Tag Archives: Barataria Bay
Fishing industry vows to sue over $2 billion land-building project
Leaders of Louisiana’s commercial fishing industry say legal action may be the last and best tool they have to fight a $2 billion restoration project that will dramatically alter a large section of the coast. The Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion is the flagship project of an ambitious state-led plan to fight coastal land loss. At a joint meeting of the state’s shrimp, crab and oyster task forces this week, several commercial fishers and business leaders predicted dire and wide-reaching consequences. The meeting, held at an auditorium in Belle Chasse, drew about 35 people. “It’s going to wipe us out,” said John Tesvich, owner of a Plaquemines oyster processing company. Once the oyster harvesters and shrimpers are gone, many other industries will suffer, Jurisic said. >click to read< 17:25
An oysterman’s new worry: Will state’s coastal plan wash out his business?
Terry Shelley has spent his entire working life as a commercial fisherman. Before he was a full-time oyster farmer and harvester, he spent the first part of his career harvesting shrimp and reef fish. He’s seen a lot, but not a pileup of challenges like now. Back in September, Hurricane Zeta rumbled over small-town Port Sulphur, Louisiana, where the family’s oyster farm and processing center are based. The Shelleys lost half their cages, and they only managed to retrieve about half of that. Already by then, the Coronavirus pandemic had temporarily halted the supply lines Shelley Farms uses to sell its oysters. Now, after losing most of his oyster crop last year, Mr. Shelley has another worry on his mind. Louisiana coastal planners are pushing a $2 billion project proposal designed to fight back against the trend of persistent coastal erosion. >click to read< 15:24
Barataria Bay project seen to create 27 square miles of land, displace brown shrimp and oysters
“The fishing industry doesn’t see the payoff here. It’s going to kill us more than it’s going to help anything,” said Cooper, president of the Louisiana Shrimp Association. He said he feels as though the sparsely populated fishing communities of lower Plaquemines Parish, where the diversion is to be built, have been written off.,, Louisiana’s proposal for Mid-Barataria calls for spending part of a $303 million chunk of mitigation money to help fishers adapt to the disruption in their lives and their bank accounts. But industry representatives doubt that the government’s analyses sufficiently assess the economic cost of such a drastic change to an industry that not only supplies seafood,,, >click to read< 10:12
More Mississippi River sediment will mean more problems for Louisiana shrimpers
Louisiana’s quintessential shrimper – the independent, weather-beaten man with a small boat that’s seen better days – may be the hardest hit by two sediment diversions planned on the Mississippi River. A new report indicates many shrimpers will need help adapting, possibly in the form of grants, subsidies and job re-training, once the diversions begin funneling fresh water and sediment into Barataria Bay and Breton Sound. The sediment is likely to alter the distribution, abundance and types of shrimp in areas where shrimpers have fished for decades. Most vulnerable will be shrimpers with small, one-boat operations who are middle-aged or older and cannot easily transition to another career, according to the report by the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana, a Baton Rouge-based nonprofit group. click here to read the story 10:08
Omega Protein Vessel, Barataria Bay, Given New Purpose as Artificial Reef in Gulf of Mexico
The 
is the latest Omega Protein vessel to be sunk for the purpose of creating a new reef, as the company is a regular ecological collaborator with the Mississippi DMR. In November 2009, Omega Protein sunk another one of its retired long-time fishing vessels, the Great Wicomico, off the coast of Mississippi for a separate reef project. A third Omega Protein vessel, the von Rosenberg, was sunk in May 2000. Read the rest here 17:08
