U.S. Congressman Garret Graves is calling for the U.S. Department of Commerce to immediately declare a “Fishery Disaster Determination” due to both the biological resources and fishery infrastructure sustaining major damage related to Hurricane Ida. Commerce is able to declare the disaster provided by the provisions within the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act and Interjurisdictional Fisheries Act. The declared disaster would provide targeted relief to one of the most impacted sectors of Louisiana’s economy. The funds would help both commercial and recreational fishers begin to recover. >click to read< 18:31
Tag Archives: Louisiana
Hurricane Ida: Commercial fishers in Louisiana – “That’s our living. I have nothing to fall back on,,,
“I was just trying to save every little thing I could and ended up losing it anyway,” Darrel Domangue said. “It’s hard to leave when you got nothing else. I know other people will say it’s just material things, but to us poor people, the material things is all we got besides one another. That’s our living.” Domangue didn’t have insurance on his home, boat or bait shop. “I have nothing to fall back on, and I have no education,”,, “I don’t think a minimum wage job is going to help me rebuild my house. I’m going to have to find some way, some how. photos, >click to read< 07:11
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
Turtle excluders
A federal court in Louisiana granted Attorney General Jeff Landry’s request to preliminarily enjoin implementation of a National Marine Fisheries Service’s rule requiring “Turtle Excluder Devices” on certain skimmer trawl boats operating in inshore waters. Landry’s office called it a “major win” for shrimpers, which were having difficulty complying with the rule due to pandemic-related supply chain issues. >click to read the order< 16:55
Hurricane Ida: Dozens of Groundings and Sinkings Block Louisiana’s Inland Waterways
Thursday, the U.S. Coast Guard released an update on the full extent of the impact of Hurricane Ida in the vicinity of Bayou Lafourche, the working waterway that leads inland from Port Fourchon. The area was right in the path of the hurricane’s eye, and while Port Fourchon has reopened, navigation remains closed on Bayou Lafourche because of dozens of sunken and grounded vessels.,, So far, 25 vessels requiring salvage and removal – fishing vessels, crew boats and OSVs – have been found in the Bayou Lafourche channel. 30 more submerged targets have been identified in the Houma Navigation Canal, including 15 that have recently been cleared or removed. photos, >click to read< 09:51
Hurricane Ida: Shrimper Norman Bouisse survives 13 hours on capsized boat. Grant Bundy came to get him.
As a shrimper, he’s called Lafitte home for seven decades. “To me, it’s the best place,” he said. He thought he’d seen it all. “This is the worst. This is the worst,” he said while looking at what Ida left behind. Bouisse planned to ride out the storm with a friend in Lafitte. He thought he had time to check on his boat in Bayou Barataria, but Ida was too quick and too strong. “I was on my boat and my boat broke loose and rolled over,” he said. “I spent almost 13 hours laying on the boat and the next morning my friend came and rescued me.” His friend’s name is Grant Bundy. Video, >click to read< 08:14
Commercial fisherman rides out Hurricane Ida in his boat before 140 mph winds flipped it
Kimothy Guy, 57, is one the few people who did not evacuate from the coastal shrimping, crabbing and fishing community ahead of Ida’s arrival Aug. 29. He and three others in the immediate vicinity rode out the storm on their fishing boats in an attempt to save their livelihoods. Instead, the commercial fishers barely lived to tell the tale, as their boats snapped free from the ropes tying them to the shore and flipped over during the Category 4 hurricane. “We had four of us, me and three others, that had stayed to try to save our boats, but we didn’t save none of them,” Guy said, 
noting that if he knew then what he does now, he would have evacuated. “Now I know we don’t have nothing to stay for. We don’t have no more house. We don’t have no more boat.” “I ain’t got no choice. I have to stay,” Guy said. “That’s all I ever did all my life, commercial fish. That’s what I do for a living. I’m a water person. I need the water to survive.” photos, >click to read< 17:13
Southern Louisiana bayou fishing community left tattered by Hurricane Ida
Chad Portier of Faith Family Shrimp, a fishing operation in Chauvin, La., stands inside his 80-foot-trawler, the F/V Jenson Joseph, where he and seven family members and neighbors rode out Hurricane Ida. The wind damage of Hurricane Ida has left small fishing vessels scattered and destroyed along Bayou Little Caillou in Chauvin, La. With the scattered debris, sunken ships and damaged lock systems along the coast in southern Louisiana, locals fear it could be months before the fishing industry can make a full comeback. 11 photos, >click to read< 07:29
Boats Become Homes after Hurricane Ida
Shrimp boats that line the bayou are damaged but still afloat after Hurricane Ida. “Oh, we have Lowrance, plotters, GPS…”, says Carey Chauvin. The major hurricane force winds completely destroyed homes in bayou towns like Chauvin. Now residents are forced to seek shelter elsewhere until they are able to rebuild. Growing up we endured every storm on this boat. Named after my mom, the F/V Lady Melissa. Photos, Video >click to watch< 18:49
Hurricane Ida: Coast Guard Probing 350 Reports of Oil Spills in the Gulf of Mexico
The U.S. Coast Guard on Monday said it was probing nearly 350 reports of oil spills in and along the U.S. Gulf Coast in the wake of Hurricane Ida. Hurricane Ida’s 150 mile per hour winds wreaked havoc on offshore oil production platforms and onshore oil and gas processing plants. About 88% of the region’s offshore oil production remains shut and more than 100 platforms unoccupied after the storm made landfall Aug. 29. The Coast Guard has been conducting flyovers,,, Flights on Sunday found evidence of a new leak from an offshore well and reported another leak responsible for a miles-long streak of oil was no longer active. >click to read< The U.S. Coast Guard is working with Houston-based oil company Talos Energy to respond to a large spill off the coast of Port Fourchon, Louisiana. >click to read< 10:04
Hurricane Ida: Leaves Toxic Chemicals, Oil Spills, And Sewage Swirling In Her Wake
Days after the storm swept through the region, the environmental aftermath is emerging in a petrochemical corridor packed with hazardous-chemical plants and refineries. In some areas, the chemicals are mixing with raw sewage released from treatment plants that lost power.,, Nearly 100 spills and other episodes have been reported to the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality as of Thursday afternoon, raising concerns among environmentalists and public health officials about toxic discharges. >click to read< 10:47
Video: Coast Guard medevacs shark attack victim with partially amputated leg, overboard from commercial fishing vessel
The Coast Guard medevaced an injured crew member from a fishing vessel after a shark attack approximately 35 miles southeast of Grand Isle, Louisiana, Friday. Coast Guard Sector New Orleans watchstanders received a call at 12:51 a.m. via VHF-FM channel 16 from personnel aboard the fishing vessel F/V Moon Glow stating a 64-year-old male crew member had been attacked by a shark and sustained a severe leg injury. The man had reportedly been untangling fishing nets from the vessel’s propeller when he fell overboard and was bitten by a shark of an unknown size and species. Crew members aboard the Moon Glow applied a tourniquet to the man’s partially amputated leg and radioed for help. photos, >click for video< 17:19
Destin convoy: Brothers helping brothers ‘because we should’
Taking everything from generators to Gatorade, a group of Destin fishermen and others loaded up in the wee hours of Thursday morning and headed to Louisiana to help those in need after Category 4 Hurricane Ida ravaged the Gulf state. “We’re doing it because we should. They would do it for us,” said Capt. Travis Ream. Ream was one of 18 people in a nine-truck convoy of sorts, with two trailers in tow, that headed out Thursday at 3 a.m. to make the haul to Louisiana. “We’re a fishing community and 40% of our business comes out of Louisiana,” Krebs said. “We’re just like brothers … we’re all in this together.” >click to read< 08:34
Grand Isle, Louisiana: Extensive damage to many boats in the fishing community, photos.
Damage from Hurricane Ida is still being assessed after it made landfall on Sunday. The storm caused at least four deaths in Louisiana and Mississippi, while thousands more were left without power and continued flooding. One area that saw extensive damage was Grand Isle, a fishing community in southeastern Louisiana, also known as the Cajun Riviera. Boats were flipped over and left sideways in the water and along roads. Roofs of many lake houses were swept away by the storm’s strong winds and rain. 55 Photos, >click to read< 16:55
It’s bad. Hurricane Ida death toll rises, alligator kills man, highway collapses killing two
More than 1million individuals in Louisiana stay with out energy and are dealing with weeks with out it in stifling warmth and humidity.,, As the flood waters subside, communities are actually confronted with an arduous clean-up and injury restore mission and emergency providers have warned that within the days forward, the death toll is probably going to rise as extra individuals are discovered. Officials are additionally anticipating a drastic spike in COVID instances, with the storm making a ‘good petri dish’ for unfold of the virus. Lt. Governor Billy Nungesser mentioned on Tuesday morning that crews would exit in boats and high-water vans ‘at first mild’ to discover any survivors. photo’s, >click to read< 08:03
Louisiana: Coast Guard conducts Hurricane Ida post-storm overflights along the Gulf Coast
The Coast Guard is conducting critical incident search and rescue overflights and assessing for damage Monday along the Gulf Coast Region of Louisiana following Hurricane Ida. Assets conducted critical incident search and rescue overflights and assessing for damage Monday along the Gulf Coast Region of Louisiana. Photos, >click to read< 14:39
Hurricane Ida: Moving north into the Gulf, expected to strengthen to Cat 4
Ida, currently a Category 1 hurricane, is expected to make landfall late Sunday or early Monday. Sunday is the 16th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. Watches and warnings are in effect for Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. Saturday could be rainy in south Louisiana, making storm prep and evacuations more complicated, forecasters said. The rain is not from Hurricane Ida but from another disturbance moving over the state. Lots of details, >click to read<, to be updated. Life-threatening winds, storm surge, flooding and tornadoes from Hurricane Ida are expected Sunday. 11:04
Louisiana sues NMFS over ‘devastating’ rule for its shrimpers
Louisiana has sued the National Marine Fisheries Service in New Orleans federal court to stop it from implementing a regulation that obliges certain shrimp fishermen to install devices that keep endangered sea turtles out of their catch. In a Wednesday complaint, Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry said the rule that took effect on Aug. 1, about a week before the beginning of the state’s shrimping season, will have “devastating consequences” on the fishermen’s already thin profit margins, and has sowed confusion with fishermen unable to find enough suppliers of so-called turtle-excluder devices for their fishing nets because the coronavirus pandemic has disrupted the supply chain. >click to read< 19:38
Delcambre Shrimp Festival, Blessing of the Fleet Set for August 18th – 22nd
From shrimp to sugar and gumbo, Iberia Parish is getting ready for the busy fall festival season with three major festivals to be held in person this year. Shrimp rules at the Delcambre Shrimp Festival, which celebrates the town of Delcambre’s local shrimping industry with a street fair, delicious dishes and top notch entertainment. This year’s festival is set for Aug. 18-22. >click to read< For more information and the complete schedule of events, visit ShrimpFestival.net or email [email protected]
Persistence, ability to overcome adversity keeps this local trawler going after 30+ years
The job of a trawler is the same every day: catch shrimp. But the opponent one is up against (weather, seas, Mother Nature) is always slightly different each day. Being able to adjust to the unknown is Thomas Crosby’s specialty on the water. It’s a skill he believes allows him to be a good fisherman. The captain of the ‘Limited Edition’ since the late 1980s, Crosby has been on the water for as long as he can remember. The experienced captain said a good trawler is capable of adapting, adjusting and rolling with the punches, even if they come often and from a lot of unexpected directions. >click to read< 18:28
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
Sen. John Kennedy – Sea turtle regulations hindered search for Seacor mariners
Louisiana Sen. John Kennedy criticized the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in a letter this week, claiming regulations for shrimpers caused an unnecessary hindrance in the search for missing Seacor Power members. Kennedy said he issued his letter after volunteers with the Cajun Navy said NOAA voiced strong opposition to the use of trawling nets in the recovery effort due to concern over federal regulations related to sea turtles. Kennedy alleges in his letter that NOAA would not allow volunteer shrimp boats to use nets with tied turtle excluder devices, knowns as TEDs, for recovery efforts. >click to read< 09:09
What’s good for America?!!: Impact of Foreign Workers on American Jobs a Contentious Issue in US
The colossal impact of immigrant labor in the United States extends to Louisiana’s struggling fisheries. “I’ve been hiring workers from Mexico, Honduras and everywhere else for 20 years,” Dean Blanchard, president of Blanchard Seafood, Inc. George Barisich, a fisherman in the suburbs of New Orleans, Louisiana, draws a distinction between lawful and undocumented immigration. He voted twice for former President Donald Trump, who 
championed restrictive immigration policies. Even so, Barisich agrees with Blanchard that immigrants play a vital role in his industry. “During shrimping season, we need legal immigrants to work in those factories,” he said. “It’s hard work, it’s decent pay, and it’s stuff young Americans just don’t want to do anymore.” >click to read< 11:05
Maryland Governor Calls for more HB-2 Visas – Governor Larry Hogan urged federal officials to make more H-2B Nonimmigrant Temporary Worker Program visas available to help protect Maryland’s $355 million seafood industry and supply chain. >click to read<
The host parish for Mid-Barataria diversion just voted 8-0 thumbs down against it – would destroy economy, culture
The Plaquemines Parish Council has decided to oppose Louisiana’s $2 billion plan to channel land-building sediment and nutrient-laden water from the Mississippi River,,, Members said the Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion project would destroy their parish’s seafood-based economy and culture. The 8-0 thumbs down from the governing authority in the project’s home parish marks an expected rebuke for Gov. John Bel Edwards, his coastal planners and their nonprofit advocates, who see Mid-Barataria as the flagship project in the state’s 50-year, $50 billion effort to stave off the disappearance of much of the bottom third of Louisiana into the Gulf of Mexico. >click to read< 11:13
Garret Graves calls CARES Act funding for Louisiana fisheries a ‘slap in the face’
U.S. Congressman Garret Graves released the following statement regarding the $12,477,165 allocated to Louisiana fisheries to mitigate the economic hardships accrued by the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the Louisiana Sixth District Congressman is “baffled” only 4.9 percent of the available funds was provided to Louisiana despite being one of the top fisheries states in the nation. Last year, under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act), Louisiana received $14.7 million of the $300 million allocated. Rep. Graves’ statement >click to read< 21:00
Back on the Bayou: Local shrimp boat blessings return after a year lost to COVID
In a decades-old tradition, Catholic churches in fishing communities throughout south Louisiana lead the blessings in hopes of a safe and prosperous shrimp season. This year, the Rev. Antonio Speedy of Holy Family Catholic Church said the Blessing of the Fleet in Bayou Grand Caillou will look more like normal but will still have to keep the pandemic in mind. “It will be mostly family units on the boats, and it’s an outdoor event, so there will be plenty of wind blowing around, but we still have to stay prudent.” >click to read< 10:02
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
Massive, unexplained bivalve die-off sends many Louisiana oystermen back to square one
Mitch Jurisich, a third-generation oysterman, dropped a long pair of oyster tongs into the Gulf of Mexico and lightly raked the water bottom. When he brought up his catch, all but one were dead. The more resilient hooked mussels, typically found clustered along the area’s oyster reefs, had suffered the same fate. The stench of rotting bivalves filled the air. “That’s the smell of death,” Jurisich said. Early this month, millions of pounds of oysters in leases that line Plaquemines Parish’s west bank were found dead, their mouths agape. It’s unclear why. >click to read< 10:15
Gov. Edwards announces program to help Louisiana shrimpers
Gov. John Bel Edwards announced the creation of a $250,000 program that will pay part of the cost shrimp fishermen will have to pay for mandated devices to protect sea turtles and other animals from getting trapped in their nets. The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries will operate the Skimmer Turtle Excluder Device Reimbursement Program (STEDRP), which will reimburse up to 60 percent of the cost for two skimmer Turtle Excluder Devices, commonly called TEDs. >click to read< 12:02
Coast Guard conducts overflight of areas near Lake Charles affected by Hurricane Delta
The Coast Guard is conducting critical incident search and rescue overflights Saturday along the Western Gulf Coast Region for Hurricane Delta post-storm operations. A Coast Guard Aviation Training Center Mobile HC-144 Ocean Sentry aircrew conducted overflights near Lake Charles to assess damage and identify hazards. Coast Guard MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter and MH-65 Dolphin helicopter aircrews conducted overflights near Lake Charles and other impacted areas. As of 1 p.m. Saturday, there have been no reports of Coast Guard post-storm emergency distress calls, or search and rescue incidents.photos, >click to read< 16:03
