Tag: Louisiana shrimp task force
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.
A recently released report detailing infrastructure, revenue and resource loss to Louisiana Fisheries have prompted a Louisiana Congressmen to ask the Department of Commerce (DOC) to expedite a Fishery Disaster Determination due to major damage related to impacts of Hurricanes Laura, Delta, Zeta and especially Ida.
On August 29, 2021 Hurricane Ida blasted ashore along the Louisiana coast almost complete destroying everything in its path. Infrastructure was hard hit, especially infrastructure vital to Louisiana’s $2.4 billion seafood industry. Four months later little has changed, and the state’s fishermen, docks, processors, fish houses and restaurants are wondering if it will ever return.
Hurricane Ida struck the heart of Louisiana’s seafood industry as a Category 4 hurricane, wiping out homes, boats, trucks, plants and icehouses. Oyster farmers on Grand Isle lost their entire crop, processing plants from Grand Isle to Dulac lay in ruin and almost 30% of the shrimping fleet in Golden Meadow lay useless at the start of current shrimp season. “If the Louisiana seafood industry is to have any life at all in the near future,” said Gulf Seafood Foundation board member Ewell Smith, “it is all about ice.”
BREAKING NEWS: Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards Joins Call for Seafood Disaster (via Washington Post)
Heeding the call of a seafood coalition led by the Gulf Seafood Foundation, Mississippi Commercial Fisheries United and Louisiana Lt. Governor Billy Nungesser, Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant is the first Gulf governor to petition the federal government to declare a Gulf fisheries disaster. Flood waters from the upper Mississippi River tributaries continue to gush into delicate saltwater estuaries vital to the lifespan of a wide variety of Gulf seafood and the livelihood of fishermen and seafood processors.
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