April 14, 2021 — Gulf of Mexico crabbers are navigating into uncertain waters as the spring of 2021 arrives, in a year that began with a dearth of product.
“There’s nothing since Christmas,” said long-time crab dock owner Trudy Luke of Houma, Louisiana, U.S.A., whose family members also regularly harvest blue crabs. “The demand is so high that docks are throwing money out there. I’ve got a fisherman here who usually brings in 100 55-pound pans. Today, he brought in 10.”
April 5, 2021 — Louisiana fishermen and others in the industry will receive $12.5 million in federal aid to help offset financial losses due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
It’s part of a $255 million package approved by Congress in December as part of a larger COVID relief and budget bill.
“Our priority is to award these funds as quickly as possible using existing processes established under the CARES Act,” Paul Doremus, acting assistant administrator for NOAA Fisheries, said in announcing the aid last week.
It’s the second round of money aimed at helping fishermen weather the downturn in business caused by the pandemic.
Last year, Louisiana received $14.8 million from the CARES Act, which included about $300 million to aid the fishing industry throughout the U.S.
April 2, 2021 — There aren’t too many times someone can offer you $12.4 million dollars and you feel like you’ve been cheated. However, that’s exactly the way a number of Louisiana fishing families and business owners must be feeling this morning after finding out just how badly Louisiana is getting hosed by administrators of the CARES Act Fisheries Funding program.
That program authorized $255 million dollars in federal money to support states whose fishing industries were severely disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic. That’s a good thing. Especially when you consider that Louisiana is the second-largest producer of seafood in the country.
Just so you can understand just how distorted the distribution of funds from this federal program actually is, please consider this. Louisiana will receive $12.4 million dollars under the program. Washington state will receive $40 million even though Louisiana has a 50% greater value to our fisheries landings.
March 31, 2021 — An additional $255 million in fisheries assistance funding is being allocated through the CARES Act, but not everyone is happy about it. Louisiana Congressman Garrett Graves says that the funding his state will receive “makes no sense.”
During the first round of funding through the CARES Act Louisiana was allocated $14.7 million out of the $300 million put aside for fisheries. During this second round of funding the state will receive $12,477,165.
March 31, 2021 — Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, announced Tuesday $12,339,916 in funding from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries to assist fisheries across Louisiana. The funding is provided by the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021 and will support activities that have been authorized by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act.
“Commercial fisheries support one of 70 jobs in Louisiana, and the pandemic hit them hard. Louisiana fishermen are resilient, and these funds will help get our fisheries back on their feet,” said Kennedy.
The funding will directly support coastal states and territories, including Louisiana, whose fisheries have suffered under the pandemic.
March 29, 2021 — When LSU researchers recently set out to gather data on southern flounder, they ran into a problem: they could hardly find any in Louisiana.
It has been well-documented that their population has dropped steeply in recent years, but they were first to report the problem extended beyond the state’s waters. A study they published this month reported that the declines in the flat, football-shaped fish’s population were happening throughout their range, which spans from the Carolina to Texas.
“To see similar declines happening throughout their range was surprising and a concerning aspect,” said Kenneth Erickson, the first author on the LSU-led study. He added that it could be a potential warning sign for other aquatic life similar to southern flounder.
In recent years, the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries has logged some of the lowest numbers of adult female flounder in the past four decades.
March 24, 2021 — In a large auditorium in rural Plaquemines Parish, La., hundreds of commercial fishers and processing plant workers got their shot in the arm last week. The mass coronavirus vaccination event was a five-minute drive from the docks that house their fishing vessels – right where the Mississippi River meets the Gulf of Mexico.
National Guard troops administered doses to more than 300 people during the event held specifically for workers at Westbank Fishing and Daybrook Fisheries, a processing plant that turns fish into products like pet food.
“To be honest I didn’t feel nothing, no difference. I still feel the same,” said Angel Arroyo, a welder at Daybrook Fisheries. “I know I won’t infect anybody else or catch the virus.”
March 18, 2021 — A U.S. Corps of Engineers environmental impact statement for the planned USD 2 billion (EUR 1.67 billion) Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion project acknowledges it will drastically alter the south Louisiana shrimp and oyster fisheries.
“Moderate to major, adverse, permanent direct and indirect impacts are anticipated on shrimp fisheries in the project area due to expected negligible to minor, permanent, beneficial impacts on white shrimp, and major, permanent, adverse impacts on brown shrimp abundance,” an executive summary of the report, issued on 5 March, stated.
March 16, 2021 — The limitations placed on dining, workplaces and businesses to curb the spread of the coronavirus are just the latest in a string of hard hits for the Louisiana’s seafood industry, which has faced one problem after another in the last few years.
As Business Report details in a new feature, the industry was already battling competition from foreign imports, which undercut prices and inspired the Louisiana Legislature in 2019 to pass a seafood labelling law requiring restaurant menus to label whether shrimp and crawfish are of Louisiana origin.
In 2019, the opening of the Bonnet Carre Spillway for 123 days released an influx of freshwater from the Mississippi River into oyster-harvesting areas, decimating the supply. Add to that, the 2020 hurricane season, in which the state’s fertile waters and seafood farms faced off against five named landfalling storms.
January 20, 2021 — The Gulf of Mexico’s largest coral sanctuary just got a lot bigger.
The federal government on Tuesday formally approved the expansion of the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary, increasing its size from 56 square miles to 160 square miles.
Tripling the sanctuary’s size will better protect fragile coral reefs that support a variety of fish and other marine life off the coasts of Louisiana and Texas, said G.P. Schmahl, the sanctuary’s superintendent.
“From an economic point of view, it’s critical for fish that are important both recreationally and commercially,” he said, noting the abundance of red snapper, grouper and mackerel in the sanctuary. “If you fish the Gulf of Mexico, these areas are where the fish you want to catch have spawned and grown.”
The expansion “has been a long haul,” Schmahl said. Initially proposed under the administration of President George W. Bush and formalized under President Barack Obama, the process finally concluded concluded during the final week of President Donald Trump’s administration.