Saving Seafood

Safety net proposed for fishermen

July 25, 2019 — Louisiana shrimpers say a bill introduced in the Senate that would provide a safety net for commercial fishermen to help in difficult years like 2019 is a long time coming.

For decades, shrimpers and others in the commercial fishing industry have advocated for the federal government to either move them under the U.S. Department of Agriculture or provide them the same insurance and benefits as farmers.

Sen. John Kennedy, R-Louisiana, joined with Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, R-Mississippi, to introduce the legislation, which would provide revenue-based relief to producers to assist with losses after natural disasters and changes in water salinity.

This year, all of Louisiana’s fisheries have seen losses due to flooding that lasted for several months and required the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to open the Bonnet Carre Spillway twice for the first time in its history.

Freshwater inundated the normally brackish waters that support shrimp, causing population decreases by up to 86 percent in some basins.

While commercial fishermen are also looking for immediate aid through a disaster declaration, the bill would establish a relief program that wouldn’t require a declaration for future events.

Read the full story at The Daily Comet

US lieutenant governors call for more inspections on imported seafood

July 24, 2019 — Lieutenant governors in the United States have put their weight behind a resolution sponsored by Lt. Governor Billy Nungesser (R-Louisiana) calling for additional inspections of imported seafood.

The resolution was approved at the National Lieutenant Governors Association annual meeting, which took place last week in Wilmington, Delaware. It calls on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. Department of Agriculture to “take immediate measures” to inspect foreign seafood, both at the point of harvest and when it enters the country.

Nungesser’s resolution was supported by Lt. Governor Susan Bysiewicz (D–Connecticut), Lt. Governor Bethany Hall-Long (D–Delaware), Lt. Governor Kate Marshall (D–Nevada) and Lt. Governor Kevin Meyer (R–Alaska).

The resolution calls on the creation of an inspection fee in the range of USD 0.05 (EUR 0.04) to USD 0.10 (EUR 0.09) per pound. Seafood caught by American fishermen and sent overseas for processing would be exempt from the inspection process.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

U.S. Sen. Kennedy calls for permanent relief fund for fishing industry

July 24, 2019 — U.S. Sen. John Kennedy, a Louisiana Republican, is calling for a permanent taxpayer-supported safety net for the fishing industry.

The Commercial Fishing and Aquaculture Protection Act of 2019, introduced by U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, R-Mississippi, does not carry an explicit price tag. Kennedy’s statement in support of the bill compares the proposal to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s “well-established” disaster programs for farmers.

“The shrimp and oyster seasons produced significantly lower yields on average this year due to disastrous freshwater intrusions in the Gulf,” Kennedy said in a prepared statement. “We need to give our fishing industry a break. This legislation will establish a program to help fishermen cope with disaster conditions like these.”

USDA reportedly is preparing an open enrollment for a $3 billion aid package for  farmers and ranchers. Enrollment is expected to begin by late August or early September.

“Farmers and ranchers who experience serious losses have access to well-established USDA programs to help them survive down years,” Hyde-Smith said. “Commercial fishermen, including aquaculture operations, do not have that option.”

Read the full story at The Center Square

With more storm flooding expected, Louisiana and Mississippi fishermen seek aid

July 10, 2019 — The news just got worse for the commercial fishing industry in Louisiana and Mississippi. Already impacted by oyster mortalities and movement of shrimp to other areas after the Bonnet Carre Spillway opening, the Gulf Coast is expecting flooding due to a tropical storm and likely hurricane this weekend.

A weather system in the Gulf could form as a tropical depression or tropical storm this week, and then hit the Gulf Coast as a Category 1 hurricane on Saturday, according to the National Weather Service.

Already, the tropical system caused flash flooding in New Orleans, and the Mississippi River in New Orleans is forecast to crest near 20 feet this Saturday, according to the National Weather Service.

The Mississippi and Louisiana fishing industries are already plagued by Mississippi River flooding. The flooding caused the opening of the Bonnet Carre Spillway more than 100 days ago, causing freshwater to mix with saltwater, producing toxic algae bloom off the coast of Mississippi and in Lake Pontchartrain near New Orleans.

Already, a majority of oysters along the coast of Louisiana and Mississippi are dead, and other seafood species have been impacted.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Where Soybeans Meet The Sea: Midwest Aquaculture May Boost Demand For Local Grain

July 9, 2019 — Midwestern fish farmers grow a variety of species, such as tilapia, salmon, barramundi and shrimp, all of which require a high-protein diet. The region grows copious amounts of soybeans, which have a lot of protein, but these two facts have yet to converge.

Take Eagle’s Catch, a tilapia farm in Ellsworth, Iowa, where a nearly 4-acre greenhouse is filled with tanks that segregate the fish by size. CEO Joe Sweeney said he feeds the fish a soybean-based diet he buys from a processor in the South.

“We’re actually getting it from Louisiana, unfortunately,” Sweeney said, “feeding Louisiana and Arkansas soybeans. But as time goes on I look forward to feeding them that Iowa product.”

Across the 12 states served by the North Central Regional Aquaculture Center, from Ohio to North Dakota to Kansas, hundreds of businesses are trying to raise fish for food. But local demand will have to grow to make them viable. If that happens, aquaculture could provide a new market for Midwestern soybeans and other grains at a time when turmoil in international trade and several years of very high yields have led to oversupply.

Read the full story at KCUR

LOUISIANA: Federal lawmakers join together to seek help for state seafood industry

July 9, 2019 — Our area’s Federal lawmakers in Washington DC are urging Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross to help Louisiana’s fishermen.

U.S. Senators Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-LA) and John Kennedy (R-LA) and U.S. Representatives Steve Scalise (R-LA), Garret Graves (R-LA), Cedric Richmond (D-LA), Clay Higgins (R-LA), Ralph Abraham (R-LA) and Mike Johnson (R-LA) collectively urged Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross to begin the process of implementing a federal fisheries disaster declaration in because of the opening of the Bonnet Carré Spillway earlier this summer.

By opening the spillway, hundreds of thousands of cubic feet of fresh water are pouring into Lake Pontchartrain every second, which is impacting aquatic life that are vital to our state’s seafood industry.

If the commerce secretary makes a determination to declare a fishery disaster, based on a NOAA Fisheries evaluation, Congress will then be allowed to appropriate funds for fishery disaster relief.

Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards and Lieutenant Governor Billy Nungesser have also contacted Secretary Ross with the same request in recent weeks.

Read the full story at The Houma Times

Louisiana, Mississippi seafood feeling sting of algae blooms

June 26, 2019 — Louisiana and Mississippi government warnings not to eat fish from certain areas of the states are causing the seafood industry concern.

After an algae bloom developed when the Bonnet Carre Spillway was opened to alleviate flooding along the Mississippi River, the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality issued beach closures in Hancock and Harrison counties along the Gulf of Mexico.

Subsequently, the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources (MDMR) is advising the public to not eat fish or any other seafood taken from “affected waters or in proximity to the beach closures,” MDMR said in a statement. “The public’s safety is very important to our state and our agency will continue working closely with MDEQ to monitor our waters and our seafood.”

The Louisiana Department of Health is also warning the public about a potentially large algae bloom that is developing on Lake Pontchartrain, “while algae toxins have not been found in the edible parts of fish, LDH advises that fish not be harvested or eaten from the lake during the bloom,” the agency said in a statement.

In southern Mississippi, news reports on the beach closures and seafood caution are causing concerns among consumers and the seafood industry.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Gov. Edwards requests Federal Disaster Declaration for Louisiana fishermen

June 26, 2019 — In a letter written to United States Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross by Governor John Bel Edwards, the governor requested a federal fisheries disaster declaration for Louisiana from the U.S. Department of Commerce.

“The extreme duration of high Mississippi River levels since December 2018 has necessitated unprecedented efforts by the U.S. Corps of Engineers to mitigate the threat of levee failures in Louisiana. Such efforts have included the opening of the Bonnet Carre Spillway twice this year; first in late February and again in early May,” the letter – that was dated June 13, 2019 – reads. “That structure continues to pass large volumes of river water into Lake Pontchartrain which subsequently flows east into Lake Borgne and Mississippi Sound. The extreme influx of freshwater has greatly reduced salinity levels in our coastal waters and disrupted estuarine productivity.”

In the request, Edwards referenced information gathered by the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries (LDWF), the organization that manages and protects Louisiana’s natural resources.

An above average oyster mortality rate in oyster reefs in St. Bernard Parish; a statewide 30 percent decline in shrimp landings (brown and white shrimp combined) for the month of March and 61 percent for the month of April, when compared to the five-year average; and a 40 percent statewide drop in landings of speckled trout, when compared to the five-year-average, were some of the LDWF findings Edwards referenced in the letter.

Read the full story at The Houma Times

Louisiana governor: Upriver floods a disaster for fisheries

June 18, 2019 — Louisiana’s governor says floodwaters from the Midwest are severely hurting people who make their living from coastal seafood, so he’s asking the federal government to declare a fisheries disaster for the state.

Floodwaters rushing from the Bonnet Carré Spillway north of New Orleans have killed oysters, hurt fish catches and damaged livelihoods, Gov. John Bel Edwards said in a letter to Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross.

The fresh water has driven crabs, shrimp and fish out of bays and marshes and into saltier water where they can survive. But oysters are stuck — glued to the bottom.

“On a scale of 1 to 10, we are 9-and-a-half destroyed,” said Brad Robin, whose family controls about 10,000 acres (4,000 hectares) of oyster leases in Louisiana waters.

The full impact won’t be known for some time because the spillway, which protects New Orleans’ levees by directing huge amounts of Mississippi River water into usually brackish Lake Pontchartrain, remains open, Edwards said in a letter sent Thursday and released Monday.

If a long-range forecast of little rain holds up, spillway closing might begin in about four weeks, Army Corps of Engineers spokesman Matt Roe said Monday.

Read the full story at the Associated Press

LOUISIANA: Seafood industry pushes to make federal aid available

May 31, 2019 — Louisiana lieutenant governor and several Louisiana seafood industry groups are seeking to ensure that fishermen and harvesters affected by the Morganza Spillway’s opening can apply for federal aid to help them recover.

The Army Corps of Engineers is scheduled to open the spillway June 6, sending massive amounts of water from the Mississippi River into the Atchafalaya Basin. The action aims to relieve pressure on Mississippi River levees that protect cities along its route, including New Orleans and Baton Rouge.

But Lt. Gov. Billy Nungesser and seafood industry representatives said today that pushing an estimated 1.5 million cubic-feet-per-second of rushing freshwater into a fragile ecosystem of more than 100 species of fish and aquatic life threatens the species and the fishermen, harvesters and businesses that depend on them.

“The opening of the Morganza Spillway will cause severe damage to the Atchafalaya Basin, our nation’s largest estuary,” Nungesser wrote in a letter he sent today to Gov. John Bel Edwards and Louisiana’s congressional delegation.

“The opening of the Bonnet Carre Spillway earlier this year already has negatively impacted seafood in Lake Pontchartrain and Lake Borgne,” he said. “New fresh water flow into the basin will further impact the livelihoods of thousands of Gulf fisherman, as well as crawfish and oyster farmers. My office is also asking Congress to include assistance for the seafood industry in any future disaster recovery bills.”

Louisiana’s seafood industry is likely to be negatively impacted for months and potentially years, Nungesser said in a news release.

Read the full story at Houma Today