Thibodaux, Louisiana
Thibodaux, Louisiana
Chauvin, Louisiana
Gen X
Definitely. Coastal land loss definitely affects my industry: I’m in the shrimp industry. I’ve been doing this for 40 years. Years ago, coastal land loss was actually a positive thing in this area here in South Louisiana. Every acreage of land loss was another acre to grow shrimp in. Now, we’re seeing some of the reverse effects. We lose a lot of shrimp production to the Gulf of Mexico because the outlets that lead out from the inland areas to the Gulf of Mexico are larger and so, we’re seeing crops of shrimp that actually exit the estuaries prematurely because of that land loss.
I think the best resource that we have at hand today is dredging. I’ve always believed that, y’know, people use the expression that land is disappearing. It’s not disappearing. It’s disappearing where you can’t see it anymore, but literally it doesn’t go far. It’s just the higher portions are sliding into the deeper sections. If we were to take a dredge and pile it all back up, all of the sediment is there, it just needs to be piled up.