Two Louisiana Gulf Seafood Institute board members have been appointed to the Louisiana Sea Grant Advisory Council which each year reviews the organizations selected activities and provides counsel regarding program focus, development and operations. Photo: Ron Kron/Sea Grant
By Ed Lallo/Gulf Seafood News
Two Louisiana Gulf Seafood Institute board members have been appointed to the Louisiana Sea Grant Advisory Council which each year reviews the organizations selected activities and provides counsel regarding program focus, development and operations. Jim Gossen, chairman of Sysco Louisiana Seafood, and Harlon Pearce, owner of Harlon’s LA Fish in New Orleans, will join other prominent Bayou state seafood aficionados on the high-profile Advisory Council.
“I am excited about the projects being worked on by Sea Grant,” said GSI’s Jim Gossen. “I look forward to sharing my 42-years of experience.” Photo: Ron Kron/Sea Grant
Since 1968, Louisiana Sea Grant has addressed complex, and often interrelated, ecological, economic and social challenges affecting one of the largest and most dynamic coastal regions in the United States. The magnitude of these challenges in a changing – and more recently disturbed – natural and social landscape requires the limited resources available to Louisiana Sea Grant be distributed utilizing a practical and well-defined approach.
At any given time, the state’s Sea Grant program manages or participates in more than 50 research, extension, education and communication projects across the coastal landscape. The primary role of the Advisory Council is to help with the organizations strategic plan by providing input and feedback during development.
Excited to Work With Sea Grant
“I am excited about the projects being worked on by Sea Grant,” said GSI’s Jim Gossen. “I look forward to sharing my 42-years of experience to help advance programs which are vital to the state’s seafood community and environmental efforts.”
GSI’s president Harlon Pearce said the opportunity exists for the two organizations to work more closely together. Photo: Ed Lallo/Newsroom Ink
GSI’s president Harlon Pearce said the opportunity exists for the two organizations to work more closely together. “We stand ready to assist Louisiana Sea Grant in their effort to educate fisherman on the importance of producing higher quality seafood,” he explained.
“Fashionable seafood projects such as caged mariculture oysters, which are unique to Louisiana, maybe the future of the Gulf oyster industry,” said Gossen. “GSI has extensive knowledge in this seafood aquaculture that has caught the attention of restaurants from New York to LA, and is a key element in the future of sustainable seafood.”
The new council immediately addressed two important questions: “What are we doing well?” and “What are some areas that LSG can have an impact in?”.
Response by council members included:
- “The oyster lab is very important to sustain”…cage cultured oysters (off-bottom) is important applied research.
- “Value-added branding of seafood is important for the sustainability of the industry”.
- Focus efforts on elevating and utilizing local knowledge, as well as “bridging ‘local science’ and academic science”.
- Determine how to utilize more weather and water forecasting/impact information to help improve fishing techniques
- “Transparency” is very important in Sea Grant’s efforts.
- There is often a disconnect between policy-makers and local stakeholders. Sea Grant helps to bridge this disconnect by helping local officials better understand local stakeholder needs.
“Their feedback and insights are helpful in crystalizing our program’s focus,” said Twilley addressing the meeting. Photo: Ron Kron/Sea Grant
Gossen said that Sea Grant’s Extension Agents living in the areas they serve are trusted and valued friends to the state’s coastal communities. “These agents have firsthand knowledge of the challenges our residents face because of their daily involvement with their communities,” he said.
Louisiana Sea Grants executive director Robert Twilley said he appreciates the time and thoughtfulness of the new Advisory Council members.
“Their feedback and insights are helpful in crystalizing our program’s focus,” said Twilley. “My door is always open to hear their thoughts and ideas on our program’s development. Louisiana Sea Grant has a very proud history of solving problems and issues in our coastal communities, and our Advisory Council is one means of staying connected to those communities.”
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