Julie Lively, the executive director of Louisiana Sea Grant at LSU, has had to balance the organizational mission with that of assisting the state’s seafood community’s recovery from the storms. Photo: Ed Lallo/Gulf Seafood News
by Ed Lallo/Gulf Seafood News Editor
Sea Grant’s mission is to enhance the practical use and conservation of coastal and marine resources in order to create a sustainable economy and environment. With four hurricanes in two years, Julie Lively, the executive director of Louisiana Sea Grant at LSU, has had to balance the organizational mission with that of assisting the state’s seafood community’s recovery from the storms.
“I have been on a lot of calls with the EDA, FEMA, NOAA and other government organizations,” said the director who is also sits as a member of the Louisiana Fishing Community Recovery Coalition (LFCRC). “On one of them I was asked to provide a rough list of bulleted items caused by the storms. Marine debris in the water topped my list. Several members on the call were like, ‘who did a bad job at cleaning up?’ We just all stopped on the call and went “like what”, and they asked again. ‘Who didn’t do a very good job when they cleaned it up?”
Julie Lively (r) talks with Kim Chauvin of David Chauvin’s Seafood Company at a “Feed the Fleet” event in Golden Meadow. Sea Grant has informational booths at the events that give a hot meal to fisherman suffering from the four hurricanes in the past two years. Photo: Ed Lallo/Gulf Seafood News
Working as part of the Hurricane Ida Federal Response Team, she has found accurate information by government officials, elected officials and people outside of the state has been an issue hampering seafood recovery efforts.
“A lot of the federal entities on the phone didn’t realize that someone didn’t just go out and clean the waterways immediately after a storm. They had no idea that seven months after a storm there would be debris in the water,” she went on to explain. “If you are outside of hurricane zone, people think that seven months after the storm everything should be up and running. It is just not the case. We know it is going to be years till everything is up and running everywhere. People still have not gotten into their homes.”
As a member of the coalition, Louisiana Sea Grant has been instrumental in gathering and analyzing data from the four hurricanes and two tropical storms suffered by the state.
In cooperation with the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, the team, led by Dr. Rex Caffey, compiled information for the Infrastructure, Revenue and Resource Losses to Louisiana Fisheries From the Hurricanes of 2020 and 2021 report requested by the Recovery Coalition.
The study that relied on the mapping of 8503 individual businesses in the Louisiana coastal zone representing every aspect of the seafood industry, found the storms have cost the Louisiana seafood industry almost a $580 million dollar loss to infrastructure, revenue and resources.
After the report was released some in the seafood industry questioned the final loss number as being too low.
A member of the Sea Grant team hands out informational packet, as well as swag, to Golden Meadow fishermen and their families at a “Feed the Fleet” event. Photo: Ed Lallo/Gulf Seafood News
“I feel the study was on the conservative side on the numbers,” she told Gulf Seafood News. “But it had to be defensible to NOAA, so we had to err on the side of caution. Even as Rex pointed out, there are a lot of things that are not included in the study. The study was gauged on immediate loss, it is impossible to predict future losses.”
She has talked with fishermen and processors who think a more detailed study is needed, especially for loss in the shrimp and crap sector.
According to Lively, shrimp and crab are not in the resource loss because there is no accurate way to measure it quickly. “This study was done is six-months, that’s quick. Those losses would require a giant study requiring several years, and at this point does it really tell us anything? It won’t help get more money for the industry,” she said.
Lively started her career at LSU in 2010 when she joined the LSU Agricultural Center and Louisiana Sea Grant as an assistant professor after getting a Ph.D. from the University of Delaware in marine biology. Her lab group, the Crabby Lab at LSU AgCenter and Louisiana Sea focused on applied research on crustacean fisheries, predominately blue crabs.
A month before Hurricane Ida crippled the state seafood industry in August of 2021; she was named the executive director of the state’s Sea Grant Program replacing Robert Twilley, professor in the LSU College of the Coast and Environment.
Leading Wide-Range of Projects
“Since her arrival at LSU in 2010, Lively has led a wide range of Sea-Grant-related research projects supported by more than $23 million in funding for which she has been either principal or co-principal investigator,” said Sam Bentley, LSU’s Vice President for the Office of Research and Economic Development, said at the time. “She leads a diverse research team of extension associates, graduate and undergraduate students and post-doctoral researchers in a portfolio of work that blends research and extension, both core missions of Sea Grant.”
Until the pandemic, each year Louisiana Sea Grant at LSU held its Fisheries Forward Summit. The trade show gave more than 60 vendors from across the state and country a forum to display their wares. The Summit will return is 2023. Photo: Ed Lallo/Gulf Seafood News
One project her Sea Grant team has started to undertake is developing a stable and reliable workforce for the seafood industry.
“Growing up in the Midwest it never even occurred to me that commercial fishing was a career path,” said the fourth Executive Director of the program’s established in 1968. ‘It just didn’t exist. Even talking to people in southern Louisiana, if they are not from a seafood family, it not a viable option. It is never even presented at career days.”
According the marine biologist, the Gulf seafood industry never has enough labor. People along the Gulf coast are familiar with seafood but getting the word out there are jobs here to be had has been challenging. “How do we get people more interested?” she asks.
On Grand Isle the organization operates the Mike Voisin Oyster Hatchery and lab. The lab’s Brian Callum explaining how the hatchery operates to a tour. Photo: Ed Lallo/Gulf Seafood News
She said her agents across southern Louisiana have been asking been asking for typical flyer seen at high school career fairs. What is the job? What kind of education and training is needed? What are the salary ranges?
“Granted there are a lot of wide ranging answers, but we need to show kids that it is a viable career path,” she said. “It they don’t come from a seafood family, they don’t know it is an option.”
One issue she is hearing from her agents dealing with the federal shrimp fleet is the lack of people wanting to become captains. Deckhands want to stay deckhands. “Boats are getting sold off as our captains retire because no one is willing to step into the job. The Gulf shrimping industry is turning greyer and greyer each day as captains’ reach, or near, the age of retiring.”
Working with the Port of Delcambre, Thomas Hymel, Sea Grant’s Marine Advisory Agent , has helped rejuvenate the docks with a fisherman direct seafood program, as well as Ocean Harvest processing plant and a seafood wholesaler. Photo: Ed Lallo/Gulf Seafood News
Research has showing the age of the Gulf fisherman that rebuilt after Katrina hasn’t remained constant. It has increase about 15-years. “We don’t have a new generation to rebuild after Ida. Just the same generation that rebuilt after Katrina and previous storms, they are at the point that the just don’t want to do it again. They feel maybe it’s better opt out for retirement instead of rebuilding again,” she explained.
A young fisherman program funded through NOAA through the National Sea Grant office passed Congress, but then money to fund the program was never appropriated.
At a trade show Sea Grant agent Julie Falgout promotes Louisina Direct Seafood, a fisherman direct seafood program that was initiated with the help of the agency and has expanded over the years. Photo: Ed Lallo/Gulf Seafood News
“The program was designed to be the first step to prepare young people for a career on the water, now we don’t know if that money for the program will ever materialize.”
Sea Grant programs across the country are talking about or working on seafood workforce development. Almost every region is currently doing needs assessments on the problem, with a lot of states are doing their own assessment.
“A lot of issues cross-applied across state lines in the Gulf. We felt a Gulf-wide project was more efficient,” said Lively. “What are those hurdles in creating a training program? I think it is going to be finding new people that aren’t in the Gulf States, or at least not right down the coast. But if nobody shows up anything we do will not matter.”
Her team is trying to identify other hurdles beside those associated with the training program, like basic business planning and record keeping.
The state’s Sea Grant program has been instrumental in helping create a consumer demand for black drum. Douglas Olander, owner of Big D Seafood in the Port of West St. Mary, holds the catch of the day. Photo: Ed Lallo/Gulf Seafood News
“You need to be just as prepared for taxes as you are for a disaster,” said the executive director. “What does this training look like? Are their online programs that can be done for some of the work? What should be done in person, what should have some sort of mentorship or apprentice program accompany with the training? There are a lot of questions to be answered.”
A couple of years ago Sea Grant agents wanted to do a small demo to get potential workers out on a fishing boat but with the university’s insurance would not cover the event.
“This is just one hurdle we are facing. The university couldn’t cover it and the fisherman didn’t have adequate insurance, so you are in a catch-22 situation. How can these hurdles be overcome to make programs like this happen?” she asks. “What are the other hurdles people entering the business need to navigate, like insurance? We can train them, but if they can’t get insurance to buy a boat, the training doesn’t do a whole lot of good.”
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