so i took a job on a dredge boat in cameron, louisiana (see below lake charles in sw louisiana), very near where i worked with univ. of arkansas studying birds. this time i live on a 300 ft floating vacuum cleaner at sea for 3 weeks at a time monitoring for endangered species. i share a room half the size of a dorm room with another observer and work the graveyard shift 5:30pm - 5:30am and my world has become a sleep deprived exercise in mindless motions. i see the sun for 2 hours a day and spend the majority of the day sleeping, and my nights eating, reading (incidentally im reading "stiff - the curious life of human cadavers" which doesnt help my sanity), watching tv and riding a stationary bike, and walking the eerily lit decks at 3am.
its amazing how your mind becomes disoriented by the lack of natural light. you lose the reference of days and you become completely reliant on a watch to tell you what to do. the guys on the crew call it the groundhog day effect, like the movie. you have to do something different every day (or night) to maintain your sanity. i was thinking about knitting but im not sure that would make me any friends on the dredge.
the beautiful dredge in all its glory
my job involves cleaning screens of the smelliest, rottenest, slimiest mississippi sludge you can imagine which takes 15 minutes every 4 hours all night long. basically a dredge is a huge vacuum cleaner that maintains the shipping canals for freight boats, coming and going to off-shore oil platforms in the gulf. there are two giant straws that are dragged along the bottom that inhale everything; mud, trash, wood, fishing nets, fishing long lines (including the hooks), fish, stingrays, lots of boots (none with feet in them, i check), rain gear and occasionally sea turtles which is why im here.
this is a draghead (sucker-upper thingy). this is with a full load in the hopper. notice freeboard (height above waterline) is ~5ft
screen on top of weir full of muddy yuck
screen cleaned of muddy yuck
red drum and spider crab from screen
hopper full of muddy yuck
hopper empty of muddy yuck
ships hull splits in the middle to release the muddy yuck notice the gap
draghead hauled on board notice freeboard ~20 ft
tough dredge worker
this is the kind of thing you see driving by you throughout the day. its called a jack up oil platform, when exploring for oil these long pillars can be lowered to the sea floor for support.
closer look at a jack up. they are able to drive around faster than our boat. it seems awkward to see these ungainly top-heavy rigs whizzing around us, as well as huge freight liners from around the world ive seen liberia, turkey, holland.
there is a "parking lot" of these rigs (20) waiting near us while the obama administration's 7 year oil drilling moratorium is in effect.
on the horizon
on the forefront of america's energy debate. drill baby drill!!!
video and witty commentary to come...
