Saving Seafood

FLORIDA: Florida requests fisheries disaster declaration for Hurricane Ian, but could be in for a wait

December 12, 2022 — Fishing captains in the U.S. state of Florida and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis are requesting a federal fisheries disaster declaration in the wake of Hurricane Ian – even as the state is still waiting on a determination on its request for a disaster declaration for Hurricane Sally in 2020.

DeSantis sent a letter to U.S. Department of Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo – which oversees NOAA Fisheries – requesting a disaster declaration in the wake of Hurricane Ian, a category 4 hurricane that devasted the fishing industry along Florida’s coast in September 2022. The U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency has so far provided over USD 3.3 billion (EUR 3.1 billion) in federal grants, disaster loans, and flood insurance payments to both the state of Florida and Florida households, but that aid is not directed to Florida’s fisheries.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

FLORIDA: Still Reeling from Ian, Florida Shrimpers are Desperate to Get Back on the Water

November 10, 2022 — Jimmy Driggers, 85, got into the fishing business when he was just 13 years old. He’s a shrimper in Fort Myers, Fla.

“I was a mullet fisherman, [a] commercial fisherman in my younger days,” he said.

Driggers walks with a prosthetic leg from an injury he sustained on his boat about a decade ago. It’s decorated with a sea lighthouse.

He owns one shrimping boat — the Miz Shirley — named after his wife. It can carry 50,000 pounds of shrimp.

Driggers said the industry has been hurting for decades, and that he was paid more back in the 1980’s than he is today. Fuel prices have skyrocketed.

“You have to produce a lot of shrimp to stay afloat,” Driggers said. “And that’s what we were doing for the last year — just staying afloat, not making enough to fix anything that broke. It was tough.”

Then came Hurricane Ian. It pushed The Miz Shirley half onto a seawall and half was left in the water –- unusable.

When Ian made landfall in Florida in late September, it hit the shrimp fishing industry particularly hard. For decades, it’s been an important part of the economy in Fort Myers — integral to the region’s culture and identity. Now, it’s at a standstill.

“We thought about selling out, but I don’t want to do that, if we can hold on,” Driggers said. “If we can get the boat off and get it repaired, and back in working order.” He acknowledges that it’s going to take a lot of work.

Driggers’ home, which backs a water channel, will have to be demolished. It got four inches of water during the storm and mold is growing everywhere. He and Shirley don’t have flood insurance.

The couple has been sleeping in a donated camper in their front lawn. They’re hoping the insurance on the boat will cover enough of the repairs to keep them in business — but they haven’t been able to assess the damage yet.

Read the full article at Seafoodnews.com

FLORIDA: Fishing industry in Lee County ‘wiped out’ by Hurricane Ian

November 2, 2022 — Matlacha is among the places in Southwest Florida hit hardest by Hurricane Ian: buildings were destroyed, roads were washed out and debris is everywhere.

Among the wreckage, a small lime-green building – the Island Seafood Market – is somehow still standing. Owner Casey Streeter has had to tear out everything that was once inside.

“The front was washed out,” he recalled first seeing it after the storm. “We came in through the window on this door. Our coolers floated up, tipped over. We had about two-and-a-half feet of mud in the shop.”

But the biggest hit was to what’s behind the shop. Streeter said all of their grouper boats were damaged by Ian, and even worse, they lost their docks and ice house to the hurricane.

Read the full article at NBC

FLORIDA: Florida lawmakers press Commerce secretary to help fishing, seafood firms hurt by Hurricane Ian

October 20, 2022 — A bipartisan group of Florida lawmakers sent a letter to Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo on Tuesday urging her to approve the state’s request to declare a nationwide fishery resource disaster in response to Hurricane Ian.

A disaster declaration would allow for further federal assistance to seafood businesses harmed by the storm. Ian was the strongest hurricane to hit the Tampa Bay area in a century and killed more than 100 people in the state.

Read the full article at The Hill

FLORIDA: Gov. DeSantis requests federal support for Florida fisheries in aftermath of Hurricane Ian

October 17, 2022 — Gov. Ron DeSantis is requesting that the areas affected by Hurricane Ian be declared a federal fisheries disaster by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which would open up channels for more aide for those in the fishing industry.

DeSantis announced the request Saturday at a press conference providing updates on Hurricane Ian relief efforts, highlighting support for those who work on the water. If approved, NOAA will be able to provide more support to commercial fishermen, wholesale dealers, charter boat captains and fisheries, he said.

“Clearly a storm of this magnitude — this is appropriate for this declaration,” DeSantis said. “So once this is approved, then that provides these groups and people in the industry to work with NOAA to be able to get more support. So we’re happy to help facilitate that request.”

Read the full article at Florida Politics 

FLORIDA: Hurricane Ian devastated Lee County’s commercial fishing industry

October 14, 2022 — Southwest Florida’s commercial fishing industry has been struggling for some time from the recent red tide and the graying out of the fleet. But now, Hurricane Ian has put the fishing industry on the ropes.

“Lee County’s seafood industry took a major hit,” said Casey Streeter, a commercial fisherman and the owner of Island Seafood Market on Matlacha.

Hurricane Ian’s powerful storm surge destroyed a large portion of Southwest Florida’s fishing industry from boats to docks to fish houses.

“Fort Myers beach, our shrimp fleet is decimated, that’s about a 200-million-dollar loss with what they do,” said Streeter. “Their boats are obviously tanged up onshore…Here on Pine Island, we lost four of our five fish houses. We lost many of the grouper boats. The infrastructure of our fishery is gone.”

Read the full article at Fox 4

FLORIDA: Florida fishermen scramble to return to work

October 14, 2022 — With an impending stone crab season opening, Southwest Florida fishermen whose boats and traps survived Hurricane Ian are working hard to get back on the water.

On San Carlos Island, the commercial fishing homeport of devastated Fort Myers Beach, stranded shrimpers continue doing what they can to repair boats in the state’s largest fleet. But much heavy equipment is needed for the task ahead.

“There’s 300 people who work for us and all of them are out of a job right now,” Jesse Clapham, fleet manager at Erickson and Jensen Seafood told the Associated Press. “I’m sure they’d rather just mow all this stuff down and build a giant condo here, but we’re not going to give up.”

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

FLORIDA: After Hurricane Ian, reckoning looms for Southwest Florida fishermen

October 7, 2022 — Casey Streeter lost everything to the monstrous winds and storm surge of Hurricane Ian when it roared over southwest Florida.

His Island Seafood Market in Matlacha?  Gone.  Home in St. James City on Pine Island?  Gone.  Retail market on Sanibel Island?  Gone.  It’s pretty much the same for most of his commercial fishing colleagues and neighbors in the region.

“We are devastated here,” Streeter said.  “Four out of five fish houses in Pine Island are gone.  The shrimp fleet is gone. Nowhere to unload.  No docks are here. Everybody went out of business at one time.  We worked ten years and it was gone in ten hours.  We’re dealing with impossible things.”

Despite his overwhelming losses, though, Streeter vows he’s not giving up on the commercial fishing industry here.  He’s got four grouper boats that got tossed around that he’s hoping he can fix, and a seafood truck he’s been using to ferry food, ice, and other supplies from the mainland to Pine Island, now that a temporary bridge has been erected.

“We’re gonna build back, “ Streeter declared.  “This is the next chapter of our island.  It’s important for our area to have a fishery.  It’ll be the people here that bring it back.  We’re not going to let this go away.”

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

FLORIDA: Amid wrecked shrimping fleet, Biden and DeSantis promise unified response

October 7, 2022 — Declaring “we’re here to make sure the people of Florida get what they need,” President Biden stood at the wrecked fishing port behind Fort Myers Beach this week, joining his political rival Gov. Ron DeSantis in pledging an accelerated recovery after Hurricane Ian.

“We’re the only nation on Earth that can come out of something like this better than we were before,” Biden said in an informal, earnest televised talk after he and DeSantis were briefed on damage assessments and recovery efforts.

The setting was close to Trico Shrimp Company and other commercial docks on San Carlos Island, the maritime industrial side of the Fort Myers Beach resort community. Bulldozed by the storm surge as high as 18 feet, beach neighborhoods are still the scene of intense searching for victims.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

FLORIDA: Ian wreaks havoc on lobster traps

October 5, 2022 — While the damage may not visible from land, the wind and waves from Hurricane Ian destroyed and damaged thousands of spiny lobster traps off the Florida Keys.

The storm came about a week before commercial fishermen will start soaking their stone crab traps. Commercial fishermen are allowed to start soaking their stone crab traps Wednesday, Oct. 5. Commercial fishermen can start soaking their traps 10 days before their first pull.

Lower Keys-based trap fisherman Josh Nicklaus said he has lost between 600 to 800 of his spiny lobster traps. Nicklaus placed traps in the waters in Marquesas Keys to the waters off Snipe Point, he said. The bulk of his lost and destroyed traps were oceanside, west of Key West, he said.

“At a time when we should be preparing for stone crab season, we are running around looking for crawfish (lobster) traps,” said Nicklaus, president of the Florida Keys Commercial Fishermen’s Association.

Read the full article at keysnews.com