Grand Isle, Elmer's Island, and Fourchon Beaches all closed

In my previous post, the last point I made was that Louisiana had precious few beaches.  Now it appears that all of the road-accessible beaches in and around Grand Isle have been closed as of May 21, because of the effects of the oil spill.  What a blow to the economy in Grand Isle, whose residents are heavily dependent on the tourists who would normally flock into Grand Isle this time of year to enjoy the beaches and go fishing.  Here's local news coverage (video footage).  And here's the local newspaper coverage.  I copied an image of the three beaches from Google Earth.  Go to Google Earth and type in Grand Isle, Louisiana.  Note that Grand Isle really is a road-accessible island.  The bridge crossing over to Grand Isle is where alot of fishing is done.  Zoom in on the bridge.  On the left of the bridge, inside the V- or 7-shaped Elmer's Island (depending on your view) is a great place for kayaking.  Fourchon Beach is on the lower left of the image I took, and fronts one of the most important industrial ports in the United States, Port Fourchon.  For the few times I have been down in the area, I preferred Fourchon Beach over Grand Isle Beach.  It's sort of like comparing Waikiki Beach (Grand Isle), which is so-so as a beach, but a major tourist destination, to Kailua Beach (Fourchon Beach) close to where we lived on Oahu, which, in my mind was a better beach to go swimming and playing around in.  NOAA will shortly give their predictions about hurricane season this year, which officially begins nine days from now.  I can only imagine what a Hurricane like Rita (2005) or Ike (2008) would do.  Both hurricanes remained offshore below Terrebonne Parish as they headed toward Texas, pushing deep water all the way to the Intracoastal Waterway that intersects east and west Houma 30 miles inland.  I'm not sure how habitable coastal Louisiana would be for any life, human or otherwise, if a similar hurricane were to impact us.

Louisiana facts relevant to the oil spill

1. Energy. Louisiana has the greatest concentration of crude oil refineries, natural gas processing plants and petrochemical production facilities in the Western Hemisphere. Louisiana ranks 4th among the U.S. states in crude oil production, behind Texas, Alaska, and California, and is also one of the nation’s top natural gas producers.

2. Population. According to U.S. Census estimates in 2006, nearly 50% of the state’s population lives in Louisiana’s coastal parishes.

3. Seafood industry and commercial fishing. Louisiana produces 50% of the U.S. shrimp crop, 35% of the nation's blue claw crabs, and 40% of its oysters. Additionally, Louisiana commercial landings account for about 20% of the total catch of fish by weight in the lower 48 States.

4. Recreational fishing. Annual expenditures related to non-commercial fishing in Louisiana amount to $1.7 billion.

5. Waterborne commerce. Five of the top fifteen largest ports in the United States are located in Louisiana. In 2005, Louisiana's coastal wetlands provided storm protection for ports that carried nearly 500 million tons of waterborne commerce- accounting for 18% of all waterborne commerce in the United States.

6. Marine habitat. Ninety percent of all the marine species in the Gulf depend on coastal estuaries at some point in their lives, and most of these estuaries are in Louisiana.

7. Bird habitat. More than one-half of the species of birds in North America are resident in Louisiana or spend a portion of their migration there.

8. Wetlands. Because of its many bays and sounds, Louisiana has the longest coastline (15,000 miles) of any state and 41 percent of the nation's wetlands.

9. Wetland loss. Between 1990 and 2000, wetland loss was approximately 24 square miles per year, the rough equivalent one football field every 38 minutes. The projected loss over the next 50 years, even with current restoration efforts taken into account, is estimated to be 500 sq. mi. Hurricanes Katrina and Rita transformed 217 square miles of marsh to open water in coastal Louisiana.

10. Beaches. Louisiana is not a beach destination. Granted, there are a few road-accessible beaches, such as the one on Grand Isle about 1.5 hr from New Orleans, but beaches close to the mouth of the Mississippi are not pristine beaches by any stretch.

Oil spill approaching Lafourche and Terrebonne Parishes

For those who live in Terrebonne and Lafourche Parishes, there are eerie similarities between post-Hurricane Katrina events and what is now unfolding following the oil spill. In the case of Katrina, New Orleans and coastal areas further east took the brunt of the storm, while Terrebonne and Lafourche Parishes were far less affected. However, a storm later in the same season, namely Hurricane Rita, caused caused massive flooding and economic impact in these parishes and further west.

In the case of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, it initially appeared that parishes west of the Mississippi River had the possibility of largely escaping its devastating effects. But now, the tide has definitely turned for the worse. The map above is the NOAA projection as to where the spill is as of today at 6:00 p.m. NOAA has projected out for 24, 48, and 72 hours beyond Saturday at 6:00 p.m. The forecast shows the potential for oil along the Southwest Pass, on the beaches of Port Fourchon, and the Timbalier Islands. As of yet, no oil has been observed on the beaches at Grand Isle. The State Department of Wildlife and Fisheries has extended its ban on recreational and commercial fishing in some offshore waters west of the Mississippi, which has fishermen in this area much more concerned than they may have initially been. Oyster beds west of the Mississippi have been closed as well. Presidents of both Lafourche and Terrebonne Parishes have declared a state of emergency in response to the westward movement of the oil spill and the crisis that has been created by this mess.

Oil spill approaching shoreline of the gulf states

I noticed with interest that the off-shore oil rig disaster 40 miles beyond Louisiana's shoreline was the lead story on the NBC evening news this evening. This disaster, with the potential to have far reaching ecological and political consequences, has a lot of people down here nervously watching to see how it will play out over the next few days as the oil spill area spreads. The aftermath of the fiery explosion on an off-shore oil rig that resulted in several deaths, has the potential to severely impact the already fragile wetland region of Louisiana and the coastal regions of several gulf states, affecting not only wildlife, but seafood, tourism, and other industries that our economy depends on. Here is the report on this disaster from our local paper. The report contains a video about midway into the article as well, that includes a clip from Motivatit Seafoods owner Mike Voisin, a fellow Latter-day Saint who I spent some time on Sunday with.

Here is a Facebook comment from Richard Stancliffe, a member of our New Orleans Stake Presidency who works for the oil industry, and who is also an avid bird watcher, "The disaster of the Transocean Deepwater Horizon rig will have political and environmental repercussions that will impact the industry for years to come. Forget about all the OCS acreage Obama opened up last week...the window of that opportunity just closed."

Kitty...still alive and well

"Kitty," brought home as a little male kitten for our children 17 years ago, is the only animal that remains from an earlier era, when we had several animals in the home. He is still a welcome sight when we come home from work, even though he can be annoying at times.

Brazil...some amazing sugarcane statistics

Brazil is the proverbial gorilla in the room when it comes to sugarcane production. According to UNICA, during the 2009/2010 campaign that concluded on March 31, Brazilian mills had processed 542 million metric tons (or tonnes) of cane. Of the total cane processed, 42.6% was used for sugar and 57.4% for ethanol. Total sugar production was 28.6 million tonnes, while ethanol production was 23.7 billion liters. To put some of this into perspective, Brazil hauled more cane to their mills than the U.S. hauled corn (331 million tonnes), soybeans (73 million tonnes) and wheat (56 million tonnes), put together, based on crop statistics from FAOSTAT. And these are our top three agronomic crops. Granted, the collective value of the unprocessed corn, soybeans, and wheat vastly exceeds that of raw cane, but still, the sheer weight and volume of cane being transported for processing in Brazil is truly impressive. The total cane production in the U.S. last year, combining FL, HI, LA, and TX, was 27.8 million tonnes, or approximately 1/20th the size of the Brazilian crop. The U.S. is ranked 9th, after Brazil, India, China, Thailand, Mexico, Pakistan, Australia, and Colombia. In terms of ethanol produced from sugarcane, Brazil is really the only significant player out there right now.

Brazil has decided to wage an education campaign, in part, to bring into question the basis for the stiff tariffs the U.S. has imposed on ethanol exported from Brazil. If the U.S. is honestly trying to go green, and if the U.S. corn industry can't even begin to meet the potential ethanol demand, what is the point of the stiff tariffs? Brazil doesn't understand why the corn industry is pushing their congressional representatives to be so protective, when it isn't really necessary, and runs counter to our broader objective, as a country, to go green.

A greenhouse full of sugarcane seedlings

Each year, at the USDA Sugarcane Research Unit in Houma, we grow sugarcane seedlings from true seed resulting from crosses made during the winter. True seed of sugarcane has a shape similar to that of sesame seed but is much smaller, about the length of the commas in this sentence, which helps explain why sugarcane is not sexually propagated on farms and plantations. After about a month of careful nurturing, tiny seedlings can be transplanted to 72-cell trays, which you see in the photo above, taken yesterday. We transplant around 90,000 to 100,000 seedlings each year. This year, beginning on Apr 22, we will start transplanting these seedlings to the field. The field transplanting operation will take about a week to complete. Seedlings will be planted 16" apart on 6' wide rows. They will be cut back at the end of the year, then will begin to re-grow next spring. Those that cannot survive a Louisiana winter will cull themselves out. In the fall of 2011, the top 10% of surviving seedlings will be selected and be asexually propagated into the 2nd stage of selection. They will undergo additional stages of visual selection, increase, and multi-location yield testing. The entire breeding and selection process, from the time a cross is made, until a new variety is released to the industry, takes roughly twelve years. I will be long since retired before any commercial variety might possibly be selected from among the approximately 40,000 seedlings that can be viewed in the photo above. We have three greenhouses for seedling propagation, of which two are completely filled and one is partially filled with transplant seedlings this year.