CGEEmultimedia's video: Caenarvon Freshwater Diversion Airboat Tour: 5K immersive 360-video

The Caernarvon Freshwater Diversion, located near the Plaquemines/St. Bernard Parish line 15 miles downriver from New Orleans, was constructed in 1991 to divert water from the Mississippi River into the local estuary. Though its original purpose was not to create new wetland habitat, as the diversion has moved up to 8,000 cubic-feet-per-second of freshwater and sediment (the approximate volume of 2,353 large crawfish pots) into the estuary, new land has been building in the diversion's main catch basin, Big Mar Pond. The loss of coastal wetlands due to natural subsidence—aggravated by the levee system's control of river flooding and sea-level rise due to climate-change—poses a major threat to coastal Louisiana. The vegetation and trees visible in this 360-video clip, which was made courtesy of a Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation-sponsored airboat tour, are evidence of Delta wetlands being born again.