Congressional delegation: Fishing industry still suffering

Louisiana’s congressional delegation and leaders in the state’s fishing industry are worried the state isn’t getting its fair share of $110 million in recently approved hurricane relief money.

In a letter sent Friday to the administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the congressional delegation says Louisiana’s fishing industry “contributes significantly more – and suffered greater losses – than any other Gulf state or combination of states.”

The worry in Louisiana is that this year’s recovery money will not be based on the size of each state’s fishing industry. Industry leaders say last year’s money was apportioned arbitrarily, not based on where storm damage was concentrated. Louisiana still got the largest share last year, 41 percent, but state fishing leaders say that was far below the amount of damage the state suffered.

A NOAA report released in late 2006 estimated Louisiana’s seafood industry took a $1.3 billion hit in infrastructure and lost sales. That was compared to $484 million in losses in Mississippi.

Language in this year’s hurricane relief bill is more specific than last year’s, saying the recovery money should be distributed based on fishing industry needs in each state. Citing a federal law, the letter from the Louisiana delegation says the money should be distributed based on the amount of seafood historically brought to shore.

That would mean Louisiana should get about 75 percent of the money based on the amount of seafood, and about 60 percent based on the value. But at a meeting of Gulf state fisheries officials before the bill was passed, the group determined that Louisiana should get 41 percent of the money, according to draft minutes of the meeting obtained by The Times-Picayune and published in that newspaper on Monday.

NOAA has not yet decided how the money will be distributed, but the decision by the state fisheries’ managers group, the Gulf States Marine Fisheries Commission, could weigh heavily.

“I don’t begrudge them any money in Mississippi or Alabama, I just think in the fair following of the law Louisiana has the greater need and has the greater production,” said Mike Voisin, co-chairman of the Louisiana Fishing Recovery Coalition, who was in Washington last week working on the issue. “Nobody’s a bad guy in this; it’s basically just what’s fair.”