The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries says the hurricanes in 2020 and 2021 produced 579-million dollars in damages to the state’s fishing industry. LDWF biologist administrator Jason Froeba says a comprehensive study looked at monetary losses for infrastructure which includes vessels and revenue.
“And then there’s an estimate for lost resources, we put a monetary value to lost oysters and finfish and things of that nature,” said Froeba.
The total amount of damages from the hurricanes to infrastructure was 304-million. Froeba says Hurricane Ida accounted for 70-percent of that 304-million.
“It was a bigger storm in terms of the area of impact, it had a wider breath and it hit an area of the state that was heavily populated with fishing industry members,” said Froeba.
Froeba says wind was the primary driver for the damages to the fishing industry from the 2020 and 2021 hurricanes, while flooding was major source of destriction in 2005.
He says this report could convince Congress that the state’s fishing industry needs federal assistance.
“We put the information to give them a tool to make the case that there needs to be some sort of disaster assistance for Louisiana fisheries,” said Froeba.
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