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Lasting impressions are made with working examples. That is why area seafood industry leaders, in cooperation with the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries and the Louisiana Seafood Promotion and Marketing Board, invited 21 congressional staff members to join them in Terrebonne Parish and New Orleans for an inside look at the business.
The tour included multiple activities ranging from cutting fish to harvesting oysters and crabs to skinning an alligator. Federal government insiders – most had never been in this environment – rode along on working vessels, toured oyster, shrimp and tuna processing facilities and dined at area restaurants Thursday through Saturday. The intention was to give those that help process legislation for their elected employers a real-life look at one primary industry of coastal Louisiana.
The tour was capped-off by participating in Saturday’s Restaurant Association’s American Seafood Cook-off in New Orleans.
“These are staff members of different senators and congressmen,” state Rep. Gordon Dove said while joining the tour Friday at Motivatit Seafood and Gulf Fish Inc. “We invited them down for a fact-finding mission on the seafood industry. These are the guys you really want to talk to because they are going to put together the information for congressmen that draft legislation.”
Dove explained to the congressional staffers how BP fines are going toward coastal restoration and said efforts are being made to protect the fishing industry as well as restore the environment.
“These people spend their time in [Washington], D.C., and don’t often get out in the real world,” Motivatit Seafood owner Mike Voisin said. “It’s great for them and for us.”
“This is something where they can see how they can help us,” Gulf Fish Inc. owner Ken Trinh said. “We are seeing what kind of information they can gather.”
Voisin and Trinh agreed the intention of this visit was to educate first-hand those who often only hear about the seafood industry.
“We go up to D.C. all the time to tell them about it and we want them to see it and understand it,” Voisin said. “The goal is for them to see what an oyster boat looks like, instead of just seeing a video. We wanted them to feel what the water feels like [on a boat], taste an oyster out of the water, eat a shrimp that has been fried right out of the water and crabs that have just been boiled – to enjoy all of that.”
“I was in the shrimping industry for almost 30 years and this is very good for these staffers to come down here and actually talk to people in the industry and find out what is going on,” Louisiana Sea Grant extension assistant Julie Falgout said. “I’m watching their faces and I can tell they are getting an education. You can tell a lot of these people have never seen a fishing vessel or a [processing] plant.”
Handlers kept the visitors from speaking on-the-record to news outlets, but sideline conversation revealed many were impressed with what they saw.
“It’s always nice to meet congressional staff members,” Terrebonne Parish Councilman Russell “Red” Hornsby said. “You often don’t get to see the congressmen unless you go through these people. This will be good for Terrebonne Parish.”
According to the Louisiana Seafood and Marketing Board, Louisiana shrimpers harvest approximately 120 million pounds of both brown and white shrimp a year. Louisiana leads the nation in catching both hard- and soft-shell crab, and the Gulf Coast produces 69 percent of domestic shrimp and 70 percent of oysters in the United States. The state also leads the nation in crawfish production at 90 percent.
One of every 70 jobs in Louisiana is seafood related with a total economic impact of more than $2.4 billion annually.
Gulf Fish Inc. Vice President David Maginnis explains the packaging process of tuna to staffers representing 21 members of Congress. Members of the Louisiana seafood industry invited the delegation to New Orleans and Houma to see first-hand industry workings from fishing boat to packing and shipping.
