Louisiana’s struggling seafood industry teetering after Ida

By JAY REEVES
Associated Press

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The wrecked boats, docks and processing equipment left by Hurricane Ida has some wondering what the future holds for Louisiana’s seafood industry. The state’s oyster farmers, crabbers, shrimpers and anglers are nothing if not adaptable. They’ve fought off a devastating oil spill, floods, changing markets and other hurricanes to stay in business. But Ida fractured some parts of the industry even worse than 2005’s Hurricane Katrina. The people who make their livings off the Gulf Coast’s bounty are pledging to come back again this time, too. But there are other challenges ahead as Louisiana tries to save a vanishing coastline, an industry and a way of life at the same time.