Saving Seafood

Gulf Coast fishing industry struggles to stay afloat during pandemic

June 12, 2020 — The oldest continuously operating oyster company in the U.S., P & J Oyster Company, has been in the business of shucking oysters in New Orleans’ French Quarter since 1876, and it has never experienced anything like COVID-19.

“We had Hurricane Katrina and two years later we had Hurricane Gustav and then, you know, three years after that, we had the BP oil spill. And I’m going to tell you, after being in this business, as long as I have there is nothing —, out of even those catastrophic things that we’ve dealt with —, like COVID,” co-owner Alfred “Al” Sunseri told CBS News. “We had these terrible, devastating impacts on our business, but when they closed down restaurants to where you could not go inside. It’s not really the most conducive thing for oysters.”

P & J processes and sells oysters wholesale to restaurants and vendors across Louisiana. Sunseri has been in the family business for 41 years and has seven employees. He likened the March shutdown of New Orleans to “turning off the faucet,” and said he was only able to reach 50% of his typical sales that month. In April, things were even worse — he only made 2% of his normal sales for the month.

Read the full story at CBS News

Gulf ‘dead zone’ costing seafood industry, environment $2.4 billion in damage each year, study says

June 9, 2020 — The massive “dead zone” in the Gulf of Mexico is causing up to $2.4 billion dollars in damage to fisheries and marine habitat every year, a new report says.

Covering an area about the size of New Hampshire, the 6,700-square-mile zone of low dissolved oxygen has long been the bane of shrimpers and other fishers off the coasts of Louisiana and eastern Texas. A report released this month from the Union of Concerned Scientists offers the first comprehensive assessment of the dead zone’s economic impact, and warns the root problem — agricultural pollution from the Mississippi River — is likely to grow in severity as the world’s climate changes.

“Gulf Coast communities know that the dead zone impacts their livelihoods, but research has never put a dollar value on its damage to the fishing industry,” said Rebecca Boehm, a UCS economist and the report’s author. “This study quantifies both the amount of nitrogen flowing to the Gulf from farms upstream, and the toll it is taking economically on the foundation of the Gulf fishing industry.”

Read the full story at NOLA.com

LOUISIANA: Shrimping season in SWLA begins

May 28, 2020 — Shrimping season, well known to Southwest Louisiana, kicked off Wednesday morning at 6 a.m.

Boats began lining up as early as Tuesday night to get the perfect spot to take off next morning for some good shrimping.

Vice president of Tommy Seafood Inc Chalin Delaune said there’s a lot of factors that play into shrimping.

“It really depends on the cycle of the moon. It depends on the area,” Delaune said.

“Here in Cameron, this is the last zone for shrimping that opened. So, there are other areas that have opened in the state before Cameron. But we’re hoping they saved the best for last. As of right now, we’ve seen a little bit of shrimp. So, we’re hoping that we’re able to open up and our boats will be able to catch some shrimp to cover their expenses and make some money.”

Read the full story at KPLC

Disaster funding granted to Gulf of Mexico fisheries hit by spillway opening

May 18, 2020 — U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross announced the allocation of USD 88 million (EUR 80.6 million) in disaster-relief funding to Gulf of Mexico fisheries in Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi to counter the impacts of the opening of the Bonnet Carre Spillway.

The Bonnet Carre Spillway is a flood control system for the Lower Mississippi Valley, with its opening releasing massive amounts of freshwater from the river into the Gulf of Mexico. In April, the spillway was opened for the third straight year, something that has never happened in the spillway’s history.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

The story of Louisiana and its oyster farmers who have no place to sell their crop

May 12, 2020 — Natalie Gerdes’ family owns Casamento’s, the Uptown restaurant famous for its oysters and tile decor. The restaurant switched to takeout when the coronavirus stay-at-home order began in mid-March, but it has seen a 75% drop in business, Gerdes said.

“We’re just trying to get by,” she said. “Some days are a struggle.”

Few people are ordering raw or chargrilled oysters these days, and those who do are mostly regulars, Gerdes said. “I’m sure that a lot people would prefer to eat them here and have the experience,” she said.

More than almost any other food, oysters tend to be consumed in restaurants. And that means oyster farmers are struggling mightily to keep their businesses afloat while restaurants are closed or running at limited capacity. The pandemic is just the latest blow inflicted on an industry already reeling from environmental disasters.

Most Louisiana oyster farmers lease areas of the sea floor from the state. The farmers plant “cultch” — a hard material for oyster larvae to latch onto — and harvest the oysters when they mature.

The crop is sold to processors, who sell to distributors, who sell to restaurants. When the restaurant industry screeched to a halt, processors froze the product they had on hand. With freezers full of oysters, they stopped buying.

Read the full story at NOLA.com

Louisiana seafood industry to receive $14.8 million in aid

May 8, 2020 — One Louisiana congressman says Louisiana has been shortchanged.

Louisiana fishermen and others in the industry will receive $14.8 million in federal aid to address economic losses due to the COVID-19 pandemic, officials said Thursday.

U.S. Rep. Garret Graves, R-Baton Rouge, said Louisiana’s share is far too small, adding that only 4.9 percent of the available money was provided to Louisiana despite being one of the top fisheries states in the nation.

“Washington State is receiving $50 million compared to Louisiana’s $14.7 million when we have a 50 percent greater value to our fisheries landings,” Graves said. “Florida receives $23 million, even though Louisiana brings in 50 percent greater value. Oregon receives over $15 million and California $18 million when we have more than double their fisheries by value and triple by poundage. They must be counting aquarium fish. You really can’t compete, unless you are cheating.”

He said he has asked the House Natural Resources Committee to request an investigation into the allocations.

Read the full story at Houma Today

Statement From Glenn Cooke Commending President Donald Trump On His Executive Order That Will Improve US Aquaculture Competitiveness and Economic Growth

May 8, 2020 — The following was released by Glenn Cooke, CEO of Cooke Seafood:

Glenn Cooke, CEO of the Cooke family of companies, provided the following statement after President Donald Trump signed the first ever Executive Order that includes provisions to improve U.S. aquaculture competitiveness and economic growth on Thursday.

“I am very pleased President Trump has recognized that domestic farmed production of aquaculture seafood is vital to help correct the severe trade imbalance and strengthen local food security. This should be viewed as a call to State and local governments that the country is in dire need of domestically produced seafood protein and that they should find ways to support, promote, and expand this essential food sector as other countries have.

As a family company, with marine fish farming operations in Maine and Washington and shellfish farming in North Carolina, and wild fisheries in other states including Virginia, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alaska, we are extremely proud of the hard work and dedication that our people put in every day to produce healthy seafood meals for families across the USA. Cooke Aquaculture USA in Maine was very proud to have been chosen as the supplier of sustainably farmed Atlantic salmon for the President’s 2017 inauguration. Our strong operations have shown that aquaculture presents a tremendous opportunity to create thousands of jobs and build vibrant working waterfronts co-existing with traditional fisheries in rural coastal communities.

President Trump and his Executive Agencies are to be commended for their leadership to address the regulatory challenges with establishing seafood farms by revising the National Aquaculture Development Plan and implementing a Nationwide Permit authorizing finfish, seaweed or multi-trophic culture in federal marine waters.”

Read the full release here

Louisiana lawmaker, others seek federal aid for U.S. seafood industry

May 7, 2020 — Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., has joined a bipartisan group of 25 lawmakers in pushing for federal aid for fishermen and seafood processors hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic.

The lawmakers sent a letter today to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer asking that upcoming coronavirus relief legislation include money and other support for the industry.

“Our seafood processors and fishermen have been dealt a significant economic blow as a result of coronavirus and are in desperate need of federal assistance,” the senators wrote. “It has been reported that many of the nation’s fisheries have suffered sales declines as high as 95 percent. In addition, while many other agricultural sectors have seen a significant increase in grocery sales, seafood has been left out of that economic upside, as stores have cut back on offerings.”

Read the full story at Houma Today