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On 29 August 2005, Hurricane Katrina came ashore devastating coastal communities in the northern Gulf of Mexico. As the storm crossed the wetlands south of New Orleans boats were sunk, houses and businesses were destroyed, and lives were drastically changed. Hurricane Katrina happened at a time when the regions fishing industry was already facing economic hardship. It marked the beginning of a series of major calamities between 2007 and 2012 including three more hurricanes, a major Mississippi River flood, a major recession, and the Deepwater Horizon (DWH) oil spill that have continued to challenge the fishing industry in the Gulf of Mexico. The paper begins with a detailed examination of Hurricane Katrina's damage to fishing infrastructure in fishing communities in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama that were followed for nine months post-Katrina as part of a NMFS-funded social impact assessment (SIA). Next the paper highlights the major natural and manmade disasters that have affected marine fisheries in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama between 2005-12. The impacts of this series of disasters are examined as they relate to 1) changes in population between 2000-10 in the fishing communities originally followed in the post-Katrina SIA, 2) changes in numbers of processing plants and processing plant employees between 2003-12, and 3) changes in pounds landed and their value as reported by NMFS for Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama during the same period. Although the area as a whole has lost population, some fishing communities have lost significantly more, particularly Louisiana, while some, in Alabama and Mississippi, have gained. There has been an overall decline in both numbers of processors, wholesalers, and their employees during the period examined; the 2004-07 period coinciding with repeated hurricanes shows the sharpest declines. Pounds of fish landed, while impacted by hurricanes and the DWH oil spill, rebounded by 2011-12 to their highest level since 2003; their highest value occurs in 201112 as well. The fishing industry in these states as measured by pounds and value of landings has shown an ability to recover from the shock of hurricane damage and oil spill closures over the past decade, but the longer-term economic downward trends measured by numbers of processors, wholesalers, and their employees remain unchanged., Introduction Gulf of Mexico (GOM) fisheries are among the nation's most productive and diverse. As long as people have inhabited the coastal areas of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and the [...]

Anthropologists have much to offer as interpreters of cultures for tourists traveling to remote areas of the world. Often advertised as ecotours, group travel is now being offered to areas of the world that are still considered off the beaten path. With more and more travel taking place in the form of organized, guided tours, the anthropologist is in a prime position to educate travel companies and tourists concerning the populations with which they come into contact while enhancing the experience for both the tourists and the host populations. Colorful brochures advertise tours that will have a range of naturalists to guide the tourists through the natural environment in a chosen destination. Rarely do tours advertise that they have anthropologists to help tourists learn more about the local cultures. This paper explores the benefits of hiring anthropologists as tour guides for nature-based tours, using examples from the Amazon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]