Hurricane Gustav left the fishing communities across southeastern Louisiana without power also lack ice. It is said that Gustav has knocked some oyster boats from the harbor to the highway on the Mississippi coast. And oyster reefs in the region remain closed until officials determine they’re safe from storm debris. It is told that much of the commercial seafood industry in the Gulf of Mexico was spared major losses by Gustav and any potential rise in seafood prices was blunted by an abundance of imports.
It is fact that the threat from Hurricane Ike is substantial, however, particularly for shrimpers, oystermen and fish processors in coastal Louisiana and the rest of the northern Gulf still recovering from Gustav. Marine biologist Mark Schexnayder of Metarie, La., a coastal adviser for Louisiana State University’s Sea Grant programme , told that because of power outages there was no ice in storm-stricken southeastern Louisiana, at the peak of its white shrimp season.
Oyster reefs also have been closed until Louisiana officials can check them out for storm debris. It is noted that Louisiana officials asked the U.S. commerce secretary last week to declare a commercial fishery failure from Gustav, clearing the way for aid to the state’s $2.8 billion industry.
Lance Robinson in Dickinson, Texas, regional director for coastal fisheries at the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, told that the last estimate I saw it’s still making up over 80 percent of the U.S. shrimp market. He added that the fishing fleet in Texas wasn’t damaged by Gustav, but remains crippled by high diesel prices that sent some into Mexico looking for lower prices.
