The dark [or hidden] figure of a crime is a term employed by criminologists and sociologists to describe the amount of unreported or undiscovered crime. Hidden crimes often affect the most vulnerable in society, and are defined as: domestic abuse, child abuse, child sexual exploitation, forced marriage, and gender selective abortion. This gap between reported and unreported crimes calls the reliability of official crime statistics into question, but all measures of crime have a dark figure to some degree. The gap in official statistics is largest for less serious crimes. Comparisons between official statistics, such as the Uniform Crime Reports and the National Incident-Based Reporting System, and victim studies, such as the National Crime Victimization Survey, attempt to provide an insight into the amount of unreported crime.
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 one of the most productive wetland ecosystems in North America. Over 70 percent of waterfowl that use the Mississippi and Central flyways winter or stopover in Louisiana every year, and the Delta presents world-class fresh and saltwater fishing opportunities, not to mention the number of federally endangered species, such as the Louisiana black bear, that struggle to survive in the remaining coastal habitat.
