A shrimp boat lays on its side at the Golden Meadow harbor after Hurricane Ida stuck the Louisiana coast. Photo: Julie Falgout/LA Sea Grant
by Ed Lallo/Gulf Seafood News Editor
“Sixteen-years ago to the date Hurricane Katrina gave a knock-out blow, followed quickly by Hurricane Ike,” explained Gulf Seafood Foundation board member Ewell Smith. Photo: Ed Lallo/Lallo Photography
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.”
“Sixteen-years ago to the date Hurricane Katrina gave a knock-out blow, followed quickly by Hurricane Ike,” explained Smith, who then served as executive director of the Louisiana Seafood Promotion and Marketing Board. “Besides damaging boats and seafood plants, those two storms knocked out every ice house in the state. We realized to get the fishermen back on the water, we needed to quickly rebuild the ice houses.”
“After Katrina our organization raised a million dollars for the fishermen, a majority of those funds came from corporate donations,” said Gulf Seafood Foundation board member Harlon Pearce. Photo: Louisiana Seafood Promotion and Marketing Board
Smith, along with fellow Gulf Seafood Foundation board member Harlon Pearce, who served as chairman of the Louisiana Seafood Board during Katrina, head the “Helping Hands” committee responsible for helping find funds and resources for the state’s seafood industry.
“After Katrina our organization raised a million dollars for the fishermen,” said Pearce who owns Harlon’s LA Fish in New Orleans. “A majority of those funds came from corporate donations, especially Shell Oil. With that money we were able to get new icehouses online and the fishermen on the water. With the destruction from Ida, we don’t need one Shell Oil, we need another and another and other if our seafood community is to fully recover.”
Shrimper Acy Cooper stands beside a sunken shrimp boat at the Venice docks. Photo: Acy Cooper
The Louisiana seafood industry, as well as the entire Gulf, has been hard hit by lower seafood demand during the COVID-19 pandemic. Fishermen continue to suffer losses as the pandemic shut restaurants.
“It is just a bad time to be on the bayou it seems,” said Acy Cooper, a shrimper out of Venice and a member of the Louisiana Shrimp Task Force. “Before the storm we were being hit hard by Covid. Covid is still here, but now we have to face the difficulties brought on by Ida.”
Cooper said he is fortunate compared to those east of him. “Here in Venice, we lost three or four shrimp boats, but over in Chauvin and Dulac, it is more like half that fleet. People have lost their homes, their boats. They don’t have power, gas or food. These are people that aren’t going to ask for anything, but let me tell you they need it, and they need it now.”
Hurricane Ida landed shrimper Eric Hebert’s boat high and dry in Golden Meadows marina. Photo: Eric Hebert/Facebook
The Foundation has been working hard to get ice and supplies to hard areas. According to board member Jim Gossen, “It’s overwhelming the number of people affected.”
“We have to facilitate ice supplies to the Leonard J. Chabert Medical Center in Houma, an Ochsner Health hospital, where volunteers distribute to public,” he said. “We also have been instrumental in getting ice to Venice and other cities. Right now, we are acting as a clearinghouse putting those in need with those who have. This is always what our organization has done best.”
Smith and Pearce see the task they face as daunting, but they feel the Gulf Seafood Foundation is up for the challenge. “We have been here before and we know where to go to get the support we need,” explained Smith. “There are many good people and corporations out there willing and ready to help. It is not about us. We are willing to work with anyone. It is all about those in need.”
As for Cooper, he says, “I am coming back, but right now most aren’t. We need food, generators, fuel and of course ice. We also need more doctors and nurses, as well as mental health professionals because as we learned after Katrina, storms like this take a mental toll on everyone.”
The area of destruction is so vast that Entergy, the local energy company, had had to call in crews from across the country to help with the restoration of power. The company has posted that some of the hardest hit areas might not have power till late September. A staging area in Hammond. Photo: Rusty Randol/Randol Photography
Donate to Gulf Seafood Foundation’s “Helping Hands”
Donate to the Gulf Seafood Foundation’ “Helping Hands” for Hurricane Ida by clicking the “Donate” button.
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