By Alexandria Sage
Cypress Grove, Louisiana - At first glance, everything appears normal on the bayou where Emile Trudeau has been coming to fish, shrimp and crab since he was a boy.
Porgy and garfish jump from the brackish waters, schools of minnows hurry by and wiggling crabs float by Trudeau's dock.
But look a bit closer and an iridescent film of oil is visible in standing water - a sign that life in this part of the world has inexorably changed.
"It's just heart-breaking," said the 69-year-old Trudeau. "They don't realise what they've done to this place."
"They" is BP, the British-based global energy company whose devastating spill has been gushing oil into the Gulf of Mexico since late April. While a new containment cap may offer a chance to staunch the flow, those who live on the bayou say it is already too late.
Trudeau points to his crab traps, lying neglected at the side of his camp.
"For Father's Day my daughter bought me three new ones," said the former Navy Seabee, his voice wavering. "You can't use them. It just tears you up."
Water is in the lifeblood of the bayou, a world of flat marshy wetlands near the estuaries of the Gulf Coast.
The isolated swamps were settled by the French Acadians, known as the Cajuns, who carried their language and cuisine to Louisiana after being evicted from what is now the Canadian province of Nova Scotia by the British government in the 1750s.
Locals speak almost reverently about the bayou's bounty, from crayfish and shrimp to redfish and flounder. It is hard work making a living in these waters but the bayou has also represented a lazy comfort to generations of Louisianians.
"The water is almost a spiritual thing," said Alden Lombard, who smiled at the recollection of shrimp hauls of years past. "It's more than just a way to make a living - it's a way of life." - Reuters