Tag: Featured
Sitting around a u-shaped conference table at the historic Hotel Gavez on Galveston Island, Top Chef Texas winner Chef Paul Qui joined 11 other Gulf chefs and a dozen other seafood industry leaders to quiz and question a local fisherman on how better communications could be established between the water and the plate.
You can call the Louisiana alligator a lot of things. But, an environmentalist responsible for saving the coastal wetlands – really?
Yes, really.
The alligator is one of the prime reasons driving the conservation of coastal wetlands, according to Mark Shirley, specialist for Louisiana State University (LSU) Agricultural Center (AgCenter) and field agent for Louisiana Sea Grant.
Recognizing the need for an integrated group dedicated to science and education in the Gulf, the Ocean Conservancy has pledged $20,000 seed money for the Gulf Seafood Institute. The institute’s vision is to establish a close working relationships with all the Gulf’s environmental and seafood organizations.
You’ve heard the expression that “quality is job one” when it comes to making cars. That same thinking applies to raising alligators and delivering flawless skins to market. “Farm-raised gators is all about the quality,” said Craig Sagrera, of Vermilion Gator Farm, a family-run business. Given the nature of alligators, however, ensuring quality is no easy task.
It’s wild alligator harvest season in many of the Gulf States. Gulf Seafood News will publish a four part in-depth look at the industry. Television shows such as “Swamp People” have raised the awareness of the benefits of alligator meat to an ever-widening audience. For the industry this has been both a blessing and a curse – prices are at an all time high, but meat is often in short supply.
Most of the Louisiana oysters are farmed on reefs. This includes oyster farms that are dependent on a source of wild seed oysters, usually transplanted from public oyster grounds that historically have cyclical production.
Louisiana Sea Grant has recently completed a video demonstrating how to build an oyster nursery silo from a 55-gallon plastic drum.
From Manchac to the Rigolets, the rows and rows of neatly stacked crab traps sitting unused on docks and piers tell a story that local crabbers hope will eventually have a happy ending. But for the time being, many are bracing and preparing for the worst. Among them is Manchac-based crabber Laramie Hill.
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