The Place
Our oceanographer daughter does quite a bit of work with the
Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium (LUMCON). Since we were in the area we just HAD to see
what she has been talking about. LUMCON
is located in Cocodrie LA along Bayou Petit Caillou in the middle of beautiful salt
marshes near the Gulf of Mexico, about a half hour south of Houma LA.
The town of Cocodrie itself consists
of fishing “camps.” The camps are
trailers or small frame buildings on stilts.
The stilts can be any length – we saw some 2 feet off the ground and we
saw some 12 feet tall. The area is so near the Gulf and so vulnerable to storms that flooding is always a risk.
Fishing is big in
this region. If you are ever in the area, the Sportsman’s Paradise Restaurant has great Oyster and Shrimp Po-boys
(sandwiches).
The Adventure
We had a wonderful tour of the labs and facilities of LUMCON with the Director, Dr. Nancy Rabalais. Our
daughter, Leslie, works for Nancy on her research and goes out on yearly
research cruises with her measuring the low oxygen zones in the Gulf of Mexico. Nancy has been doing this research for 30+
years and has a significant body of data tracing changes to the Gulf.
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LUMCON’s primary responsibility is scientific research,
though all of the faculty also teach – primarily in a video distance learning
format. They also do outreach with
schools and teachers and local government.
While we were there we saw high school students measuring and studying
the surrounding salt marsh. We were so
impressed with the organization and the serious responsibility that they have
taken on.
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