATS: boat))
((Tom Martin, Lobsterman))
So, every lobster has to be at least three and a quarter
inches [8.2cm] to keep it across his back. So, what we do is
we hook this right behind the lobster’s eye, back corner of
his eye socket and then we watch carefully to see where this
point touches. If that lands on the lobster’s back, he’s big
enough. If it touches beneath the back, he's too short. You
can see that one easily touches on the back. This one we
can keep.
Every time we get a ‘keeper’ lobster, we have to check the
sex. So, on the females, we're always looking for eggs. And
when a female is carrying her eggs, the entire bottom of her
tail will be covered with thousands and thousands of little
black dots. So, if we catch one of those inside the trap,
we're going to set her free. But before we do, we're going to
mark her as a breeding female. So, what the lobsterman
does is we take something sharp and we leave a scar on the
second tail flipper from the right. We actually mark it with a
scar, so that scar indicates that she's a breeding female. So,
even after she's thrown back and the eggs are released into
the sea, we're always checking the sex and we're always
checking females for a mark. If the female has a mark, she
gets thrown back for the rest of her life. The Maine
fishermen thought this law up and had it passed in the 1930s
to protect the breeding females. And it's not a perfect
system because it is possible for a female to carry eggs but
never happen to walk in a trap and get the mark. But we're
saving the majority and certainly enough to keep our lobster
population very healthy in the state of Maine.
((NATS: boat))
((Tom Martin, Lobsterman))
Let’s go through the measuring process. A little bit too short.
((NATS: boat))
((Tom Martin, Lobsterman))
So, you can imagine that once we mark a female, she's
going to get thrown back from the trap, year after year after
year. So eventually, we have a lot of very large breeding
females in our population. Those large females need a
similar sized male to mate with. So, we also need to protect
some big males to mate with the big females. So, we've
already used the short side of the measure of three-and-a-
quarter inches [8.2cm], but the back of the measure is five
inches [12.7cm] and that's a maximum size limit.
In the state of Maine, you can't keep a lobster that's over five
inches on the carapace. To that guarantees that we
preserve some big males to keep mating with the big
females that we've saved by notching their tails. But this is
one of the primary reasons why our lobster population in the
state of Maine is still so high. We're doing such a good job
to conserve the breeding females.
((NATS: boat))
((Tom Martin, Lobsterman))
I really enjoy doing it. It's a lot of hard work, but I think the
reward can be there and every year is different. I mean,
some years you catch a lot of lobsters, some years you
don't. So, you can never really rely on the income entirely,
but you just work as hard as you can and then let the chips
fall where they may.
((NATS: boat))
TEASE ((VO/NAT))
Coming up…..
((Banner))
Ghost Fleet
((SOT))
((Susan Langley, Underwater Archaeologist))
We noticed a lot of them are like floating flower pots.
They're full of vegetation and it's tremendous for the
environment. They're actually cleaning the water. They're
providing habitat.
BREAK TWO
BUMP IN ((ANIM))
BLOCK C
((PKG)) GHOST FLEET
((Banner: Ghost Fleet))
((Reporter/Camera: Deborah Block))
((Adapted by: Philip Alexiou))
((Map: Nanjemoy, Maryland))
((NATS))
((Popup Banner: A watery grave of old sunken ships has
been designated the newest national marine sanctuary in the
United States))
((Joel Dunn, President, Chesapeake Conservancy))
So, we're at Mallows Bay which was just recently designated
as a national marine sanctuary. And what's special about
this place is that it contains over 200 ships that were sunk
here. And one reason they focused on this place is because
it's the largest collection of shipwrecks in the Western
Hemisphere. And 100 of those ships is known as the ghost
fleet.
((Courtesy: National Archives))
((Joel Dunn, President, Chesapeake Conservancy))
In World War 1, there was a big effort by the United States to
build a fleet of ships that would help them win the war.
((Courtesy: National Archives))
((Joel Dunn, President, Chesapeake Conservancy))
So, at 40 ports around the country, they built these wooden
steamships which were the technology of the day.
Unfortunately, those boats were all finished after the war
was completed.
((NATS))
((Popup Banner: In 1925, these surplus ships were
brought here and intentionally sunk))
((Courtesy: Kurt Schwoppe))
((Joel Dunn, President, Chesapeake Conservancy))
Now if you look at an aerial photograph of this area, you can
see just one ship after another, next to each other, creating
this intricate array of reefs in this river and in this bay.
You can see this ship in front of us. It's the only metal ship
here. But that's an old ferry and that used to ferry people
from the eastern shore of Virginia across to Norfolk. And
this is a tidally influenced river and bay. So, as the tide goes
out, the ships come up,
((Courtesy: Duke University Marine Lab))
and it's a great experience to kayak around these ships
to see the wildlife, to learn about the history and get some
exercise.
((NATS))
((Joel Dunn, President, Chesapeake Conservancy))
What you're looking at in front of us is the hull of an old ship,
one of these steam ships, and that piece of
((Courtesy: Duke University Marine Lab))
stone sticking out there was originally in the bottom or the
hull of the ship and it was balancing the ship.
((NATS)
((Susan Langley, Underwater Archaeologist))
We noticed a lot of them are like floating flower pots.
They're full of vegetation and
((Courtesy: Kurt Schwoppe))
it's tremendous for the environment. They're actually
cleaning the water. They're providing habitat. They're
actually helping with climate change.
((NATS))
((Courtesy: Duke University Marine Lab))
((Joel Dunn, President, Chesapeake Conservancy))
Because it's underwater, it doesn't receive as much
oxygen and so, the decay rate is a lot slower. It's also salt
water which further reduces the rate of decay.
((NATS)
((Susan Langley, Underwater Archaeologist))
We have nothing from World War 1. I mean really nothing
left and that's why this is so important. It's the largest
collection of World War 1 vessels
((Courtesy: Duke University Marine Lab))
and the fact that they were built for one purpose. They
never told the poor guys who were going to serve on it that
they expected a lot of them to be expendable. They were
just figured if they built a thousand of them and 600 made it
across, then they could get bundles to our allies.
((Courtesy: Duke University Marine Lab))
((Susan Langley, Underwater Archaeologist))
They didn't tell these guys, which I think they all know when
they sign up, that by the way, you are government property
and you are expendable. But, you know, when you think
about it that way, that's why these ships were built so quickly
and so cheaply, is that they largely looked at, if we build
enough of them, the U-Boats won't get them all.
((NATS))
((Courtesy: Kurt Schwoppe))
((Susan Langley, Underwater Archaeologist))
So, it's so scary in that regard. But it's, this is the only place
you can see the size of these vessels and the size of the
collection and the fact that they are a cross-section of a
different number of designs, it is like one big museum.
((NATS))
((Courtesy: Kurt Schwoppe))
CLOSING ((ANIM))
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((NATS))
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((NATS))
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