AQSpees: lost in migration

ive been working as a sea turtle observer on a dredge in the gulf of mexico in southwest louisiana. we are dredging the calcasieu river channel so oil tankers can get up the river to the city of lake charles and its refineries. the dredge slowly moves along the channel with two big vacuum hoses that suck up the bottom and everything near it. unfortunately sea turtles like to swim around the bottom looking for delicious morsels also and are quickly introduced to a 15' whirling suction impeller at 250 rpm. needless to say you get very dead turtles. lucky this doesnt happen often and instead i spend my days walking around getting in peoples way.

tough guys doing tough stuff

tough guys hanging over the edge of the abyss

one of the cool things about being in the gulf during the spring bird migration is that most of the south american migrants come up and over the gulf and since we are offshore and look like a big floating island, tired birds use us like a stopover (like a layover in kansas city). so i get to break up the endless monotony by seeing cool birds. sometimes they are so tired you can pick them up with your bare hands. but mostly they just flit around; drinking freshwater and eating bugs. once they are alone and near the water they become prey for gulls, which follow us patiently waiting for the little migrants to leave the boat.