Recovery mixed for coastal fishermen
For a newcomer to the Mississippi Coast, the sights and sounds probably seem normal for life on the water.
Children with brightly colored shovels and pails play on the beach while their parents lounge in chairs shaded by umbrellas. At the marinas, fishermen pose with their catches for photographs, and shrimpers greet customers looking for fresh seafood.
It would appear that in the 10 years since Hurricane Katrina devastated the Coast, life as some once knew it has returned. But for the fishing industry, recovery has been mixed.
“Katrina affected us in so many ways,” Joe Jewell, a life-long Biloxi resident, said. “I saw things in Katrina I never thought could happen. It had a multipronged effect on the seafood industry.”
Jewell, director of Marine Fisheries for the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources, explained that the storm deeply affected every aspect of the fishing industry. Boats were damaged and destroyed as were seafood processors. Businesses selling fuel and ice were wiped out along with most others providing support services.
Those losses, combined with the struggles fishermen endured as they tried to put their personal lives back together, made fishing almost impossible in the months following the storm.
No time to cry
Sitting in the shade at his east Biloxi home, Ronald Baker reflected on the 2005 storm. A shrimp fisherman, he slept on his boat at night and tried to put his family’s life back together by day. Only blocks from Front Beach, his home was swept away.
“Believe it or not, a friend of mine came over and told me. I cried about 30 minutes and then went to work,” Baker said. “I just went to work cleaning my property. My brother and I decided not to fish.”
With his property covered with debris and pieces of other homes, there was no shortage of work for Baker, but that job didn’t pay. Baker said he received financial relief through various programs.
“They paid us for our down time, so we had a little help,” Baker said. “We had a program that helped us out. We were homeless, more or less.”
The following year, the shrimp fishing fleet returned to the water, but their luck didn’t change for the better. Shrimp prices had been falling since 2000 and though they have fluctuated, the pattern continues.
Jewell said the shrimp population rebounded quickly, but with cheaper imported shrimp pouring into the market, the prices have not.
“It was an issue prior to Katrina, and it’s an issue now,” Jewell said.
According to MDMR data, there have been ups and downs, but commercial finfish landings and values have increased since Katrina. Another bright spot is the value of blue crabs reached what is likely an all-time high in 2014. However, oyster production has taken a triple whammy during the last 10 years.
One disaster after another
In 2004, oyster landings were about 3 million pounds with a value of $6 million. In 2014, landings were about 500,000 pounds with a value of $2 million.
“Katrina had a significant impact,” Jewell said. “It pretty much decimated the reefs. We were seeing around 95 percent destruction.”
In 2006, there were no commercial oyster harvests, but the industry began to pick up in the following years. Then, in 2010, harvests were impacted by the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion. On the heels of that came the oyster industries’ biggest blow.
Water levels reached a historic high on the Mississippi River in 2011, and threatened south Louisiana. In an effort to mitigate damage, the Bonnet Carre Spillway located west of New Orleans was opened. Freshwater from the river was diverted into Lake Pontchartrain and ultimately, into the Mississippi Sound.
“That water came straight to the coast of Mississippi,” Mike Cure of Waveland said. “It totally wiped out everything in Mississippi.
“I’ve got a (oyster) lease outside Bay St. Louis, and it destroyed it 100 percent.”
Statistically, the oyster industry in Mississippi has shown little sign of recovery since 2011, but with state government involvement, Cure is hopeful.
Earlier this year, Gov. Phil Bryant ordered the formation of The Governor’s Oyster Council on Restoration and Resiliency. After months of meetings with people in the seafood and oyster industry, the council presented its report to the governor in June.
According to MDMR, the council hopes to reach a goal of harvesting 1 million sacks of oysters a year within 10 years through aquaculture and incentive programs.
“This is the most positive thing I’ve seen in a long time in the oyster industry,” Cure said. “It’s really a major effort going into the oyster industry.
“I think it could come back and even better.”
Contact Brian Broom at (601) 961-7225 or bbroom@gannett.com. Follow The Clarion-Ledger Outdoors on Facebook and @BrianBroom on Twitter.