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In South Louisiana, Seafood Means Hope

Posted on March 19, 2018April 20, 2018 By David Shiffman
Science

This blog post and photo slideshow was created during OCEANDOTCOMM, an ocean science communication event, and supported by the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium (LUMCON) The theme of OCEANDOTCOMM was Coastal Optimism. Photos were contributed by our lead photographer, Rafeed Hussain/Ocean Conservancy, with additions from other OCEANDOTCOMM attendees, including Melissa Miller, Samantha Oester, Susan Von Thun, Solomon David, Rebecca Helm, and Alexander Havens.

A sign at the Bait House in Chauvin, Louisiana. Photo by Rafeed Hussain / Ocean Conservancy

In many ways, South Louisiana is seafood- a trip here isn’t complete without eating some gumbo, oysters, or crawfish. Only one state (Alaska) lands more seafood than Louisiana’s 1.2 billion pounds a year (as of 2016). As of 2008, one in 70 jobs in the whole state is tied to fishing or related industries. According to the Louisiana Seafood Marketing and Promotion Board, “when you choose Louisiana seafood, you’re ensuring that your purchase benefits an American community and a way of life.”

When we visited Terrebonne Parish, home to nearly 20 percent of all commercial fishing license holders in Louisiana, we found that fishing means more to the people of this community than food and jobs. Here in South Louisiana, fishing is a vital part of the vibrant local culture and community pride. In a region that’s been devastated by hurricanes and oil spills, fishing is also a source of something more important: hope.

Below, you’ll hear what fishing means to South Louisiana’s fishing communities through the voices of a former shrimper, the owner of a grocery store that has served the town of Chauvin for more than a century, and representatives of a local Native American tribe. You’ll also get a glimpse into this beautiful part of the world through a photo slideshow. Together, this paints a picture of communities that have overcome unimaginable struggle, but still look forward to the future, in no small part because of the riches of the sea.

Carl Sevin

Captain Carl Sevin with the R/V Acadiana. Photo by Samantha Oester

Captain Carl Sevin is a third generation shrimper, and has lived his whole life in South Louisiana. He now works for LUMCON as a captain of one of the research vessels. “I was a commercial fishermen my whole life,” Carl said. “I still consider myself a fishermen. I’m just fishing for science now. I shrimped my whole life, but the only way you can see shrimp larvae is under a microscope. I didn’t know that until I started working at LUMCON!”

Photo by David Shiffman

Carl loves spending time on the water. “It’s something I’ve always loved to do,” he explained. “I was born and raised on the water. Living here, I get to go on the water any day I want. I love being on a boat; I love fishing. I never want to leave southern Louisiana.”

Many of Carl’s family members and neighbors still work as commercial fishermen, some owning and operating their own shrimp boats as a family. “That’s what they want to do with the rest of their lives,” he said. “All of my buddies and family shrimp. We wanted to shrimp, that’s all we wanted to do. My dad tried working in an oil field, made it five days. South Louisiana is definitely for commercial fishing.”

Though many fisheries sectors are struggling to recruit young fishermen, Carl says that isn’t the case for the Louisiana shrimp fishery. “There’s a bunch from the next generation, they’re real young,” Carl remarked. He credits some of their success to improved refrigeration technology that lets boats stay at sea for longer, as well as an impressive work ethic. “They just grind, they shrimp and shrimp and shrimp and shrimp,” he said.

Photo by Susan Von Thun

Carl pointed out that Louisiana commercial fisheries face many challenges, chiefly the lower price of imported shrimp. “When I was a kid we were getting maybe $13 a pound for shrimp, now we get maybe $2 a pound,” he recalled. “It’s hard to make a living selling at the dock to wholesalers, but if I sold directly to people I could make money.”

Cecil Lapeyrouse

Photo by Rafeed Hussain / Ocean Conservancy

Cecil Lapeyrouse, the owner of the 104-year-old Cecil Lapeyrouse Grocery, agrees with Carl that falling costs are bad for local fisheries, and that part of the solution is buying seafood directly from fishermen. “Local commercial fisheries have been affected by imported product because they dropped the price on the domestic product, but the cost of living rose,” Cecil said. “It costs too much money for that guy to continue to be a local fisherman. He has to be able to get his product to someone like me or you who can give him a little more money versus a wholesaler.”

Cecil Lapeyrouse Grocery. Photo by Rafeed Hussain / Ocean Conservancy

Cecil’s store is an important part of the community, and he has long served fishermen. “Commercial fishing is still very important for this area,” he explained. “The product that the commercial fishermen here thrive on and make a living at doing goes all over the United States and even to different parts of the world. It’s a major natural resource from here that supplies the whole world!”

Cecil is happy to directly support local fishermen, and encourages others to do the same. “I’m not knocking foreign product, but I’d rather not have any shrimp than sell that because I’m a local person trying to sell to local people,” Cecil exclaimed. “The product I get here is wild-caught Gulf shrimp. I’m trying to sell the freshest product available. You know it’s fresh, and you know where it came from, so you’re willing to spend a little more money.”

Pete LeBeouf and the Pointe-au-Chien Tribe

Photo by Rafeed Hussain / Ocean Conservancy

South Louisiana’s rich seafood resources have sustained coastal communities for millennia, including the Pointe-au-Chien Indian Tribe. “When the acadians first moved down here, who do you think they learned from?” asked Pete LeBeouf, a member of the Pointe-au-Chien Tribe. “Shrimping, crabs, all that, it’s ingrained in us. You do not get southern Louisiana Native American tribes, or southern Louisiana in general, without seafood. It’s our livelihood. It’s our families. It’s what we do, it’s who we are.”

Pete with a large redfish (red drum). Photo courtesy Pete LeBeouf

Like many of his friends and family, Pete loves fishing. “For a lot of us, it’s a bonding thing,” he said. “The person who taught me to fish was my dad. I don’t get to see my dad that much, and that’s how me and him got along. It’s something I do with my buddies. For most of the people around here, that’s how they made their money. That’s how all this has come to be.”

Pete says that local fish, crab, and shrimp populations are high, and that he caught over 100 crabs for our community feast in less than two hours. “The oil spill ruined it for a couple of years but it’s come back,” he recalled. “Water creatures will find a way to live.”

The falling value of shrimp has affected the Pointe-au-Chien community as well, causing some younger members of the Tribe to move away to find jobs. “My grandchildren will see shrimp on a plate, but not on a boat, because they will need to find other jobs,” predicted Jake Billiot, a member of the Tribal Council.

However, other community members are less concerned about this. “You may be losing people that shrimp, but a lot of younger people are still interested,” said Lori Stewart, the project manager of the Pointe-au-Chien Indian Tribe’s Federal recognition project (the Tribe is currently recognized by the state of Louisiana but not by the Federal Government.)  “They won’t see what we saw, but you can still teach them. They know it, they love it, I don’t see that going away.”

Photo by Rafeed Hussain / Ocean Conservancy

Pete LeBeouf agrees that some other members of the younger generation are moving away, but he’s sticking around. In fact, he’s majoring in environmental biology at nearby Southeastern Louisiana University. “What I want to hopefully try to do is save what’s left of right here,” Pete said. ”I want to find a way to save some of it, or rebuild what it used to be. I want to stay. Look at that! [Pete points at the landscape behind us.] That’s the most beautiful thing I’m ever gonna see in my whole life. I love that. I want to be able to pass that on!”

Photo slideshow
Click through the photos below to see what life is like for the fishing communities of Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana.

Barnacles grow on a cluster of oyster shells that washed up on Trinity Island in the Isles Dernieres Barrier Islands Refuge in southern Terrebonne Parish. Oyster reefs provide not only a home for many other species of marine life, but they also improve the water quality of the region and act as a speed bump for waves and storm surge on the Gulf Coast. Credit: Alexander Havens
The experimental trawl of the R/V Acadiana reflected in an OCEANDOTCOMM participant’s sunglasses. Credit: Rafeed Hussain / Ocean Conservancy
Laughing gulls, Leucophaeus atricilla, following behind the R/V Acadiana during a trawl in Terrebonne Bay. Credit: Rafeed Hussain / Ocean Conservancy
The bait house in Chauvin, Louisiana advertises a variety of seafood choices. Credit: Rafeed Hussain / Ocean Conservancy
The Louisiana blue crab (Callinectes sapidus) fishery is another valuable part of the state’s seafood economy. Credit: Rafeed Hussain / Ocean Conservancy
Denise Reed, Professor Gratis at the University of New Orleans, talks to OCEANDOTCOMM participants at LUMCON about erosion. Credit: Samantha Oester
Island Road leading to Isle de Jean Charles, home to a band of Biloxi-Chitimacha-Choctaw Tribe. Fifty years ago, prior to erosion and sea level rise, this road cut through walkable marshland, not a body of water. During a strong south wind, this road often floods and becomes impassible. Credit: Rafeed Hussain / Ocean Conservancy
A juvenile blue crab, Callinectes sapidus, found clinging onto a piece of driftwood in Terrebonne Bay. Credit: Rafeed Hussain / Ocean Conservancy
Gulf of Mexico waves crashing onto the eroding Trinity Island– part of the Isles Dernieres Barrier Islands Refuge. These barrier islands help protect Terrebonne Parish from powerful waves and storm surges. Credit: Rafeed Hussain / Ocean Conservancy
Setting a research trawl net off the stern of the R/V Acadiana in Terrebonne Bay. Credit: Rafeed Hussain / Ocean Conservancy
Light peers through the clouds on Terrebonne Bay. Credit: Susan Von Thun
Shrimp loaded up and ready to ship to market. Credit: Solomon David
Blue crab (Callinectes sapidus) in a live-well at a local seafood shop in Cocodrie, Louisiana. Credit: Solomon David
Common to coastal Louisiana, hardhead catfish (Ariopsis felis) were among the larger species collected during our trawl on the R/V Acadiana. Credit: Solomon David
Shrimp collected while trawling from LUMCON’s R/V Acadiana. Shrimp continue to be an integral component of Louisiana fisheries, even amidst changing technologies and environments. Credit: Solomon David
A hand-painted sign at the Pointe-Aux-Chenes marina welcomes visitors. The community of Pointe-Aux-Chenes is home the Pointe-au-Chien Indian Tribe. Credit: Samantha Oester
Brown pelicans, Pelecanus occidentalis, the state bird of Louisiana. Credit: Samantha Oester.
A shrimp trawl vessel on the road to the Point-au-Chien Indian Tribe. Credit: Rebecca Helm
A liquid natural gas facility near LUMCON in Cocodrie, Louisiana. Oil and gas is also a major component of the Gulf economy. Credit: Rafeed Hussain / Ocean Conservancy
Captain Carl Sevin holds up a hardhead catfish, Ariopsis felis, and a shrimp. Both were caught during a scientific trawl on the R/V Acadiana using smaller versions of the fishing gear used by local shrimpers. Credit: Rafeed Hussain / Ocean Conservancy
OCEANDOTCOMM participant Alex Warneke holds up a menhaden, Brevoortia tyrannus, sometimes called the most important fish in the sea. In 2012, Louisiana fishermen landed half of the menhaden caught in the United States. Credit: Rafeed Hussain / Ocean Conservancy
Discarded shells of oysters, Crassostrea virginica. Oyster fishing employs thousands of people in Louisiana, and more than 70% of the oysters caught in the United States come from this region. Credit: Rafeed Hussain / Ocean Conservancy
A fishing camp near LUMCON in Cocodrie, Louisiana. Used as either permanent residences or staging areas for commercial or recreational fishing activities, these camps are raised several feet above ground to account for frequent storms and flooding. Credit: Susan Von Thun
Fishing camps line the canal near LUMCON in Cocodrie, Louisiana. Used as either permanent residences or staging areas for commercial or recreational fishing activities, these camps are raised several feet above ground to account for frequent storms and flooding. Credit: Susan von Thun
Red snapper (Lutjanus campechanus), an iconic reef fish in the Gulf, are cooling off in an ice chest after a day of fishing with Pete LeBeouf and family. Thanks to the hard work of fishermen, scientists and fishery managers, red snapper have rapidly recovered from decades of overfishing in the Gulf. Credit: Pete LeBeouf
80-year-old Loney Foret shucks oysters (Crassostrea virginica) that are bought directly from fishermen and sold at Cecil Lapeyrouse Grocery in the town of Chauvin, Louisiana. Doing so allows fishermen to get a better price for their catch than selling them to a wholesaler, and it provides a source of fresh, local seafood to Cecil’s customers. Credit: Nicole Morgan
Gutters in the Terrebonne Parish levee system have doors that open to allow fish to pass through. When a storm comes, the doors close to prevent storm surge from entering the community protected behind the levee system. Credit: DeLaina LeBlanc
A shrimp trawler passes through the Bubba Dove Floodgate in the Houma Navigation Canal. Most of the time, the floodgate is open to allow boats to pass along the waterway, but when a storm approaches, it closes and with the broader parish levee system, protects the communities of Terrebonne Parish. Credit: David Shiffman

During our time here, we learned just how important fishing is to the local communities as a source of food, jobs, culture, and pride. People in South Louisiana love living here and working on the water despite the many challenges. While falling prices are hurting fishermen, community-oriented solutions like buying directly from fishermen are picking up some of the slack. Through the next generation, there is hope to not just continue cultural traditions, but to use cutting-edge science to protect and restore habitats. By blending science, tradition, and passion, the fishing communities of Terrebonne Parish are working hard-and working together- to protect their way of life. Like much of what we saw here, the solutions are homegrown, from the people and for the people. After all they’ve already overcome together, we wouldn’t bet against them.


Solomon David, Samantha Oester, Rafeed Hussain, and Rachel Guillory contributed to this report. Thanks also to OceanDotComm participants who contributed additional photographs including Susan Von Thun, Alexander Havens, Rebecca Helm, Delaina LeBlanc, and Nicole Morgan.

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Tags: blue crab Carl Sevin Cecil Lapeyrouse cocodrie Gulf of Mexico gulf of mexico fisheries imported shrimp laughing gull Louisiana seafood pelican Pete LeBeouf shrimp trawl Terrebonne Parish trawl

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