Louisiana recently received $40 million in federal assistance to aid the recovering fishing industry, which was heavily impacted by Hurricanes Gustav and Ike.”The storm delivered a devastating financial blow, which was followed by the economic downturn of the country,” said Ewell Smith, executive director of the Louisiana Seafood Promotions and Marketing Board. “It’s kind of like a perfect storm.”Smith said Louisiana’s west side and coastline sustained extensive infrastructural damage. Though all suppliers are up and running, there is still major infrastructure damage estimated at $250 million, he said.Randy Pausina, assistant secretary of the Office of Fisheries, said the $40 million will not be in the state’s hands until March. He said until then, the state will set up a series of coalitions to determine how the money will be spent.”Once we get it, we’re going to try to get it out to the fishermen as soon as possible,” he said. “Our goal is to put the money in the fishermen’s hands, so they can make repairs and so forth.”Pausina said Louisiana will most likely set up multiple direct assistance programs that distribute the money to fishing companies.”This will be an immediate fix to the industry but probably won’t knock a hole in what needs to be done,” he said.Pausina said $250 million is the estimated infrastructure cost, but the actual cost could be much higher.Smith said multiple organizations, such as Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries and the Louisiana Recovery Authority, formed the Louisiana Fishing Community Relief Coalition. The coalition is attempting to gain federal assistance for the industry. Greg Lutz, aquaculture professor, said many crawfish breeding fields were heavily inundated with water, causing significant acreage damage. However, it is hard to predict the percentage of the crawfish population that was lost, he said.”The good thing about crawfish is every year a lot of crawfish fields are not harvested because it is unprofitable,” Lutz said. “This year, some of those fields may be harvested.”Lutz said the Crawfish Research and Promotions Board is funding research on hurricane-impacted crawfish fields.”It’s very difficult to make predictions with crawfish because a number of things have to fall into place,” he said. “It’s a moving target. We won’t know what kind of year it will be until March.”Bill Pizzolato, owner of Tony’s Seafood, said in the weeks following the storm, there was a great surge in the number of crabs and shrimp.”The hurricanes managed to turn the water and drove the shrimp and crabs in, causing a great crop of shrimp and big male crabs,” he said.Mike Voisin, member of the Louisiana Oyster Task Force, said many oyster beds were destroyed by the storm. However, the impact was contained to a narrow area in the central part of the state, he said.Voisin said the oyster crop is down 20 to 30 percent from last year. Before Gustav and Ike, this year’s harvest was predicted to finally return to pre-Katrina levels, he said.”Farmers are working to repair the oyster beds by cleaning away mud and removing debris,” he said. “Some of the $40 million will probably go towards that. It’s just going to take time.”Voisin said he expects the oyster harvest to return to pre-Katrina levels by 2010 or 2011.”This far after the fact, the effects of the storm are over as far as supplies,” said Rob Walker, owner and general manager of Louisiana Seafood Exchange. “The only problem is damage to fishing communities.”Walker said Louisiana Seafood Exchange returned to normalcy around late September. “What we experienced after Gustav is expected after any big storm,” Walker said. “As far as bouncing back, we’ve bounced back just as expected.”Rex Caffey, director of the University’s Center for Natural Resource Economics and Policy, said the main obstacle to recovery is infrastructure, not aquatic life population.”Historically, fish rebound really well from a storm,” he said. “We call it the ‘Bubba Gump Effect.’ There is usually an increase in fish supplies after a hurricane like this.”Smith said the industry was still recovering from Katrina and Rita and may take at least four or five years before it is fully recovered.”The Federal assistance money isn’t enough, but it’s something,” Pausina said. “It will just take time. Even if we had the $250 million we probably still couldn’t fix it immediately.”—-Contact Steven Powell at [email protected]