Seafood Communities
Trapped between Bayou Barataria and The Pen, a lake known for great sport fishing, the docks of Chris Seafood have for more than 50-years been filled with crab boats hugging its piers. That was until Hurricane Ida changed everything for owner Chris Ronquille.
Standing on the porch of the tribal community center six months after Hurricane Ida pummeled his community, Donald Dardar still chokes-up as he remembers seeing the remains of his village for the first time. The area, home to a fishing community of more than 800 Point-au-Chien Native Americans, endured some of the hurricane’s worst destruction leaving in its path unanswered questions on whether to rebuild in an area that is ground zero for the climate crisis.
A silent and deadly cancer is spreading throughout the bayous and rivers of Louisiana; as well as Mississippi, Arkansas, Missouri all the way to Illinois, Minnesota and the gates of the Great Lakes. Asian carp has overtaken the Mississippi River System threatening the ecosystem, as well as multi-million dollar recreational and commercial fishing industries.
Sitting on Bayou Rigaud in Grand Isle at the southernmost end of LA 1, the docks at Blanchard Seafood plant are about as close to the Gulf of Mexico as possible without getting wet. When Hurricane Ida struck the island that all changed.
As the Krewe of Atlas arrived at the Family Gras Music Festival in Metairie on a February Friday night, famed singer Marie Osmond, best known for the Donnie singing with her brother Donnie on the Donnie and Marie show on ABC in the 1970’s, waited to perform. As several New Orleans artists played the greatest hits of local music icon Allen Toussaint, Osmond knew where she would be after the show… at Drago’s Restaurant eating some of it famed Gulf seafood.
The cold north wind blew through the open Oak Ridge Community Park shelter in Golden Meadow like an express train passing a through a station. A sweater-clad chef stirred a huge pot of gumbo, while others wearing red aprons with the familiar Shell logo served fried catfish and French fries. At a table at the end, King Cakes anchored a paper tablecloth whipping in the constant breeze. But it was the smiles of the fishermen filling their plates that would be most remembered by the volunteers from across Louisiana
The recently released Infrastructure, Revenue and Resource Losses to Louisiana Fisheries From the Hurricanes of 2020 and 2021 report is historic. “This gives us a golden opportunity to correct a problem that’s longstanding, how the marine industry, particularly the seafood industry is treated in disasters,” said Dr. David Veal, director of the American Shrimp Processors Association.
God gave Louisiana crawfish and Gulf Menhaden to catch them. What God failed to do is correctly synchronize the seasons for their harvest. For the first time crawfish may not be on the Easter dinner menu because bait dealers have ran dry on fish in their warehouses.
For more than six hours fifth-generation Houma oysterman Jacob David Hulse, his girlfriend Lindsey Willis and his dog Change huddled in an the oyster shop of friend Kenneth (Keno) Templet struggling to keep the walls and roof from caving as the more than 140-mph winds of Hurricane Ida continuously battered away at the structure. When the winds started to subside, Hulse thought he had gone through the worse of it. Like many Louisiana fishermen are finding out, his troubles were only beginning after the storm was finished.
For more than 50-years Lafayette locals joined tourists from around the globe to dine on plates of Cajun crawfish and crabs, then dance off the dinner to the sounds of a Acadiana music. That era has ended. Restaurateur Frank Randol has closed the doors on his restaurant and associated seafood processing business.
Jefferson Parish Economic Development Commission (JEDCO), in partnership with the Town of Jean Lafitte, is hosting “Focus on our Fishermen”. The evening event on Tuesday, November 9th at the Jean Lafitte Civic Center will provide fishermen and fisheries-related businesses access to tools and resources that can guide to recovery from Hurricane Ida.
As one of her sons rode out the wrath of Hurricane Ida’s 170 mph winds on his shrimp boat at the dock of her seafood processing business in Dulac, Trudy Luke and her husband Timmy with the rest of the family worried what they would find when they returned home.
For Louisiana oysterman Tony Tesvich the last few years have been all about water, water, and more water. Too much, too little, poor quality, high salinity, low salinity, nitrogen, phosphates and hypoxia; over the past two years his oysters have been flooded with a host of water issues with the latest being the future plans of the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority (CRPA).
The destructive winds and storm surge of Hurricane Laura are now unwanted memories. Repairing shattered homes, businesses and lives along the storms path in southwestern Louisiana remain the task at hand. To easy the pain fishermen are reaching out to help fishermen. A truckload of supplies donated by the North Carolina Fisheries Association and True North Seafood has reached Louisiana and being readied to help those in need.
Former commercial fisherman Robert Fritchey documents landmark disputes between the recreational and commercial fishing industries. His latest book, A Different Breed of Cat, chronicles the battles over the use of fishing nets during the 1990’s in Alabama, where the state’s resource-management agency brokered a compromise that was hailed as the beginning of a “new age” in managing the state’s coastal fisheries.
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