Tag Archives: sediment diversions

The Mississippi River Devastated Fisheries This Year. Some See It As A Preview Of The Future

On a bayou in the St. Bernard Parish town of Yscloskey, George Barisich starts up his shrimp boat. “Hear that?” he says, as the diesel engine below our feet roars to a start. “That’s the sound we want to hear.” Barisich says that engine hasn’t gotten much use lately. There is no point in heading into the marsh when there aren’t any shrimp to catch. “I’m 82 percent off on my brown shrimp,” he says of this season. “Eighty two. And there’s a lot of people just as bad.” This year’s historic flooding on the Mississippi River has decimated the coast’s fisheries. >click to read< 17:48:45

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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

Diversion! EDF and “Partners” Pay For Full Page Add to Squash Fishing Communities in Louisiana

save louisiana coalitionAndy Nyman, a wetland scientist at LSU, said scientists discussed the need to counter (what they call) misinformation being spread about future sediment diversions. When nonprofit coastal groups offered to pay for the advertising space, Nyman and Mike Carloss, a retired official with the state Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, started working on a draft. The advertisement was paid for by the Restore the Mississippi River Delta Coalition which is made up of the Environmental Defense Fund, National Wildlife Federation, National Audubon Society, Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation and the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana. Read the rest here 08:46