Like the newly refurbished docks, Bucktown fisherman Kurt Delacreux hopes a new direct-to-public sales program sponsored by Louisiana Sea Grant will offer a glimmer of hope for an historic career rapidly sinking beneath the surface of Lake Pontchartrains clear water. Photo: Ed Lallo/Newsroom Ink
by Ed Lallo/Gulf Seafood News Editor
Benny Kyles the head cutter at Harlon’s LA Fish, a member of the Gulf Seafood Institute, cuts sheepshead for the event. Photo: Ed Lallo/Newsroom Ink
According to Bucktown fisherman Kurt Delacreux, this year has been absolutely terrible, one of the worst years ever. For him it just seems like every year gets worse and worse. Like the newly refurbished docks, he hopes a new direct-to-public sales program sponsored by Louisiana Sea Grant will offer a glimmer of hope for an historic career rapidly sinking beneath the surface of Lake Pontchartrains clear water.
More than 25 commercial boats call the West End harbor home. The Bucktown Marina and Louisiana Pontchartrain Fisherman’s Association have partnered with Sea Grant’s Louisiana Direct Seafood and Southshore Direct Seafood, web portals that facilitate the retail purchase of seafood directly from the fisherman.
Louisiana Sea Grant and the LSU AgCenter created both “direct” portals. The websites post “fresh catch” messages from fishermen when they dock, and encourage the public to contact fishermen directly to place orders.
Paul Greenberg Headlines Event
New York Times journalist and seafood writer Paul Greenberg headlined the event at the newly refurbished Bucktown docks showcasing seafood from Lake Pontchartrain. Author of “Four Fish” and “American Catch,” Greenberg joined local fishermen, seafood experts, restaurant chefs and natural resource administrators in chronicling the role, quality and availability of regional seafood.
“This country controls 2.8 billion acres of ocean, more ocean than any country on earth. Yet more than 85 percent of our seafood is imported,” Greenberg said about Americans who are not eating from their own waters. Photo: Ed Lallo/Newsroom Ink
“This country controls 2.8 billion acres of ocean, more ocean than any country on earth. Yet more than 85 percent of our seafood is imported,” Greenberg said about Americans who are not eating from their own waters. “ This is hurting the industry on both environmental and economic fronts. I write about what is happening to our local resources. Shrimp is really the number one case study because 90 percent of the shrimp we eat in this country is imported, it is not coming from the Gulf of Mexico or here on Lake Pontchartrain.”
Getting the Fisherman’s Message Out
“This new program is a way to get our message to the residents of New Orleans,” said Pete Gerica, president of the Lake Pontchartrain Fishermen’s Association. Photo: Ed Lallo/Newsroom Ink
“This new program is a way to get our message to the residents of New Orleans,” said Pete Gerica, president of the Lake Pontchartrain Fishermen’s Association who has been doing direct marketing for more than 40 years. “It will allows newcomers into the fishing industry to get established with local residents, and for locals that don’t know about local seafood to connect directly with fishermen.”
Gerica, who furnished the fish for the event, feels that this is the way of the future for fishermen if local fishermen don’t price themselves too cheap to hurt their own market. “When an area like Pontchartrain is not producing a lot, this is one important way that fishermen can survive,” he said.
Chef Nathanial Zimet of Boucherie prepared a Southern Style Boulabaise comprise of Sheepshead with Crispy Skin. Photo: Ed Lallo/Newsroom Ink
Chef Nathanial Zimet of Boucherie Restaurant, a devoted lover of Gulf Seafood who especially loves to cook fish, prepared a Southern Style Boulabaise comprise of Sheepshead with Crispy Skin, Gulf Shrimp and other shellfish for the more than 100 gathered on the lakefront.
“With seafood it is all about fresh. You can’t eat anything fresher than seafood from the Gulf waters, it is the very best,” said renowned New Orleans chef and radio personality Poppy Tooker. “The chefs are the linchpin in the whole food system. If they don’t insist on local seafood from the Gulf, and if they don’t serve local then the whole system falls apart.”
She feels that consumers have an obligation to always ask, “Where did this seafood come from?” “I am not going to eat shrimp from Southeast Asia, I am not going to eat catfish from Vietnam. If you say no thanks to imports at the restaurant, it will start to get their attention. It is important to always eat local seafood because friends don’t let friends eat imported seafood,” she said.
“We are hoping this new program brings some needed income and publicity to our local fishermen,” said Delacreaux after the event. “We are looking forward to selling directly to the public.” Photo: Ed Lallo/Newsroom Ink
The event was funded by the Walton Family Foundation and hosted by Louisiana Sea Grant, the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation and the Lake Pontchartrain Fishermen’s Association and other state agencies.
“Lake Pontchartrain is a recovered water body, the water quality has vastly improved since the 50’s and 60’s. Although the tonnage has varied from year to year, the seafood quality gets better every year,” said Rusty Gaude, a fisheries expert with Louisiana State University’s Sea Grant program who is heading the program.
The Bucktown fishing docks have been an important part of the Crescent City’s culinary history, according to the Sea Grant fishery expert. “It was catch what you can, get it to the market. There was no refrigeration. We are returning to our past with the new Bucktown docks direct,” he said.
“Prior to 1868, which was the arrival of the first ice house in New Orleans, there was no refrigeration,” Gaude explained. “The city of New Orleans did not feed upon deep water Gulf species, they ate what fishermen caught in Lake Pontchartrain. Lake Pontchartrain fish was historically brought to the Basin Street dock via Bayou St. John was then distributed to the French Market.”
Some of today’s fishermen at the Bucktown Docks are descendants of fishermen that have been providing fish to New Orleans long before icehouses. Their catch remains the freshest fish in the city of New Orleans. “We are hoping this new program brings some needed income and publicity to our local fishermen,” said Delacreaux after the event. “We are looking forward to selling directly to the public.”
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