07/07/2011 - Bayou Casotte

Header image is of a stream of pelicans on a journey. There were a lot of pelican clans headed west to east in this fashion.

1) Sunrise at the Bayou Casotte public boat ramp in Pascagoula, MS. It is the first time I launched from here.

2) Bayou Casotte plays host to a wide array of huge man made objects that dwarf a kayak.

3) Off the southeast tip of Bayou Casotte is the dreaded billion dollar Gulf LNG Energy terminal. Huge 160,000-cubic-meter ships will be transporting Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) from Angola to this facility. It's been said that if a LNG ship is rammed by another vessel (terrorism), the resulting explosion would be equivalent to a small nuclear bomb. Operations of this LNG facility are expected to begin this year.

4) This couple is fishing near the Chevron Refinery effluent channel which flows into the Mississippi Sound.

5) A shrimp jumps through the air. Much of the Chevron Refinery property is undeveloped wetlands. There are many little inlets that wind around in the wetlands. The objective today was to go up one of these little streams with hopes of reaching a large salt flat southeast of the refinery, but it got too narrow and shallow. Objective aborted.

6) So, I removed all the shrimp that had jumped into the kayak, turned around and headed back to Bayou Casotte.

7) This oil tanker was pumping out a powerful steam of water. All the more reason why to stay far away from large ships. I should have been farther away myself.

8) I was surprised to find dolphins up in this major shipping channel.