Tag Archives: Lance Nacio

Fishing for Solutions: The race to protect coastal Louisiana’s cultures and way of life

The seafood and fishing industry provides tens of thousands of jobs to Louisiana, many of them via small family businesses in coastal communities. And while dealing with the impacts of climate change, local fishers and shrimpers also are contending with imported products driving down prices, fuel costs, fisheries allocations, regulatory constraints and an aging workforce. Local fishers in recent years have been grappling with skyrocketing insurance rates as well, making it harder to recover once the storm has passed. Photos, >click to read< 09:09

Hurricane Ida: In this bayou town, Louisiana fishers team to feed neighbors in need

Milton Naquin would otherwise be running his shrimp boat out of Delcambre with white shrimp season in full swing. But instead last Thursday he and his family and a crew from his Jessica Gail Seafood company rolled into Montegut with a long, covered trailer rigged up to cook huge batches of jambalaya and alligator sauce piquant. Word spread quickly around the small bayou town and soon people were pulling up for a free, hot meal. “I like to cook, cuss, drink and tell lies,” Naquin proclaimed, while doing at least two of those things. photos, >click to read< 19:26

‘Another punch in the gut’: Gulf Coast shrimpers navigate the coronavirus crisis

Shrimping is a hard business. Gulf Coast shrimpers, who bring in three quarters of the nation’s catch, have been battered with waves of bad luck. Hurricanes. A flood of cheap imports. The BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010. Fresh water diversions that kill seafood. And now the coronavirus. Restaurants buy 80% of both imported and domestic shrimp, according to the Southern Shrimp Alliance. With restaurants closed or offering only takeout, no one is buying much shrimp. Next month would typically launch the peak of shrimp season as Gulf states begin their annual opening of nearshore waters to shrimping. >click to read< 07:45