Apocalypse now
Mega-hurricane Katrina was for many their Apocalypse. The affected area includes the Florida Keys and from Pensacola, FL, to the Texas border. There is a virtual fishery shutdown in the affected states due to major flooding, damage to fishing boats and fishing ports, waterways clogged with debris and closed processing facilities. Thousands of individual fishermen are affected. Many small communities have had their way of life destroyed. The personal suffering and tragedies do not bear thinking about.
'"Skeletal remains of oyster boats stick straight up out of the water, their bows buried deep in the mud-- tombstones to a deceased fishing community”, wrote Mike Keller in the Sun Herald. Elsewhere, large 100-footers were stuck with their bows just off a canal's bank. Some fishermen drowned trying to ride out the storm.
Millions of dollars worth of shrimp have rotted in a Bayou La Batre plant flooded by Katrina. “All of us, including 70 employees, are out of business, and I can't pay my workers right now" said the plant owner. He estimated it would be four months before he could reopen and return to work. But, would the fleet be able to recover in time to catch and supply fish to process? The hurricane disabled the nation's shrimping industry, already hurt, say Bayou shrimpers, by cheap imports and rising fuel costs.
According to a Congressional Research Service Report of 12 September,
Katrina destroyed or severely damaged shrimp boats and shrimp processing and storage facilities throughout the three states, and they are the ones which supply almost half of all US shrimp. Fishermen lost their boats, homes, docks, boat slips, and in some cases, lives.
The Gulf of Mexico fisheries of finfish, shrimp and oysters, with an estimated value of almost $700 million per year, have been halted. The extent of the damage to Gulf of Mexico fisheries in the 15 major fishing ports and to the 177 seafood processing facilities and more than 5,500 vessels, has still to be finalised.
According to US Commerce Secretary, Carlos Gutierrez, Louisiana alone may face a 12-month potential loss of shrimp value at the dockside of more than $81 million. The 12-month potential production losses at the retail level could be almost $540 million and that includes shrimp rotting in damaged processing plants. The direct loss of oyster stock is assessed at more than $205 million. The 24-month potential loss for landings is put at almost $45 million, with 24-month potential production retail losses put at almost $300 million.
Katrina extensively damaged beds that supply most of the US oyster catch and destroyed many oyster vessels. Oyster reef rehabilitation costs may exceed $860 million. It also destroyed also many of the commercial spiny lobster traps and caused multi-million dollar damage to finfish fisheries.
Recreational fisheries have also been severely affected; people lost boats and houses. The sports infrastructure in Venice, Louisiana, the main port for New Orleans' recreational fishermen, was totally destroyed, along with countless boats and marinas destroyed or damaged between Venice and Mobile, Alabama. Major and minor contaminated spills are expected to kill fish, inshore crustaceans and molluscs and damage unique inshore habitats.
Many rebuke American authorities for inadequate preparation and a failure to produce a timely response. But Robert Jones of the Southeastern Fisheries Association is against. 'blame games'. “There will be ample time to allocate blame”, he said adding “but right now there's work to be done, and there are humanitarian events taking place in thousands of communities around the United States”. Indeed, in a show of solidarity, seafood groups are rallying to help their counterparts in the ravaged areas, relief funds are being established and assistance to fisherfolk is flowing from all over America.
