When considering the history of Nola, Jackson Square plays an essential role. French colonials originally named the park Place d’Armes, translated as “weapons square”. This park served as the spot for public executions of criminals and rebellious slaves, and the heads of the hanged criminals were often placed on the city’s gates. In 1803, this park saw Louisiana made United States territory in accordance with the Louisiana Purchase. 12 years later, Place d’Armes was renamed Jackson Square, following the vital victory under Brevet Major General Andrew Jackson, in which American forces held off the city from a British attack and only suffered 70 casualties, compared to the British forces’ 2,000. Today, street artists, palm readers, and voodoo witches surround the square’s fence line, creating a lively atmosphere and unique entertainment.

30 miles southeast of the Big Easy sits Hopedale, built in between the winding channels of brackish water that serves as transportation systems for the guides and crabbers that inhabit this small town. I remember travelling to Hopedale for the first time in 6th grade and seeing the eye-opening conditions these blue-collar Louisiana natives live under. Hundreds of people lined the roads, fishing for redfish and speckled trout in the runoff trenches, not knowing that saltwater fish had no way of getting into these drainage systems, nonetheless living in them. Our group packed 12 people into two doublewide trailers, which proved to be a pain at 4:45 in the morning, with people scrambling around to find PFG shirts and Costa sunglasses before the Cajun guides left the docks. With lines in the water before daylight and fish striking lures faster than you could reel them in, we’d be worn out and ready to make the thirty-mile trek back to the docks around 3:00 in the afternoon.

Nicknamed “Sportsman’s Paradise”, the Mississippi River Delta earned its name due to the plethora of fresh and saltwater fish, oysters, shrimp, crabs, and millions of migrating waterfowl. The Mississippi River has deposited rich sediment in the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico for thousands of years, allowing for the growth of plants, marshes, and barrier islands. This region stretches all the way across the southern coast of Louisiana, from the Vermilion Bay in southwest Louisiana to the Chandeleur Islands off the coast of Biloxi, Mississippi. The Delta is the largest drainage basin in the country, draining about 41% of the continental United States into the Gulf of Mexico.

The second day of the trip, my dad and I drew a guide with a reputation of being a hot head, but by God, he could put you on some fish. A rat-nested spinning reel resulted in 15 minutes of timeout on the back of the boat, unfortunately close to his “sh*t bucket”, but he put me on the biggest red drum of my life, 35 inches. Usually, there’s no need to worry about overcrowded fishing spots, but as soon as we anchored and started reeling in reds, other guides swarmed us like flies. Fed up after 3 or 4 ruined spots, our guide mumbled “Well, this is a clusterf*ck if I’ve ever seen one”, hauled up the anchor, and motored out of the spot, cutting a handful of other boats’ taut lines.

As the coast vanishes, species are losing the habitats they need to survive. Thousands of diverse species inhabit the once-plentiful Mississippi River Delta, from red drum to swamp rats to snow geese. All in all, the vast system of forests, swamps, marshes, river channels, estuaries, and islands make up on