Tag: Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries
Hurricane Ida, and three others in two years, has thrown the Gulf seafood industry into turmoil. Add to that Covid, unprecedented fuel prices, new state and federal fishing regulations, inflation and a tight labor market; the result has been astronomical seafood costs for both the individual consumer and restaurants across the country.
Before Hurricane Ida, Montegut oysterman Mark Naquin admits the last couple of year’s production on his leases was slow. He had hope 2021 would be better. Recent plantings showed baby oysters everywhere. Then the storm undid his hard work leaving his business in shambles.
The first win by the Louisiana Fishing Community Recovery Coalition to secure funding for a seafood industry destroyed by four hurricanes over two years is happening in the Louisiana State Legislature. House Bill 1 (HB1), which provides for the ordinary operating expenses of state government for the upcoming fiscal year, currently includes $5 million designate for debris cleanup and vessel removal clogging bayous and waterways.
Sitting on a wooden porch swing hanging from what is left of his shrimp dock on Bayou Barataria, Grant Bundy is still in shock. For nore than seven months since Hurricane Ida blew through Jean Lafitte leaving little behind, he has tried and tried; and then tried again to unsuccessfully get a loan from th Small Business Administration (SBA) to fix his docks, only one of two remaining along the bayou.
LSU Sea Grant, the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries and members of the Louisiana Fishing Community Recovery Coalition have crafted a five-page “white paper” on the extreme damage and loss of revenue to the Louisiana seafood industry as a result of four hurricanes during the years of 2020-21. All five sectors of the industry have suffered; commercial fishermen, recreation fishing, docks, processors and marinas.
God gave Louisiana crawfish and Gulf Menhaden to catch them. What God failed to do is correctly synchronize the seasons for their harvest. For the first time crawfish may not be on the Easter dinner menu because bait dealers have ran dry on fish in their warehouses.
Four hurricanes over the course of two-years has cost the Louisiana seafood industry almost a $580 million dollar loss to infrastructure, revenue and resources. A recently released report by Louisiana Sea Grant and the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries documents extreme damage and loss of revenue over all five sectors of the industry; commercial fishermen, recreational fishing, docks, processors and marinas.
On August 29, 2021 Hurricane Ida blasted ashore along the Louisiana coast almost complete destroying everything in its path. Infrastructure was hard hit, especially infrastructure vital to Louisiana’s $2.4 billion seafood industry. Four months later little has changed, and the state’s fishermen, docks, processors, fish houses and restaurants are wondering if it will ever return.
Louisiana Sea Grant and LSU AgCenter have partnered with the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries to compile an economic assessment of fisheries infrastructure damage from hurricanes that have devastated one of the State’s largest industries during the past two years.
For almost two hours Louisiana’s seafood leaders from all sectors of the industry gathered via zoom, mobile phones at restaurants or in cars, and in a conference room in Baton Rouge to discuss the damage of Hurricane Ida’s wrath on the State’s seafood industry. The consensus; the hurricane laid a path of destruction that has crippled almost every sector.
Louisiana oysterman Jakov Jurisic is no stranger to adversity. The Gulf oyster industry, along with other Gulf seafood, is in a historic nosedive never before seen. The perfect storm of too much water, a national pandemic and the closure of restaurant after restaurant have forced those in the industry to reexamine the path forward.
Hurricanes, droughts, flooding and oil spills, the Louisiana Oyster Task Force had thought they had seen it all. The norvell coronavirus that is sweeping through the state, the nation and the world is just one more obstacle to overcome and according to Task Force chairman Mitch Jurisich there is little doubt they will. Jurisich discusses the importance of Gulf oysters to the environment, culture and heritage of Louisiana.
The Louisiana Oyster Task Force, through the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, has enlisted Ed Lallo and Newsroom Ink to assist in their ongoing effort to tell the story of the of the Louisiana Gulf oyster, the people dedicated to ensuring its sustainability, as well as its importance to the State’s economy, culture and culinary cuisine.
Louisiana Gulf fishermen have overcome natural and manmade setback after setback after setback. The recent Louisiana Fisheries Forward Summit at the Ponchartrain Center in Kenner, presented by the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, Louisiana Sea Grant and LSU AgCenter, was subject to to one such unforeseen setback, Covid-19, also known as the coronavirus.
Striving to survive years of low prices and a safety scare following the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the Louisiana fishing industry suffered an estimated $258 million loss this past year due to the historic flooding according to the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries. Commercial fishermen, dock owners and processors and others will have the opportunity to learn about important issues facing this industry at the upcoming Louisiana Fisheries Forward Summit.
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