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On the banks of Bayou Barataria, a pelican glides over the top of the brackish water, which is so calm you can hear waves lapping against the shore. Stacks of crab traps and fishing nets lay idle on the shoreline. Occasionally, there is the whir of a propeller, which barely registers above the sound of wildlife, puttering as it pushes a boat around debris on the bottom of the bayou.
U.S. Congressmen Garret Graves of Louisiana and Jerry Carl of Alabama recently sent a letter to Thomas Vilsack, Secretary of Agriculture, requesting the department once again purchase Gulf shrimp under Section 32 of the Agricultural Adjustment Act to be donated to schools, the underprivileged and disaster relief groups.
An average consumer in the U.S. spends a $1.50 to eat approximately a third of a pound of oysters a year according to a calculation in a recently released video by Dr. Ben Posadas, an associate extension research professor at Mississippi State University. With no available official estimates on oyster per capita consumption, Dr. Posada arrived at his estimate by dividing total oyster supply or expenditures by the current population.
A variety of factors over the past years have melded together placing live bait shop owners under duress; frequent hurricanes, oil spills, dead zones and fish kills in the Gulf, as well as an ever changing landscape of waterways due to fresh-water diversions of the Mississippi River. Available, affordable live bait is crucial to the recreational fishing industry, but at the moment it is harder to come by and even more expensive to purchase.
Coastal Louisiana’s historic connection to the Pacific Rim endures is enshrined in a new book by Carl A. Brasseaux and Donald W. Davis – ASIAN-CAJUN FUSION: SHRIMP FROM THE BAY TO THE BAYOU. The book illustrates the history of the Asian influence on Louisiana’s shrimping industry.
Fishermen, processors, distributors, economic developers, and public officials are being invited to Baton Rouge to discuss findings from more than three years of research done in Louisiana’s coastal and inland fisheries at the launch of the Louisiana’s Freshwater Seafood Economic Development Report. The original study, Community Economic Development in Rural Coastal Acadiana Parishes, was conducted in 2018-19, prior to the four hurricanes devastating the state’s seafood industry.
The first win by the Louisiana Fishing Community Recovery Coalition to secure funding for a seafood industry destroyed by four hurricanes over two years is happening in the Louisiana State Legislature. House Bill 1 (HB1), which provides for the ordinary operating expenses of state government for the upcoming fiscal year, currently includes $5 million designate for debris cleanup and vessel removal clogging bayous and waterways.
One parish in Louisiana has already started to prepare for cleanup from the next storm. St. Tammeny Parish, stretching from Slidell to Covington on the northern banks of Lake Pontchartrain, has issued a Request for Proposals (RPF) for emergency, infrastructure restoration, debris removal and disposal that include waterways in the Parish maintenance system.
by Ed Lallo/Gulf Seafood News Editor The pots were hot and the stoves sizzling at NOLA Navy Week’s Louisiana Seafood Cook-Off held on the Riverwalk at the Spanish Plaza behind the Four Seasons Hotel. Naval culinary specialists from France and the United States used to cooking on the high seas were pared with land-loving local Louisiana […]
On Florida’s west coast increased development and pollution stress antiquated wastewater systems causing a release of inadequately treated water into rivers and streams; water runoff from storms carry nutrients across fertilized lawns and paved surfaces; all this water eventually ending in one place – the Gulf of Mexico – harming an already fragile ecosystem
Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy introduces legislation to rectify long wait by crawfish processors for the final $10.6-million of the $110-million they were awarded by Congress in 2006 for frozen crawfish tails dumping by the Chinese.
After protest by oystermen and the public, the Texas Parks and Wildlife has delayed a vote on the proposed closure of three oyster bays for harvesting. The three bays are Carlos Bay, Mesquite Bay and Ayres Bay near Rockport. State biologists had warned harvesting in those areas has increased over the past decade and reefs have shown a low abundance of oysters relative to neighboring bays.
Four hurricanes and two tropical storms later, hard hit areas of Louisiana will be the recipient of an unexpected $1.7 billion in federal hurricane relief dollars. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Gov. John Bel Edwards and U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy announced the new funding that provided a major infusion to the $600 million previously approved, raising to more than $1 billion the total amount of Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Recovery money available for recovery from these storms.
Permanent and temporary closures of oyster harvesting areas by the Texas Department of Parks and Wildlife (TDPW) have brought protests by oyster fishermen and contributing to the shortage of Gulf oysters, as well as high prices. The department said the move was due to a variety of environmental concerns.
The annual Oyster South industry symposium isn’t a typical scientific conference. Besides being filled with relevant information on oyster aquaculture, it is also fun. The organization, a charitable foundation supporting shellfish aquaculture in the southern U.S., has members ranging from growers, chefs, wholesalers, gear suppliers, students and food writers.
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