Louisiana Fisheries Disaster Declared
By Mike Smith
The (Baton Rouge) Advocate
The federal government has announced its approval of a disaster declaration over damage to Louisiana fisheries due to three 2020 hurricanes, opening the door to federal aid for commercial fishers.
Separately, Mississippi fisheries were issued another disaster declaration over the unprecedented 2019 Bonnet Carre Spillway openings in Louisiana.
The strongest of the 2020 storms, Hurricane Laura, roared ashore as a Category 4 in southwest Louisiana's Cameron Parish, leveling much of the region with its winds and storm surge. About a month after the storm, Gov. John Bel Edwards requested a fisheries disaster declaration, a separate process from the more common overall disaster declaration for hurricanes.
Hurricane Delta followed in the same region about
six weeks later, while Hurricane Zeta hit southeast Louisiana in October of that year. The declaration announced June 26 relates to portions of the state's saltwater finfish, oyster and shrimp fisheries.
''Hurricane Laura's storm track impacted some of the nation's most important fishing communities,'' Edwards said in his September 2020 letter to the U.S. Secretary of Commerce, calling Louisiana the largest producer of domestic seafood for the country.
The governor noted the affected parishes were home to nearly 2,500 commercial fishers and vessels combined along with more than 100 wholesale dealers and a similar number of charter captains. The storm led to damaged docks and boating facilities, lost gear and vessels, lost housing and loss of stored seafood, Edwards said.
A statement from U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo noted that officials had to determine requirements under federal laws governing fisheries were met. The requests are evaluated based on state data.
The lengthy process involves comparing 12 months of commercial revenue data to the previous five-year average, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The speed of the review depends on factors such as how quickly the state provides data and the timing of the fishing season, it said.
''The commercial fishery revenue losses were in the range of 35 to 80%,'' said Raimondo's letter to Edwards confirming the determination.
Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Secretary Rob Shadoin said NOAA will determine the amount to allocate to the state and that the process could take several months.
''We will be working closely with NOAA once they decide on the disaster funding allocation level to put together a spending plan that can be used to the greatest benefit of those seafood industry members affected by the 2020 hurricanes,'' he said in a statement.
The separate fisheries disaster declaration confirmed for Mississippi was due to continued damage in 2020 related to the 2019 Bonnet Carre Spillway openings. Fisheries disasters were already declared for Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama for 2019.
The influx of freshwater from the Mississippi River funneled through the spillway, which was opened for a total of 123 days, led to widespread fisheries damage.
Mississippi saw 96.9% oyster mortality across all sizes and nearly 100% mortality of marketsize oysters on the major public reefs in the western Mississippi Sound, Gov. Tate Reeves said in his letter requesting the declaration.
He said the state ''anticipates that, provided no additional environmental stressors occur, oyster harvest likely will not resume until at least 2023 due to a nearly complete loss of previous resources, associated reduction in spawning, and the time needed for new oysters to reach market size.''
In letters to both governors, Raimondo said Congress already has appropriated funds that can be used for disaster payments, and that the department will allocate part to the two states' fisheries ''in the near future.''
She said eligible businesses and other entities also may be able to access loan and funding programs through federal relief programs, such as the Small Business Administration or the Economic Development Administration.