Tag: Featured
Sitting on a wooden porch swing hanging from what is left of his shrimp dock on Bayou Barataria, Grant Bundy is still in shock. For nore than seven months since Hurricane Ida blew through Jean Lafitte leaving little behind, he has tried and tried; and then tried again to unsuccessfully get a loan from th Small Business Administration (SBA) to fix his docks, only one of two remaining along the bayou.
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.
Grand Isle aquaculture oysterman Scott Mauer can attest that even the best-laid plans to avoid disaster often go astray. As Hurricane Ida approached Louisiana, his seed-oyster business partner Steve Pollock and him evacuated more than 10-million larva to Texas A&M University, and stored another 20-million at the LSU Sea Grant hatchery on the island. Ida managed to take out those at the hatchery and those in Texas died from unknown causes.
As a child Margot Babin would join her eight siblings harvesting crawfish from their parents rice fields. Her parents Marin and Joanna Durand started the family rice and crawfish business in 1969. Fifty-three years later it is still the Durand family business, with the brothers handling the fields and the sisters operating Teche Valley Seafood, the crawfish processing facility.
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.
Venice Marina hugs the Gulf of Mexico with some of the best fish being landed year-round. Anglers from across the globe bring rod and reel to the famed marina expecting to fill their fishing boats with daily limits. Recently the fishing boats and rods and reels were replaced with airboats loaded with camouflaged rifle-carrying men in search of an invasive species, the Nutria.
Signs of life are returning along Bayou Barataria. Crab boats laden with traps navigate the waterway, careful to avoid unseen debris. Workboats supporting offshore oilrigs also tread lightly through the minefield. Nowhere but nowhere are there signs of recreational fisher casting for their favorite catch. Partly this is because the marina at Jean Lafitte Harbor is barely open seven months after Hurricane Ida dealt its near-fatal blow.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Approximately $50 million in grants to support seafood processors, processing facilities and processing vessels through the Seafood Processors Pandemic Response and Safety Block Grant Program (SPRS) will come from the The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). This funding is linked to COVID and the pandemic’s impact on the fishing industry.Louisiana Seafood Processors are slated to receive $4.2 million of the available funds.
Visitor Comments