March 16, 2021 — The limitations placed on dining, workplaces and businesses to curb the spread of the coronavirus are just the latest in a string of hard hits for the Louisiana’s seafood industry, which has faced one problem after another in the last few years.
As Business Report details in a new feature, the industry was already battling competition from foreign imports, which undercut prices and inspired the Louisiana Legislature in 2019 to pass a seafood labelling law requiring restaurant menus to label whether shrimp and crawfish are of Louisiana origin.
In 2019, the opening of the Bonnet Carre Spillway for 123 days released an influx of freshwater from the Mississippi River into oyster-harvesting areas, decimating the supply. Add to that, the 2020 hurricane season, in which the state’s fertile waters and seafood farms faced off against five named landfalling storms.