ROUGH WATERS

John Tesvich steadied his 19-foot outboard against an unyielding surge of water from the Mississippi River east of Buras. Swirling eddies and rapids forced his boat sideways.

At one point he got completely turned around in the channel.

"It's like a Disneyland ride!" he yelled over the rush of the river.
Once the safest nautical passage east out of the Mississippi River in a 20-mile radius, the Ostrica locks channel is now a churning maelstrom that wreaks havoc on boats during high tides. This key set of navigational locks has lain in disrepair since Katrina's 20-foot surges hammered lower Plaquemines Parish, allowing a torrent of river water to flow east into the marshes of Quarantine Bay.

Oyster fishers and other boaters who rely on the locks to do business face a dilemma: brave the open channel at Ostrica or motor miles out of their way to find alternative routes into the prime oyster beds to the east.

A project to revamp the locks and protect them from future storms should be completed next spring, but upcoming work this month will close the gates altogether for the rest of the year -- the third consecutive oyster season without working locks.

"You've heard of the northwest passage? This is the east-west passage -- of the South. It's critical to getting the oystermen to their grounds," said Albert "Rusty" Gaude, a fisheries agent with the LSU Sea Grant College Program who works with fishers in Plaquemines. "It completely changes the strategy of these guys, and they've got enough working against them as it is."
more from the Times Picayne