LOUISIANA — August 15, 2012 — Lasting impressions are made with working examples. That is why area seafood industry leaders, in cooperation with the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries and the Louisiana Seafood Promotion and Marketing Board, invited 21 congressional staff members to join them in Terrebonne Parish and New Orleans for an inside look at the business.
The tour included multiple activities ranging from cutting fish to harvesting oysters and crabs to skinning an alligator. Federal government insiders – most had never been in this environment – rode along on working vessels, toured oyster, shrimp and tuna processing facilities and dined at area restaurants Thursday through Saturday. The intention was to give those that help process legislation for their elected employers a real-life look at one primary industry of coastal Louisiana.
The tour was capped-off by participating in Saturday’s Restaurant Association’s American Seafood Cook-off in New Orleans.
“These are staff members of different senators and congressmen,” state Rep. Gordon Dove said while joining the tour Friday at Motivatit Seafood and Gulf Fish Inc. “We invited them down for a fact-finding mission on the seafood industry. These are the guys you really want to talk to because they are going to put together the information for congressmen that draft legislation.”
Dove explained to the congressional staffers how BP fines are going toward coastal restoration and said efforts are being made to protect the fishing industry as well as restore the environment.
“These people spend their time in [Washington], D.C., and don’t often get out in the real world,” Motivatit Seafood owner Mike Voisin said. “It’s great for them and for us.”
Read the full story at the Tri-Parish Times.