Tag Archives: Buddy Guindon
In the Coronavirus Economy, Texas’ Commercial Fishermen Are Barely Treading Water
Most of Texas’ commercial fishermen have seen similar struggles. As has been the case across food industries, the pandemic’s economic fallout on Gulf Coast commercial anglers and local wholesalers brought their boats and operations ashore like a summer storm. Their financial livelihoods and the industry’s future, as well as generations of rich commercial fishing tradition, are at stake. Without restaurants, in other words, seafood demand plummets. Commercial angler Buddy Guindon, who co-owns Katie’s Seafood Market with his wife, Katie, says their operation in Galveston felt the pandemic’s impact almost immediately. When local restaurants mostly closed up shop, they were forced to cut their employees’ fishing trips short. >click to read< 10:00
Is the United States ready for offshore aquaculture?
Harlon Pearce walks muck-booted past processors gutting wild drum and red snapper to showcase a half-full new 5,000-square-foot (500-square-meter) freezer he hopes will someday house a fresh boom of marine fish. Harlon’s LA Fish sits just across the railroad tracks from the Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport, perfectly positioned to ship fish out of Louisiana. As president of the New Orleans–based Gulf Seafood Institute, seafood supplier Pearce is a big fish himself in these parts, connected to fishermen, federal agencies, restaurateurs and even the oil industry. He knows better than anyone that wild fisheries alone can’t supply U.S. consumers’ growing demand for fish. Which is why he’s doing his best to bring everyone to the table to achieve one goal: farming the Gulf of Mexico. click here to read the story 16:31
Zurik: Snapper barons slam FOX 8 probe, but Trump admin. may think otherwise
An alliance of fishermen who make millions off a public resource wants us to retract all our stories from our “Hooked Up” series. The series showed how 50 fishermen can make $23 million a year from red snapper, and many never even drop a line in the water. The Gulf of Mexico Reef Fish Shareholders’ Alliance and its executive director, Buddy Guindon, sent us a 23-page letter, calling our stories sloppy and biased. Many of the complaints focus on statements made by subjects we interviewed for our stories. They include 20 separate citations of comments in our series by Congressman Garret Graves of Louisiana.,, Graves says he’s heard from congressmen from all over the country since our five-part series was broadcast. He thinks now is the time to change the system.,,,While the group of 50 fishermen have been unhappy with our reports, we’ve heard from dozens of others with positive comments, like a Florida commercial fisherman who wrote, “Your report hit home with all our concerns in regards to how unfair the small commercial fishermen are being treated and wrongly represented.”Read the story here 12:32
Hooked Up!!! Catch Share Politics – ‘Sea Lords’ hook a congressional reformer
Steve Southerland agrees: He was something of a threat to some commercial fishermen. The former Florida congressman led the effort to change a federal program (catch shares) – unknown to most taxpayers – that allows a handful of businesses and fishermen to make millions off a government resource, creating what some fisherman call “lords of the sea.” The government essentially decides who will be a successful commercial fisherman and who will not.” And it doesn’t matter how hard you work,” Southerland says. “It doesn’t matter, you know, how much money you have to… That you’ve borrowed. It’s all based on a philosophy. And if you believed in that philosophy, then you win.” Southerland took to the floor of Congress, trying to make changes. In response, the same commercial fishermen profiting off this government resource poured tens of thousands of dollars into the campaign account of Southerland’s congressional opponent. Those same fishermen contributed additional money to a political action committee called Ocean Champions that also went after Southerland. “I think that it was a group of fishermen that worked towards that,” says Galveston, Texas commercial fisherman Buddy Guindon. “Mostly guys out of Florida. I didn’t have much to do with it. I contributed a little money to them.” Video, Read the story here 08:25
Zurik: ‘Snapper barons’ raking in riches from public resource
On the tip of Louisiana’s coast, Dean Blanchard built his seafood business from nothing. “It’s what made America great, is hard-working, good people,” Blanchard says. But, he tells us, a few miles away from Grand Isle – on waters owned by taxpayers – a multi-million-dollar government handout functions like the opposite of the capitalism that helps put food on his table. “When Russia and China just let certain people do certain things, what do we call them? We call them communists. I mean, I don’t see no difference.” Blanchard is criticizing a federal program, unknown to most taxpayers, that allows a handful of businesses and fishermen to make millions off a government resource – creating what some fishermen call “Lords of the Sea.” But there’s more. Many of the shareholders don’t even fish. We spoke with Galveston’s Buddy Guindon, third on the list, who can make $1.4 million. “It’s a great asset,”,, You won’t read this stuff in a NOAA report! Click here to watch the video and read the story along with interactive Top 15 IFQ Shareholder info graphs. 20:54
HOOKED UP: Red snapper catch share allotment a “retirement plan” for many shareholders
The most controversial part of the Red Snapper IFQ program may be the part that allows shareholders to sell their yearly allocation. It essentially turns some fishermen into businessmen. Our research has revealed about 120 shareholders – 37 percent of the whole – sell their entire allocation each year. It allows the shareholders to make tens, and in some cases, hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. Galveston commercial fisherman Buddy Guindon defends these fishermen ”It’s his retirement,” he tells us. Slidell commercial fisherman Tommy Williams thinks some of the program needs to be tweaked, but he thinks these shares provide security for retirement fishermen “They worked for the shares,” Williams says. “They were out here, getting their hands cut, cut by fish, bit by fish, baiting hooks. That is their retirement because most fishermen don’t have a 401(k). This is their 401(k).” FOX 8 News sent letters to the fishermen who appeared to be selling their yearly allocations. We heard back from many of them. Read the story here 09:20
‘Big Fish, Texas’ Follows Buddy Guindon And His Commercial Fishing Empire
Buddy Guindon is no stranger to hard work, having built up his company from only one boat to an entire fleet of boats and building Katie’s Seafood Market, which is named after Buddy’s wife. The entire Guindon family works together like a well-oiled machine in order to maintain and build upon what Buddy started. Buddy Guindon and his family are well known in Galveston, Texas, and he is a respected advocate of the Gulf fishery. Video, Read the article here 08:13
Commercial Fishermen Unified Against Gulf Red Snapper Takeover
Commercial fishermen throughout the United States have stood up and opposed the plan by the Gulf of Mexico state managers to take over red snapper management and eliminate the commercial quota system. “It’s incredible the response we’ve gotten,” said Buddy Guindon, Executive Director of the Gulf of Mexico Reef Fish Shareholders’ Alliance based in Galveston, TX. “From Alaska to Maine, California to South Carolina, our brother and sister commercial fishermen have united ,,, Read the rest here 09:30
Transferring red-snapper control to states is adored and despised – the current mess created by federal mismanagement.
“There is now no question in our minds that our state directors do not represent the best interests of commercial fishermen. They fight us at every turn, trying to destabilize our business plans and promote half-baked ideas that hurt conservation and undermine sustainability. This scam will hurt hardworking commercial fishermen and the American public that wants to eat fresh, sustainably harvested red snapper.” — Buddy Guindon, executive director of the Gulf of Mexico Reef Fish Shareholders’ Alliance, Read the rest here photo 16:33
National Marine Fisheries Service violated law – Federal Ruling on Allocation Favors Gulf Commercial Red Snapper Fishermen
Federal Ruling on Allocation Favors Gulf Commercial Red Snapper Fishermen A federal ruling has been handed down that the U.S. government violated the law by failing to properly manage the Gulf of Mexico Red Snapper fishery. Read more here 16:16
