Boats searching for menhaden – also called pogy - were hampered by this summer's Gulf fishing closures, reducing the year's catch of that lucrative meal-and-oil species. The late-April start of the menhaden fishing season coincided with BP's rig explosion, and the jury's still out as to whether crude oil and the chemicals used to disperse it caused big kills of fish, including pogy, in September or trimmed the species' long-term numbers.
Fishing closures around Plaquemines Parish this summer sent menhaden boats speeding west and far beyond their traditional grounds. "There are only so many hours in the day and week, and boats spent much more time traveling and less time fishing, affecting the size of this year's catch," Gaude said.
At Daybrook Fisheries, executive vice president W. Borden Wallace said that, of the Gulf's menhaden-processing facilities, "our plant located in Empire was closest to the spill and was the one most affected by it. We normally fish on both sides of Plaquemines Parish, but because of closures from mid-June into September our catch this season was down by more than 30 percent -based on historic levels."
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