One of the most amazing reads in quite a while! The author takes you on a once in a lifetime adventure deep into the swamps of Louisiana that sits below New Orleans and finds that the Gulf of Mexico is reclaiming, and has been reclaiming, hundreds and hundreds of acres for many years.

Yes! He is an environmentalist, but not your screaming environmentalist that foolishly screams to shut everything down now. He believes there is a way to save the coast so fisherman, shrimper and crabbers can continue to crab for many, many years, save the navigational system in the Misissippi, and save the agricultural lands along the Mississippi so people can continue to live and farm.

He's such an awesome writer that I felt like I was on this awesome journey with him, hitchhiking on shrimpboats down the bayou from Golden Meadow to the Gulf, visiting some of the most remote villages deep into the swamp, and experiencing the "battlefield" for shrimpers out at Barataria Bay at the first full moon in May...the week before shrimp season opens inside Louisiana territory.

I'm a Cajun whose family has migrated to Southeast Texas. I'm very envious of his journey. My husband and I are making plans now for a weekend adventure excursion to check out the boot below New Orleans. I've never been there before and want to make the drive through Golden Meadow and Leeville, all way to the end of Highway 1, to Grand Isle, Louisiana.

The book was originally published in 2003, with the newest publication in 2010. Here we are now, the year 2018, I wonder if anything has been done to convert some of the Mississippi River back down to the swamps? I'm curious to see if 8 cemetery crypts are still visible above water at the Leesville bridge, or has the Gulf completely claimed them? ( )

From the first pages, I was totally engrossed in this informative and interesting work. Anyone interested in our environment, Louisiana, and the Mississippi delta should read this book. If you love shrimp, crabs, crawfish and oysters, read this book. Mike Tidwell covers a lot of ground, both physically and figuratively as he travels the bayous, talks with the people who call this home, and explains to us quite graphically but in a language anyone can understand, why we should care. I care, and now I understand even more, also. ( )

Fascinating book! I couldn't put it down! Rich in experiences and conversations with people who live and work in Louisiana bayou country: Cajuns, Houma Indians (Native Americans), and Vietnamese. He gave a lot of technical and scientific information, but presented so well that this non-techie, non-scientific person could easily understand, and even find interesting.

Very troubling situation regarding south Louisiana - the land is disappearing, and rapidly! This is mainly due to the excellent levee system that keeps the Mississippi River from flooding, but it is the flooding that builds delta land. Because it's not being re-built, the Gulf of Mexico is eroding it, helped by the pipelines and canals of the oil and gas industry. Very sad. The book was published in 2003, before Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, and others. The Third Delta Conveyance has not been built, or even started. It looks dire for Louisiana, and for the rest of the U. S. ( )

This book, first published in 2004, focuses on the coastal erosion that takes place in coastal Louisiana. The loss of up to 100 yards of coastal wetlands every 45 minutes has led to many of the Cajun people who live in those areas finding their way of life endangered. The author manages to fully capture the severity of the issue, and calls upon various experts to support his claims.A truly riveting and engaging nonfiction work, I would highly recommend it for any teacher who is crafting a course around the Cajun people, and/or any science teacher who is focusing on wetland loss and the risk of coastal erosion ( )

A beautiful and sad book about the disappearance of Louisiana's bayou country, and with it, the way of life of the people who live there, the Cajun, Houma and Vietnamese fishermen and shrimpers who provide us with an amazin 30% of America's annual seafood harvest. Thanks to levees on the Mississippi, oil company canals, and other interference with nature, coastal Louisiana is losing land the size of Manhattan every year. The land is sinking, the barrier islands disappearing, and with them go protection against hurricanes, resting places for migratory birds, and a seafood-rich ecosystem.

That it is possible to halt the destruction of this habitat is known. The Atchfalaya River, Louisiana's second largest, still pours silt from its mouth to form new land, and small diversion projects are helping. But more and major diversions of the Mississippi, to allow it once again to build up the coast instead of dumping its silt over the continental shelf, must happen and happen quickly before it is too late.

Before, in the words of one shrimper, "Dere won't be no more nothin' left anymore, forever".