Tag: Ewell Smith
Hurricane Ida struck the heart of Louisiana’s seafood industry as a Category 4 hurricane, wiping out homes, boats, trucks, plants and icehouses. Oyster farmers on Grand Isle lost their entire crop, processing plants from Grand Isle to Dulac lay in ruin and almost 30% of the shrimping fleet in Golden Meadow lay useless at the start of current shrimp season. “If the Louisiana seafood industry is to have any life at all in the near future,” said Gulf Seafood Foundation board member Ewell Smith, “it is all about ice.”
A comprehensive seafood supply chain study of Louisiana’s St. Mary, Iberia, and Vermilion Parishes highlights obstacles and opportunities for an area battered by an array of environmental disasters, economic losses and competition from imports. The study confirmed what the seafood industry in those parishes, as well as all along the entire Gulf coast, have speculated for years; without a unified voice and aligned economic development at all government levels, Gulf seafood is in trouble, big trouble.
Over the course of centuries the waters off Louisiana’s coast have been familiar naval combat grounds. Recently those same waters again teamed with a naval armada ready for combat, this time joined by some of the best known chefs in the state to show support for Gulf fishermen.
In the fashion world “orange is the new black,” but for the Gulf seafood industry “orange” is helping those affected by hurricanes the previous year, and others, put their businesses back into the “black.” The Gulf Seafood Foundation’s orange “Helping Hands” gloves are starting to appear everywhere across the Gulf of Mexico.
GULF SEAFOOD FOUNDATION – More than 1000 pair of foam insulated and fleece-lined work gloves have been delivered to the Gulf Seafood Foundation to be distributed to Gulf Fishermen, especially those affected by Hurricanes Harvey and Irma.
GULF SEAFOOD FOUNDATION – The Gulf Seafood Foundation has committed all funds raised for the rest of this year to be donated toward helping the Gulf Coastal fishing communities affected by Hurricanes Harvey and Irma.
A Gulf Coast workshop will help develop training and education programs that can assist the industry, train a new generation of seafood professionals and help deliver a uniform message to the consumer.
The Gulf of Mexico seafood community is gaining Margaret Henderson, one of the strongest seafood legislative advocates on Capitol Hill, as the new voice for the Gulf as the Executive Director of GSI.
Almost a month after Ewell Smith resigned as the executive director of the Louisiana Seafood Promotion and Marketing Board, Lt. Governor Jay Dardenne has named the current assistant director Kristin McLaren as interim executive director while a search is conducted for a permanent replacement.
Despite Executive Director Ewell Smith resigning the Louisiana Seafood Promotion and Marketing Board (LSPMB) and moving its offices, the board’s chairman John Folse is positive about the future.
In a letter to Louisiana Seafood Promotion and Marketing Board chairman Chef John Folse, Ewell Smith has announced his resignation as the executive director of the state’s seafood organization after serving in that capacity for more than 13 years.
The 4th of July came early this year for the Louisiana Seafood Promotion and Marketing Board. A heated legislative session to determined the fate of the board set off fireworks throughout the state’s seafood community. As of July 1st oversight has officially transfer from the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries to the Department of Culture, Recreation and Tourism under the office of Lieutenant Governor Jay Dardenne.
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