Saving Seafood

  • Home
  • News
    • Alerts
    • Conservation & Environment
    • Council Actions
    • Economic Impact
    • Enforcement
    • International & Trade
    • Law
    • Management & Regulation
    • Regulations
    • Nutrition
    • Opinion
    • Other News
    • Safety
    • Science
    • State and Local
  • News by Region
    • New England
    • Mid-Atlantic
    • South Atlantic
    • Gulf of Mexico
    • Pacific
    • North Pacific
    • Western Pacific
  • About
    • Contact Us
    • Fishing Terms Glossary

Louisiana Fishing Community Recovery Coalitionโ€™s Harlon Pearce Tells It Like It Is

June 27, 2022 โ€” Hurricane Ida, and three others in two years, has thrown the Gulf seafood industry into turmoil.  Add to that Covid, unprecedented fuel prices, new state and federal fishing regulations, inflation and a tight labor market; the result has been astronomical seafood costs for both the individual consumer and restaurants across the country.

โ€œRestaurants are having a hard time putting oysters and other Gulf seafood on the menu because prices are so high,โ€ said Harlon Pearce owner of Harlonโ€™s LA Fish in New Orleans and chair of the Louisiana Fishing Community Recovery Coalition.  โ€œWhat is sad is restaurants that would have never considered buying imported seafood, are now buying imports.โ€

Hurricanes Laura, Delta, Zeta, and Ida, made landfall in coastal Louisiana causing vital infrastructure losses of approximately $600 million to a region of national importance for domestic fisheries and seafood production.  Since forming in December of year last, the coalition has been seeking ways to rebuild that infrastructure, as well as prevent losses from future storms.

โ€œInfrastructure can be many things to different people.  We have to rebuild docks that are buying product, and they have to be rebuilt better, stronger and higher,โ€ explained Pearce. โ€œThatโ€™s just part of the infrastructure we need.  We need bridges that are better and stronger; in Lafitte they lost the only bridge connecting them to Barataria.  Those are just two needs of a very long list.โ€

Read the full story at Gulf Seafood News

 

Sitting on the Dock of the Bay, Grant Bundy Wonders if He Will Recover

April 11, 2022 โ€” Sitting on a wooden porch swing hanging from what is left of his shrimp dock on Bayou Barataria, Grant Bundy is still in shock.  For nore than seven months since Hurricane Ida blew through Jean Lafitte leaving little behind, he has tried and tried; and then tried again to unsuccessfully get a loan from th Small Business Administration (SBA) to fix his docks, only one of two remaining along the bayou.

โ€œI have to rebuild because I donโ€™t know anything else,โ€ said the owner of Bundyโ€™s Seafood. โ€œThis is my whole life right here.  I could probably go get a job and start at the bottom, but I canโ€™t support my family on minimum wage.  This is my life; Iโ€™m not going anywhere.  Iโ€™m going to rebuild every time.โ€

Bundy, who turns fifty this year, has been a lifelong resident of the Town of Jean Lafitte. With no insurance on his business, which also includes boat storage sheds and a rental house, he immediately applied for SBA loan so he could start repairs on the more than $300,000 in damages Ida inflicted.

โ€œI need some help fixing my place up.  Iโ€™m not asking for nothing.  I would like to get an SBA loan; Iโ€™d pay it back.  Iโ€™ d like to get my place back the way it was so I can make some money,โ€ he told Gulf Seafood News. โ€œRight now I am fixing a little bit at a time as I make a few dollars.  Itโ€™s looking like the $300,000 worth of damage will all have to come out of my pocket.โ€

Read the full story at Gulf Seafood News

 

Louisiana Receives $1.7 Billion in Unexpected Federal Hurricane Relief

March 24, 2022 โ€” Four hurricanes and two tropical storms later, hard hit areas of Louisiana will be the recipient of an unexpected $1.7 billion in federal hurricane relief dollars. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Gov. John Bel Edwards, U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy and Rep. Garret Graves announced the new funding that provided a major infusion to the $600 million previously approved, raising to more than $1 billion the total amount of Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Recovery money available for recovery from these storms.

โ€œIโ€™m grateful to the Biden-Harris administration for their commitment to helping our communities and those around the nation recover from the impacts of these devastating storms,โ€ said Gov. Edwards in a press release.  โ€œI contacted Sec. Fudge to personally thank her for this significant allocation that should provide Louisiana with an opportunity to implement a more effective, albeit late, recovery from Hurricanes Laura and Delta. In addition, Louisiana will receive $1.27 billion for recovery from Hurricane Ida and other 2021 disasters. However, the need is much greater, which everyone we have spoken with in Washington acknowledges. We will continue working to secure that additional funding.โ€

The funds are part of a $5 billion supplemental disaster appropriation Congress enacted in September of last year for all disasters countrywide in 2020-21.  Approximately $450 million will go to Louisianaโ€™s southwest region to cover unmet needs stemming from Hurricanes Laura and Delta, which struck in 2020. The remaining allocated for communities hit by Hurricane Ida last year. Additionally Baton Rouge would receive $4.6 million and $10.8 million to Lake Charles.

Read the full story at Gulf Seafood News

 

Rep. Graves Asks Commerce For Expedited Fishery Disaster Determination

February 7, 2022 โ€” A recently released report detailing infrastructure, revenue and resource loss to Louisiana Fisheries have prompted a Louisiana Congressmen to ask the Department of Commerce (DOC) to expedite a Fishery Disaster Determination due to major damage related to impacts of Hurricanes Laura, Delta, Zeta and especially Ida.

Congressman Garret Graves request to to Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo comes after a recent economic assessment verified the devastating impact to the stateโ€™s fishing communities.

The recently released report by Louisiana Sea Grant and the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries documents extreme damage and loss of revenue over all five sectors of the industry; commercial fishermen, recreational fishing, docks, processors and marinas.

The report and supporting analysis not only confirmed the importance of the stateโ€™s fishing industry but also the massive impact of the storms. It demonstrated more than 8,500 businesses were impacted, resulting in $305 million in damage to fisheries infrastructures such as marinas, docks, seafood processors, and dealers. Combined with an additional $118 million in resource loss and $155 million revenue loss, the total estimated impact is estimated at $579 million.

Read the full story at Gulf Seafood News

Hurricanes cost Louisianaโ€™s commercial seafood sector USD 580 million since 2020

January 28, 2022 โ€” Chauvin, Louisiana, U.S.A.-based shrimp firm Pearl Inc. suffered USD 8.5 million (EUR ) worth of damage due to Hurricane Ida in August 2021. The companyโ€™s plant sustained 180-mph winds for approximately six hours, with its freezer getting blown away and the plant getting nearly completely leveled, according to owner Andrew Blanchard.

Blanchardโ€™s business was one of thousands in Louisianaโ€™s seafood industry impacted by hurricanes Ida, Laura, Delta, and Zeta over the past two years. A new report released by Louisiana Sea Grant and the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries found the four hurricanes since 2020 cost the seafood industry in the U.S. state of Louisiana almost USD 580 million (EUR 521 million) in losses to infrastructure, revenue, and resources. The report documents extreme damage and loss of revenue over all five sectors of the industry: commercial fishermen, recreational fishing, docks, processors, and marinas.

Read the full story from National Fisherman at SeafoodSource

 

Houma Oystermanโ€™s Life Left in Shambles by Hurricane Ida

January 3, 2021 โ€” For more than six hours fifth-generation Houma oysterman Jacob David Hulse, his girlfriend Lindsey Willis and his dog Change huddled in an the oyster shop of friend Kenneth (Keno) Templet struggling to keep the walls and roof from caving as the more than 140-mph winds of Hurricane Ida continuously battered away at the structure.  When the winds started to subside, Hulse thought he had gone through the worse of it.  Like many Louisiana fishermen are finding out, his troubles were only beginning after the storm was finished.

โ€œI feared for my life, I really feared for my life,โ€ Hulse told Gulf Seafood News. โ€œYou hear everyone say it sounds like a freight train, well it does.  A freight train that keeps coming and coming and coming, never sure when it ends.โ€

For the 33-year-old Hulse his four-month continuing nightmare started around three in the afternoon on Sunday, Aug. 29th as the first hurricane force winds started to batter the bunkered down trio.  His 73-year-old mother Gail Hedrick Hulse, with whom he shares his house, had evacuated to Kentwood with his older brother Jason.  The young oysterman had stayed behind to finish boarding his home, as well as securing his boat and truck.

โ€œBy the time I had finished it was too late to escape what was coming,โ€ he said.  โ€œI didnโ€™t want to get stuck in traffic trying to evacuate, so my friend Keno told me to come on over to the oyster shop. He was staying to try and save $20,000 worth of oysters he had in the cooler.โ€

Read the full story at Gulf Seafood News

Louisiana Seafood Leaders Come Together After Hurricane Ida To Pave a Path Forward

October 13, 2021 โ€” For almost two hours Louisianaโ€™s seafood leaders from all sectors of the industry gathered via zoom, mobile phones at restaurants or in cars, and in a conference room in Baton Rouge to discuss the damage of Hurricane Idaโ€™s wrath on the Stateโ€™s seafood industry.  The consensus; the hurricane laid a path of destruction that has crippled almost every sector.

โ€œIt is pretty bad,โ€ said Louisiana Crab Task Force chairman Britney Breaux.  โ€œBayou LaFourche is completely destroyed.  The docks are completely gone, 47 boats have been sunk and there is no ice or clean water. The bayou is filthy and littered with trees everywhere.โ€

โ€œThe purpose of this task force is to help the seafood industry recover from this historically damaging storm,โ€ said Harlon Pearce of the Gulf Seafood Foundation.  โ€œTwenty years ago after Hurricane Katrina we formed a similar group.  Our purpose today is to replicate the success we had then.โ€

The group was gathered under the umbrella of a joint effort between the Gulf Seafood Foundation, Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries (LDWF), Louisiana Sea Grant and Louisiana Ag Center at LSU.  It was comprised of representatives from finfish, docks, bait dealers and marinas; as well as American Shrimp Processorsโ€™ Association, Omega Protein, Oyster Task Force, Louisiana Seafood Promotion and Marketing Board, Shrimp Task Force, Crab Task Force, Coastal Conservation Association, Louisiana Shrimp Association, LSU Department of Agriculture Economics and Agribusiness, Louisiana Charter Boat Association, LSU Sea Grant, Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, NOAA, Shell Oil, Louisiana Restaurant Association and the Gulf Seafood Foundation.

Read the full story at Gulf Seafood News

 

Aftereffects of Hurricane Ida still being felt by Louisianaโ€™s oyster-growers

October 12, 2021 โ€” As Hurricane Ida plowed into the U.S. state of Louisiana and on to the Northeast last month, another storm surge of sorts swept through seafood markets, a brutal putdown to the local seafood industryโ€™s slow pandemic recovery.

With heavy damage to local fleets, hard-hit Lafourche and Terrebonne parish bayou communities were cut off from power through the end of September, hobbling efforts to repair docks and bring back ice and shrimp packing.

Read the full story at SeafoodSource

 

Risk of oil spills may rise as climate change creates more monster storms

September 30, 2021 โ€” Hurricane Ida left a trail of destruction after slamming into the Gulf Coast, but offshore the Category 4 storm left something else in its wake: oil spills.

Oil spills arenโ€™t uncommon with strong storms, but as climate change pushes up sea levels and creates stronger storms with more moisture, offshore refineries are going to need greater and greater protections.

The Gulf of Mexico is โ€œparticularly vulnerableโ€ because of the prevalence of storms, the low-lying geography, sea-level rise, receding shorelines and the presence of oil facilities, Christopher Vaccaro, a spokesman for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, told ABC News. Since offshore drilling began in the region in 1942, about 6,000 oil and gas structures have been installed in the Gulf of Mexico.

On Sept. 4, the day before Ida made landfall in Louisiana, the Coast Guard announced that cleanup crews already were responding to a large oil spill at an offshore drilling about 2 miles south of Port Fourchon, Louisiana.

Read the full story at ABC News

 

 

Congressman: Louisiana needs fishery disaster determination after Ida

September 14, 2021 โ€” U.S. Congressman Garret Graves (R-Louisiana) is calling on the federal government to declare his state a โ€œfishery disasterโ€ area, following the destruction caused by Hurricane Ida.

Graves is calling for the U.S. Department of Commerce to immediately make a โ€œFishery disaster determinationโ€ due to โ€œboth the biological resources and fishery infrastructure sustaining major damage related to Hurricane Ida,โ€ Graves said in a news release.

Read the full story at SeafoodSource

 

  • 1
  • 2
  • Next Page ยป

Recent Headlines

  • ASC launches ASC Farm Standard
  • US legislation would require FDA approval of foreign shrimp production facilities
  • MASSCHUSETTS: Two Guatemalan fisheries workers arrested in early-morning operation
  • Data now coming straight from the deck
  • ALASKA: Alaskaโ€™s 2025 salmon forecast more than doubles last year
  • Seafood sales at US retail maintain momentum, soar in April
  • US Wind Offers $20 Million to Local Fishermen under New Proposal
  • ALASKA: Projected 2025 Copper River sockeye commercial harvest nears 2 million fish

Most Popular Topics

Alaska Aquaculture ASMFC Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission BOEM California China Climate change Coronavirus COVID-19 Donald Trump groundfish Gulf of Maine Gulf of Mexico Hawaii Illegal fishing IUU fishing Lobster Maine Massachusetts Mid-Atlantic National Marine Fisheries Service National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration NEFMC New Bedford New England New England Fishery Management Council New Jersey New York NMFS NOAA NOAA Fisheries North Atlantic right whales North Carolina North Pacific offshore energy Offshore wind Pacific right whales Salmon South Atlantic Western Pacific Whales wind energy Wind Farms

Daily Updates & Alerts

Enter your email address to receive daily updates and alerts:
  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.
Tweets by @savingseafood

Copyright ยฉ 2025 Saving Seafood ยท WordPress Web Design by Jessee Productions

Notifications