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Gulf fishermen ask for help to rebuild industry

LAFITTE, La. - Their industry in shambles, Gulf Coast fishermen omitted from the government's $29-billion hurricane relief package hope to convince federal officials next month their post-Katrina plight is worthy of help.

Even in areas of south Louisiana and Mississippi not wiped out by hurricanes Katrina and Rita, fishermen have been slow to return as they try to find temporary housing and rebuild homes. Many lost their boats. Some areas still have no electricity.

Louisiana's $2.5-billion-a-year commercial fishing industry produces 25 percent of the seafood in America, according to the state. For September, 5 percent of the state's fishermen reported catches.

Representatives of the U.S. Department of Commerce will tour lower Plaquemines Parish, Grand Isle and the Mississippi Gulf Coast, said Ewell Smith, executive director of the Louisiana Seafood Promotion and Marketing Board.

Smith said he hopes the trip will expedite the delivery of bare essentials, such as Federal Emergency Management Agency trailers, and result in other resources like marketing assistance to revive the centuries-old industry. The board says it doesn't have a specific funding request, but it needs money to rebuild marinas, docks, ice houses and processing plants - projects that will run into the millions of dollars.

Jules Nunez, a Lafitte fish and seafood merchant for more than 50 years, said about 10 percent of the pre-Katrina fishermen on his payroll have returned. Across the coast, less than 25 percent of fishermen are back, Smith noted.

"I've never seen anything like it," Nunez said. "Katrina took out a lot of people, but the real damage was Rita, the floodwater."

Just three weeks after Katrina lashed Louisiana, Rita's storm surge from the Gulf of Mexico left much of Lafitte, a small fishing village 28 miles south of New Orleans, under several feet of water.

Lafitte's shrimp season ended recently, with merchants reporting large, plentiful shrimp but only a handful of fishermen to bring them in. Now that offshore fish and crab seasons are in full swing, it appears fishermen again will be scarce.

Complicating matters, the storms took out two of the state's biggest seafood processing facilities and two of its largest shrimp docks, Smith said. Fishermen also are facing high fuel costs coupled with low seafood prices. The result: skimpy profits.

[Last modified December 30, 2005, 00:56:10]