August 7, 2019 — One of the ways the state plans to rebuild land on the Louisiana coast is by sediment diversions — diverting the silt, sand, and dirty waters of the Mississippi River into the marsh.
For years, many in the commercial fishing industry have claimed that the influx of freshwater funneled through diversions would ruin their industry. Now, some fishers feel they have proof: the damaging impacts of the 2019 Mississippi River Flood.
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.”