Our short cruise is now officially over and we spent the following late evening in transit to Baton Rouge. The trip was much longer as expected as we had several locks and bridges to go through, which never ceases to tickle my excitement! We took on board our chief scientist for our upcoming ROV cruise- along with two other scientists conducting work on micro-plastics. The Mississippi River is a huge sink for most of the United States pollution, and a large amount of that pollution is composed of micro-plastics. During a selected number of stations, along our transit to Baton Rouge, we slowed down periodically to deploy net tows. The net tows are put over the side deck and slowly drifted until sufficient plastic is accumulated. A scientist on board informed me that it’s not a matter of if fish will be filled with plastic, but a matter of how much. The information was saddening to hear, and holds greater weight knowing a very large majority of US fish bought originates in Lousiana and the Mississippi River. We arrived around 7pm to Baton Rouge, set up our gangways for our event tomorrow, demobilized and called it a night. We have a long few days ahead of us- full of legislative talks and public boat tours.
The following day marked the start of our massive ‘Meet the Fleet’ event. Over the next few days, thousands of people swarmed the boat for tours, info sessions and rides. I worked at our environmental monitoring booth today. The system Amanda and I worked on was placed in a spare lab on board, along with several posters, sensors, artifacts and informational pieces. Though the subject is not as interesting- in lieu to our 5 million USD dollar ROV on display (see picture posted below)- the subject is extremely important and I enjoyed educating the public about its place in society. I tried my best to make it fun and relatable to the public. I believe I was able to reach a large audience-which makes me very happy.
The next few days went as planned, with a premature cancellation on Sunday, due to poor weather. Unfortunately, the call was made too early and we did not receive our storms until the following day. Evidently, the following day was our most important as all Louisiana legislative would be touring the boat..
Big Wigs in Baton Rouge
Today was our last, and most important, day in Baton Rouge. This afternoon, several members of the state legislative department came aboard our vessel. Shortly after the event ended, we made our way to the state capitol for a ceremony service of LUMCON. The service, and several days of boat touring, was meant to educate the public of the importance of LUMCON, its research, educational outreach and vessels. We are hopeful that this event will help fuel funding for a new vessel, which has been extremely beneficial- physically and economically- to the state of Louisiana and Gulf of Mexico region.