Fishing industry hurting in La.

NEW ORLEANS -- Usually this time of year, Billy Foret would be guiding his 73-foot steel hull boat along the Louisiana coast and pulling in pounds of white shrimp.

Instead, for the past three weeks, he's been pulling soggy drywall and ruined furniture from his flooded home in Chauvin, about 70 miles southwest of New Orleans.

Even if he were able to go out, many of the buying docks and shrimp-processing plants he needs have been wrecked by Hurricanes Gustav and Ike, which plowed through the area this month.

"Everyone's spending money repairing with no income coming in," Foret said. "Things are looking pretty bad for the fishermen right now."

Gustav and Ike delivered another one-two punch to Louisiana's fishing industry, which was still recovering from the ruin wrought by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita three years ago.

The 2005 storms caused an estimated $582 million in damage to the state's commercial fishers, most of it to the shrimping sector, said Rex Caffey, director of Louisiana State University's Center for Natural Resource Economics & Policy.

Gustav and Ike destroyed not only fishing boats but loading docks, ice factories, processing plants and other crucial components of the industry, Caffey said.

Early estimates show Gustav caused around $76 million worth of damage to the fishery infrastructure, he said. Estimates for Ike are still being compiled.

The destruction along with rising fuel costs and cheaper imported shrimp is taking its toll. "It's a really bad situation," Caffey said. "This has taken a crippled industry and hurt it even more."

Louisiana produces more than one-fourth of the seafood in the continental USA, Caffey said.

On Wednesday, U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez declared a fishery resource disaster for the Gulf of Mexico. The declaration frees up federal funds to fishermen in Louisiana and Texas and makes fishing businesses eligible for Small Business Administration loans.

Around $175 million in federal funds were earmarked after Katrina to help the Louisiana fishing industry, though most of it went to restoring wrecked habitats where fish and shrimp live and did not go directly to fishermen, Caffey said. Many fishermen were still waiting on federal grants and loans when Gustav and Ike hit, he said.