NEW ORLEANS — Louisiana’s oyster farmers, crabbers, shrimpers and anglers are nothing if not adaptable, producing millions of pounds of seafood annually, often in water that was dry land a generation ago. They’ve fought off a devastating oil spill, floods, changing markets and endless hurricanes just to stay in business.
After Hurricane Ida, though, some wonder about their ability to continue in a seemingly endless cycle of recovery and readjustment.
The Category 4 hurricane that struck Louisiana late last month fractured some parts of the industry even worse than 2005′s Katrina, which cost seafood businesses more than $1 billion. No one yet knows how many boats, docks and processors were lost because of Ida’s relentless, 150-mph winds. Vessels that made it to the safest harbors fared the best, yet even some of them were destroyed by the storm’s fury.
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