Tag: Hurricane Ida
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.
Hurricane Ida, and three others in two years, has thrown the Gulf seafood industry into turmoil. Add to that Covid, unprecedented fuel prices, new state and federal fishing regulations, inflation and a tight labor market; the result has been astronomical seafood costs for both the individual consumer and restaurants across the country.
“Everything is tied to the water,” said Tracy Kuhns, President of the GO FISH Coalition, formed after the BP oil spill in 2010 as an advocate for commercial fishing. “It’s just part of your everyday life. The way you live.”
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.
Gulf Crown Seafood’s Jeff Floyd and his son Jon agree that every year in the seafood business is unique. Each year new problems arise and are added to the same old ones continuously sticking around. Last year new problems arising from Covid and Hurricane Ida were added to the old ones; H2B visiting worker visa, labor shortages, import prices and product availability.
Before Hurricane Ida, Montegut oysterman Mark Naquin admits the last couple of year’s production on his leases was slow. He had hope 2021 would be better. Recent plantings showed baby oysters everywhere. Then the storm undid his hard work leaving his business in shambles.
A large majority of Louisiana’s crabs comes from the waters of the Barataria Estuary, situated between the Mississippi River and Bayou Lafourche. Scott Sugasti has been on those waters working his traps since an early age, and as one of the younger crabbers on the bayou he knows hard work is the key to success. Since Hurricane Ida he has had to work harder at avoiding numerous pitfalls the storm has caused for local fishermen.
What do you do after graduating culinary arts school? Marry your sweetheart of course. Then open an award winning farm-to-table restaurant, open the best new restaurant in New Orleans, have your own cooking show on the Food Network, and then – and only then – become executive director of the Louisiana Seafood Promotion and Marketing Board. This is the storied life of Samantha Carroll, who with her husband Cody, have been dubbed “The King and Queen of Louisiana Seafood.”
Sea Grant’s mission is to enhance the practical use and conservation of coastal and marine resources in order to create a sustainable economy and environment. With four hurricanes in two years, Julie Lively, the executive director of Louisiana Sea Grant at LSU, has had to balance the organizational mission with that of assisting the state’s seafood community’s recovery from the storms.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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