Fifty-five years and more than a dozen hurricanes later, Jean Lafitte shrimp dock owner Randy Nunez has had enough. Nunez on his dock during the BP Oil Spill. Photo: Ed Lallo/Gulf Seafood News
by Ed Lallo/Gulf Seafood News Editor
Fifty-five years and more than a dozen hurricanes later, Jean Lafitte shrimp dock owner Randy Nunez has had enough. Hurricane Ida dealt the deathblow to a dock where as a kid he would work with his father and listen to tales told by shrimpers as he unloaded their boats.
“It was total devastation,” Nunez described his first sighting of the business after Hurricane Ida left it a demolished mess. Photo: Randy Nunez
“It was total devastation,” Nunez described his first sighting of the business after Hurricane Ida left it a demolished mess. “A lot of equipment was still underwater, some turned on its side. I lost all three of my box trucks that I thought I had parked high enough to be out of harms way. I lost all my forklifts. The equipment I used to unload the shrimp boats was lying useless in the bayou. All total my losses well exceed over $250,000.”
A native of the area, he started working on the docks at the age of 13. “It’s the only job I had. I did this all my life. I enjoyed every day of it. I never had one day that I couldn’t wait to go to work in the morn,” he said.
With no insurance in hand because of prohibitive high costs, when the dock dealer put pencil to paper to figure his losses the final number told him one thing… “I’m through.”
The 68-year-old said it might have been possible to get a Small Business Association (SBA) loan, but at his age, and the amount of money needed, he knew it would almost be impossible to pay back. In addition to the loss of his business, Ida threw a double whammy by destroying his house with tornadic winds.
“The tornado that hit my house also hit two others on the street,” he told Gulf Seafood News. “It was strictly wind damage. The roof completely caved. It kind of knocked the socks off of me. You work all you life for something and one day it’s all gone. It’s kind of like a kick in the butt.”
He says over the years increased rules and regulations placed on shrimpers had steadily decreased business. He could see the time coming when there just wasn’t going to be anymore work.
The Bayou Batataria dock was a way of life for Nunez who enjoyed meeting with fishermen and listening to their stories. Dock photo during BP Oil Spill. Photo: Ed Lallo/Gulf Seafood News
The dock was a way of life for Nunez. He enjoyed meeting with fishermen and listening to their stories. “Every fishermen who came in would have a story to tell. Some were funny and some were sad. I was like a psychiatrist I guess, they would bleed their hearts out to me and I would just listen.”
It was a rewarding experience, an experience he is not likely to ever to see again.
“For me the future of seafood down here is easy, I’m done. I’m retired and I don’t think I’m going back to the seafood industry. As for the seafood business overall, it’s also coming to and end. I could see it. That’s in the Lafitte area; I can’t speak for other parts of the state,” said Bayou Barataria area native.
Lewis (Bill) Adam weighs shrimp before boxing during the BP Oil Spill. Photo: Ed Lallo/Gulf Seafood News
While young and working with his dad the dock would constantly sell to six area processors, now there is just a lone holdout. He says New Orleans also had processors that used to peel shrimp, as well as canning companies in surrounding parishes; all gone. “Lafitte Frozen foods isn’t even in Lafitte anymore, they moved the peeling to Violet. That tells you that its not getting better, it’s getting worse.”
Brown shrimp is a seasonal harvest. Docks keep buying and buying because when its over its over. In the 1980’s ad 90’s Nunez says it was nothing for him to buy 1400 or 1500 boxes a day, the equivalent of 140,000-150,000 lbs. of shrimp. To achieve those numbers today takes anywhere from 10 days to a month. That is how much Gulf shrimp production has dropped.
“Even if I could to buy shrimp today like I did back then, there is no place to sell them. We used to sell to Alabama and Mississippi, but they are all gone, closed up and sold out to the casinos.”
For the past five years his business has constantly lost money. Fears of the purposed fresh-water diversion also made him nervous about investing back into the dock. In addition new fishermen were not getting into the business.
With no insurance in hand because of prohibitive high costs, when the dock dealer put pencil to paper to figure his losses the final number told him one thing… “I’m through. Photo during BP Oil Spill. Photo: Ed Lallo/Gulf Seafood News
“I had less than five fishermen that were under the age of 40 unloading at the dock. Most were in their 50’s, 60’s and 70’s,” he explained. “I went from having 245 fishermen in the 1980’s and 90’s, down to 35-40 before the storm. Of those half of them were not always well enough to work all the time. Production had dropped like 80% over that time period.”
Nunez sees little hope for the Louisiana shrimp industry. With less and less production, he says more and more menus in the state are going to feature imported shrimp. “It’s just going to get worse and worse because the production is not there anymore and the catches aren’t there anymore.”
The expense of replacing equipment, as well as the pressure of paying off a loan was factors weighed by Nunez while making his final decision. “I knew I couldn’t pay back the principle, much less the interest on an SBA loan. I gathered my thoughts and decided it was time to throw it in. It just wasn’t a good time for this to happen, at the end of my career. I just decided it was time to walk away.”
One of Nunez longest employees was Lewis (Bill) Adam, who died from a stroke while crossing the bayou in pirogue, which he did every day. “We grew up together,” said Nunez. “He was like a brother.” Photo: Ed Lallo/Gulf Seafood News
Another family business and way of life wiped out by the weather. Even worse is no help from a government who GIVES aid (money) to almost every country on the planet.
I came down to help with the cleanup, you might remember the blue tractor and trailer pumping water out of your neighborhood in Lafitte. And I wept for your families while meeting some amazing people. My heart breaks for Mr Nunez, I wish you well sir, enjoy your forced retirement if possible. Best wishes. Pete Schmidt/Iron Eagle Industrial Services.